I want to go to Greece.

This has been a dream of mine for quite some time. Unfortunately something always gets in my way. Like money. Why must it cost a fortune to venture anywhere outside the United States? It’s not fair. I’m pissed at money. Money is stupid and should go back to college. It needs to learn not to be so picky when dolling itself out. Since money is dead to me, I’ll have to find some other way to make my dream come true.

Meanwhile, I fill my life with everything Greek. Okay so maybe not everything. I’ve been to a belly dancing class. That’s Greek, right? At least I’ve got the food covered. My boyfriend first introduced me to Mediterranean cuisine when we started dating. Normally working second shift would limit ones options for dining, living in Uptown left a few options open. We frequented this little Greek place on Lake on many a late night. It’s those hole-in-the-wall joints tended by 1^st generation immigrants that always leave my mouth watering for more. It was there that I discovered the gyro. However you pronounce it, be it “hero”, “gee-ro”, “guy-ro”, “ur-o”, the stuff’s got flavor. We’d roll in, order our gyro dinners complete with gyro, rosemary potatoes and Greek salad, grab the brown bag, and rush home, all the while our glands salivating at the thought of consuming the stuff. We’d devour as much as we could, our bellies stretched to full capacity. The inevitable belly rumble commencing as we closed the lids on the to-go containers. I would spend the evening as close to the lu as possible. The pain and nastiness of it all will always be worth it. The Gyro and I, we’re one. Inseparable.

This past summer, Dan and I finally decided to give the Taste of Minnesota a shot. For those of you not from the Land of the Lakes, the taste is a celebration of foods over the 4^th of July weekend on Harriet Island in St. Paul. I’m not a huge fan of crowds or overpriced food but the taste is a tradition in this state, I figured since I’ve lived here my entire life, I should at least see what it’s all about. Thankfully we found a decent parking spot, or so I thought. We parked right in front of the “entrance” only to find out that the festivities begin about a half-mile’s walk down the river. Blech. This year, they decided to initiate a cover charge, as if the cost of the food wasn’t enough to begin with. First off, I needed a beer. Beer stand in sight, order a beer, informed that I must first get a wristband before I could get beer. Ug. Okay, find wristband booth. Oh wow, guess what, there’s yet another charge to get a wristband. Screw that, I only wanted “a” beer. After the cost of the wristband and the actual beer, I’d be spending $10 for the equivalent of a can of generic ass beer. Yeah, no thanks. Okay so, might as well check out the food stands. For a “food” celebration there really wasn’t that much food. Very disappointed. Dan found his rib stand, paid $10 bucks for a appetizer portion of ribs, next door was a Greek booth. Score. Instead of going for the gyro as usual, I choose the falafel. Eh. It was okay, very dry and somewhat tasteless. This is something I imagine would be delicious if prepared properly. I MUST go to Falafel King in Uptown. It’s on my list.

Last summer was apparently the summer of all things Greek, all things being food of course. What else is there? Dan and I visited the Minnesota State Fair as we do every year. And every year we eat pronto pups and mozzarella sticks, both very good, and very fair-like. This year I thought, why don’t we try something different. After all, the fair has a HUGE variety of foods. Even more so than the stinking “Taste”. First things first, beer stand located, beer purchased, beer consumed. Okay, onto the food. We walked, and walked, and walked. I could not decide what to try. I didn’t want to be disappointed. What ever I had, it had to be amazing in order to give up the cheese sticks. We’d already had our pronto pup, just couldn’t give that up. Finally we had walked full circle and stood in front of, you guessed it, a Greek food cart. On a roll with trying new things, I went for the Tabouli salad. Oh my lord, I was in heaven. I scarfed the entire thing up and practically licked the tin foil it was wrapped in. I burped garlic the remainder of the day, but it was all worth it. Tabouli has taken over spot # 1 on my favorite food list.

I looked up the recipe immediately when I got home. A few weeks later, all the ingredients had been purchased and I made Tabouli and satziki. The result was equally fabulous. The flavor is so fresh and light.