Of course I do need to rent cars from time to time, especially when there are visitors around. And the money I save on car expenses means that the cost of renting isn't such a sting...

This past week I had (more!) guests in town. (One would ask why I haven't opened up some sort of hotel or half-way house by now... ). I decided to rent a car so we could spend some time down the coast, beach side.

Driving in Athens is in fact not so bad - and I would say has gotten better over the years. Compared to places like Rome or Istanbul, driving in Athens is a walk in the park. But by far the biggest challenge on Athenians road, morning or night, is the miracle known as Finding Parking.

Finding Parking happens only for the lucky few, those chosen souls who have clearly lead better lives than I have, and for whom the universe has decided to provide the last remaining spot in the city.

Finding Parking is the last hope of every desperate driver. When every sidewalk, driveway and ditch - literally every open space - is jammed with headlights and tires, the only thing to do is accept that Finding Parking was not your destiny. When you are three and a half hours late for an appointment, Finding Parking is surely to blame. When you have to drive around the block 75 times, only to find that someone has left their spot and someone else has taken it while you were at the bottom of the street, make peace with the Parking gods, since you will not win.

When I returned the car the other night, I breathed a sigh of relief. My two feet would get me home ('in' the house, not 'near' the house) in half the time it would take me with Finding Parking.

And that's the way I like it.

Until next week,

Jack

In this weekly space, keep up with ‘Jack’ as he navigates daily life in Athens… Anecdotes, stories, hits & misses, the good, the bad and, well, the rest…

THE MOST TRADITIONAL RESTAURANT
You will find Sholarhio restaurant next to Akropolis, Location Anafiotika, in the street Tripodon. It is next to the sacred church of St. Nikolaos (it was built by the Byzantine Emperor Ragavas).

In the heart of Plaka (ancient town of Athens) is functioning the traditional restaurant Sholarhio in a listed building since 1935 as a family restaurant. Geranium is the flower present everywhere around and Kouklis is the name of an old family in Plaka.

At Sholarhio you can relax and enjoy your meel and drink in a friendly atmosphere flooded by the energy, radiated by the sacred Acropolis region over the centuries, along with romance and calmness.

The cuisine of Sholarhio is original traditional Greek cuisine and contains:
Salads: suchas gigantes with what a sauce! And all kinds of salads including season salads. Hors d'oeuvres (Hot and cold). Side dishes such as: Tzatziki Smirneiko for fresh breath, saganaki cheese, middle class caviar (taramosalata). Fried brinjals Tsakonikes, Tirokafteri (hot cheese cream). Meat dishes and sea-food such as: Lahanontolmades special Matoula papadopoula's. Granny Marditsa's type meatballs. Bekri meze for the people with discerning taste. Mousaka home made presviteras. Soupies alaniares Sholarhio style - octapus - Calamari - Codfish - Herring etc.

The Sholarhio cellar includes: Own production red wine - white winw - oyzo - tsipouro - brandy - cognac - beers. Drinks: cold drinks - coffees - teas - chocolate etc.

Serving happens as follows:
we offer to your table a platter with 18 - 20 Greek specialities and you choose the ones you like.
Our dishes are between 3.00 and 6.00 Euro.
House wine, one liter: 6.00 Euro
Large Beer, 330cc: 2.00 Euro
House Ouzo or Tsipouro 250cc: 6.00 Euro
Mineral water 1,5 liter: 1.50 Euro
Soft Drinks: 1.50 Euro
The dessert is free.
If you are 4 people or more of you, you can choose 10 dishes, and either one liter of wine or one bottle of ouzo or tsipouro or 4 beers or 4 soft drinks plus water, bread and dessert for 14 Euros per person.

Our food is fresh and of super quality. The service is perfect and fast.
Open every day from 11.00 pm until 02.00 pm
Address: Tripodon 14 str, Plaka
Phone: 210 3247605
Directions: Right of Acropolis , north of the Acropolis museum and metro.
Website: www.sholarhio.gr
Other Contact: info@sholarhio.gr

Do you have a recommendation or recipe to share? Send it to us at ideas@xpatathens.com!

“I believe every project has a recipe, and so does mine,” she says on the video. “It's a personal recipe, and that is what I'm going to tell you today.”

The project was fully funded within seven days of the Kickstarter campaign, and in the space of a month Stratou had raised the 28,753 pounds, approximately 36,050 euros, from 544 backers needed to create the 252-page hard cover book. The book, titled “Cooking to Share,” was featured in Kickstarter's weekly newsletter on the sixth day of the campaign, appeared on the Kickstarter homepage as Staff Picked and trended in the Most Popular Project section on the website.

“I never thought that I would have such a huge community supporting me in this venture,” Stratou told Kathimerini English Edition. “They were in it with me – when I finished with the Kickstarter campaign, I felt that I am making this book with all these other people.”

The first print of the book, which included an order of 1,400 copies in November of 2013, sold out fast, Stratou said. The second printing, which included an order of 1,500 copies, was delivered in the first week of August last year. It is available in select bookstores in the United States and Greece, as well as on Amazon and Stratou's website for 35 euros or 45 dollars.

Stratou grew up in Greece, then left the country for the US to attend Brown University, where she decided to get into cooking during her senior year when she made dinner with her roommate every night. She decided she wanted to go to a traditional cooking school, so for two years she lived in San Sebastian, Spain, learning in the kitchen of Escuela de Cocina de Luis Irizar.

She returned to Greece in 2009 after living abroad for seven years and worked for a catering company and a few restaurants, but said she found the experience of working in a kitchen difficult and didn't like the atmosphere in some cases. Stratou then found a job working for a food website for a year-and-a-half before the effects of the economic crisis made her decide to leave her post.

 To read more, please visit ekathimerini.com.

Fish and meat are eaten less frequently, and in smaller portions, but are cooked with the same attention to herbs, oil, and simple cooking techniques. Olives, wines, spirits, and cheeses need no cooking at all. However, the foods that so closely identify Greece to non-Greeks are quite different.

Greek food expert and cookbook author, Aglaia Kremezi, writes in Some Thoughts on the Past, Present, and Future of Greek Food,
"Mousaka, pastichio, creamy avgolemono (thickened egg-and-lemon sauce), and Greek salad are the dishes that most non-Greeks consider to be the epitome of traditional Greek cooking. Yet, most of these dishes have very little to do with traditional foods. They were developed, or drastically revised, by professional cooks and restaurateurs."

The most influential of those professional cooks was Nicholas Tselementes, a Greek chef from the island of Sifnos who trained in Europe and worked in some of the world's finest hotel kitchens.

It's not clear whether Tselementes believed that French cooking originated in Greece (which it did not), or that French was somehow "better" than the simple Greek fare of the day, but the result was that he developed recipes and cooking styles based on sauces and French methods of preparation to "cleanse" Greek food of Turkish, Roman, and other influences that had been incorporated over centuries, influences Tselementes saw as barbaric. He preferred butter to olive oil, elaborate sauces to bare dishes. French was in, Greek was out. It was most probably Tselementes who created the moussaka and pastitsio we know today - with an inch of cream sauce, cheeses, and 700 calories per serving - from the original dishes which were simple combinations of ground meat and vegetables or pasta.

His theories and first cookbook, written in 1910, became the darlings of early 20th century "upwardly mobile" Greeks who saw a new sophistication in his recipes. Greek chefs and restaurateurs sought to imitate his techniques and style, hoping to attract an international and worldly clientèle with mild tastes and elaborate presentations.

To read more, please visit greekfood.about.com

Earth Hour 2015 will be held in Greece on Saturday March 28th from 20:30 - 21:30.

Earth Hour was first held Greece in 2009 with more than 500 municipalities and towns switching off! The Greek capital of Athens, and the cities of Thessaloniki, Patras, Volos, Herakleion, Ioannina and Alexandroupoli took part. Even more landmarks and iconic buildings than ever showed their support in 2011, from the Parthenon at the Acropolis, The Greek Parliament Building, the White Tower, the bridge of Rio-Atnirio. WWF Greece is responsible for coordinating Earth Hour in Greece.

To watch Earth Hour unfold around the world, visit:
http://www.earthhour.org/earth-hour-live-watch-the-hour-unfold-around-the-world.