Damn, don’t make me search english words in this hour. 😀 I know yiaourtlou and aginaropita, the rest is dictionary quest for me. 😀

Souvlaki is always pork. Same as gyros. We always use pork in that. Arabs and Turks in kebab put lamb meat. It’s actually a religious thing too. There is a custom in a certain area of Greece where they do a mega-feast with roasted meat and all and the meat is pork, exactly because it was a way to bug off the Turks from their festivity during the Ottoman occupation. No muslim would come to close to a place where the whole town was breathing pork fumes. So saying a “pork suvlaki” is surplus. Suvlaki can only be pork. Even in Greece they write down on menus “pork suvlaki”, but only because the law requires to specity the meat type. Otherwise it is intended that when you say suvlaki is pork.

There are good wines that get exported, but the situation in Greece is a bit confused. There are many small producers that you don’t come to know easily unless they are in your region or you are very keen on wine hunting. Many in villages make their own wine for home and friends and that’s it and quality can vary a lot. Some monasteries also make good wine. But i wouldn’t be able to tell you whether it’s the best or not… For me wines are a matter of personal taste. I wouldn’t know how they manage to give grades to them in competitions. For me both Tsantali and Achaia Clauss have a good variety to cover most people’s tastes. Tsantali uses for most part macedonian vineyards in Chalkidiki and a bit southern, while Achaia Clauss, Peloponnese vineyards, so you get both north and south of Greece covered. Achaia Clauss was actually founded by a Bavarian that had settled in Greece and fell in love with Peloponnese vineyards so he decided to make a winery with local grapes.

My apologies Aspis I meant Demestica and when I have had a few (but not too many) I erroneously call it Domestos (which is a UK bleach based toilet cleaner).No offence meant at all.;)
The excellent calamari, feta cheese, olives and delicious bread usually soon soaks up any of the excess alcohol.:D

Ahahaha. Blurry vision can make greek writing a bit weird i suppose. Ahahaha 😀

If you happen to encounter them, these are good wines too:

http://www.tsantali.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=134&yt_color=barwine&Itemid=113&lang=en

For me it’s the best greek brand of large distribution wines that maintains steadily good quality (see awards section)

In Greece they are easy to find, but i don’t know over there (for mysterious reasons greek exports are not as many as they should be. Thinking about it, could it be that we drink it too much and the poor man has little left to export? ahaaha).

Hi Aspis with all this frivolity at the expense of DrPepper what do you think of one of my all time great newer comedy movies “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”?
From the movie a famous line of mine is “There are two kinds of people – Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek. “
and of course the never ending use of Windex:D

Dr. Pepper’s chances of succeeding with his father in law increase if he doesn’t think about it all the time, so a bit of frivolity will help him. 😀

If you ask whether that line is true or not, at least i never knew it before the film. And of course the Windex is also a comedy element. What i usually tell those that ask me, i reply “This isn’t a documentary, it’s a Hollywood comedy. In Hollywood’s “Troy” Achilles lives to see the fall of Troy”. If you get what i mean.

In other words. It’s a comedy. They have things exagerated or invented because the aim of a comedy is to laugh. There were also mistakes about greek customs but i don’t remember them right now. I think that it is also possible that when one migrates far away, then his children and grandchildren gradually distort the original customs, because they can’t remember them faithfully. Another issue that i have noticed in youtube videos of greek americans, is exagerating some customs, maybe in their attempt to preserve them…

Myself, when i heard the “there are two kinds of people”, i first thought “how’s that said in greek?”. After thinking about it, the closest thing that came to my mind, is an ANCIENT greek saying, “πας μη Έλλην, βάρβαρος” (any non Greek, barbarian). But it’s a bit overstretched. Similar things in the entire film.

There is no Greek restaurant in Edinburgh where I can indulge in the smashing routine:( – what a pity – nearest is Glasgow – but that could be a smashed head as well – mine:o
A lot of Ouzo and what I always incorrectly after a few glasses, call Domestos (Domestica) and it’s hey ho plate smashing time:D

The smashing plates routine has been limited in Greece too compared to the past, since, many “nightclub female singers”, were complaining that “shrapnel” from the plates were cutting their legs. A first way to address this issue was to smash them not by throwing them, but smashing them on a pile (you take one plate, hold it vertically and then go on smashing a pile of dishes below that). Most “higher class” nightclubs have now turned to flower throwing, but there are always those where you can smash dishes.

I am not aware of a “Domestos” or “Domestica” greek brand, maybe it’s “Demestica” (in greek it’s pronounced Dhemestiha), from Achaia Claus, but that’s a wine (click “ΣΥΛΛΟΓΕΣ” on lower part of screen, left bottles):

http://clauss.gr/index-gr.html

I guess there could be a Domestos or Domestica ouzo brand too which i ignore (i am not much of an ouzo fan) too, although the more widespread ouzo brands in Greece are “Plomari” (from Mitilini island) “Ouzo 12”, “Tsandali”.

Aspis. And there was I thinking it was pre maritable problems that made everyone run around smashing up all the best china dinner plates.:D But as I stated, mother is the worst to fear, I have seen two Greek women “Flip” in the street on Rhodes.

Jim.

Lincoln .7

Premaritable problems? Rhodes? 😀 There were 2 greek regions in particular, Mani (near Sparta) and Crete, where up to the early 80s, if you were to break the engagement or proceed to “dishonourable” acts with their daughter and didn’t marry them, you were risking your life… There is a proverb that goes “The kiss in Mani, you pay it with wedding ring” (literally it doesn’t say wedding ring, but a circular thing that you put on your head during the marriage cerimony and i don’t know how it’s called in english, this . Which either way once you see it on your head, it means that you ‘re busted).

In my family’s history, there has been at least one well documented case of “stealing the bride”, on horseback no less, in a “hit and run” tactic, before her family knew what hit them. 😀

But nowdays it’s all so easy… No life risk, cutting corners, civillian marriages, parents overly civilized, it takes away all the fun and adrenaline, specially in the big cities. In the old days even if you divorced, at least you were left with a nice adventure to narrate to your grandchildren. Now it’s like watching an american film. Fortunately in the province and specially in small towns they still keep local customs that help the groom not realising what he is getting into, like a small march with musical instruments all the way to the church or the wedding feast that could kill a normal person. And of course there are also the “deceiving” customs, where the groom foolishly thinks that “marriage is good economic deal”, like a custom, more widespread in Cyprus, where the relatives and friends, need to cover the bride’s dress and/or bed with banknotes before the wedding. When he realises that his future wife will be emptying his wallet faster than he can fill it, it will be too late for turning back. 😀

P.S.: Oh, don’t mind me Dr. Pepper, i am just joking… Feel safe to marry 😀

Hello Dr. Pepper

I am Greek and specially in the older years, it was expected by you to ask your wife’s hand from the father, after several other “steps” (each family gets to know the candidate son/daughter in law, then the 2 families meet to know each other, then you become officially engaged, then marriage etc). So, your problem is known to almost every Greek who isn’t a teenager anymore and didn’t take shortcuts like they do today. 😀

You have to use the weapons you have, which is this:

“Every other member of her family praise me”

Forget about the “other members” and concentrate on one: Your mother in law. Use the female innate talent for male manipulation and brainwashing to your advantage. Talk to her about your intentions and ask her to “prepare the terrain for you”. For example, she can “casually” speak to her husband about this “eventuality” and how good it would be if you would marry her etc, etc, etc. Then according to his reactions she can manipulate him further to either encourage him if he likes the idea, or seed doubt in him in case he doesn’t like the idea. She can also act as your spy and inform you about what his doubts are, which you can use to your advantage for your “official talk” with him later. It’s better if you know what bothers him beforehand and talk about it with him with the answers ready.

As soon as your mother in law has finished her psychological warfare operation, you step in and talk to the father of the bride, mind you, with a combination of respect, seriousness and a bit of fear (fathers in law like the idea of having a true man for their son in law, BUT, who is also recognizing in them a “higher authority”).

If this was to fail, in Greece you were proceeding to “plan B”, which was “stealing the bride”, running to the church, marrying and then informing her parents of the fait accompli. For extremely negative cases of “die-hard rejecting” father in law, there was the emergency plan: the first child, either male of female, was taking the name of the “tough” father in law. Usually at this point they collapse in front of their new heir that carries their name. 😀

So, don’t fight him. Outwit him!

Good luck!

Edited: CoC Rule 15

Yes, it must be easier to diagnose the symptoms and search for a cure, but also more painful, isn’t it? I ‘ve heard some Norwegians call him a traitor. In a sense he is. It’s easier to accept as foe an outsider than one of your own. Maybe it’s a different way of looking at things/mentality. In Greece having an outsider would be more acceptable. Having a Greek would be the worst. Maybe because we ‘ve been through a civil war (and regularly fight each other), which was in certain ways more ferocious than against the Germans.

T
The quotes I’ve seen from his diary says he travelled to Prague to try to buy an AK-47 and smuggle it to Norway, but he failed to procure one.

Really? This happens when you are North European, living “away” from the “action”. He should have gone to Albania or as second choice, Crete. When Albania around 1990 collapsed and there was a bank scandal with people losing their money and riots, jails were opened and the albanian army depots were looted. Many of the criminals got AK-47 and grenades and passed in Greece. The Cretans, who have a taste for weapons bought a good quantity of AK-47s from them (illegaly of course, as in Greece only smoothbore rifles for hunting are legally sold). But being a Norwegian, he was searching in the wrong place… Better this way…