July 2007
Greek Summer
by Celia Cheng
I’ve lived on islands all my life (Taiwan, Hawaii, Japan, Manhattan), so maybe that’s why my favorite color is blue. I am naturally drawn to the blues of the sea and their infinite variations. On my trip to Greece this month, I was amazed by the constant deep indigo of the Aegean Sea, and the way it melded with the striking azure of the cloudless sky.
In Mykonos, while the steady wind kept the ocean water in a state of constant motion, I couldn’t help but wonder what Odysseus’s seven-year journey was really like. I’ve always loved Greek mythology, as well as the epic poems of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and marveled at the uniquely advanced architecture and symbolism of the Parthenon, so it was spiritually and intellectually rewarding to finally get the chance to visit the land of these gods.
In real life, not everything was as picture perfect as in my imagination. The Acropolis was on strike the weekend I visited Athens, so I settled for the satisfaction of catching spectacular views of the Parthenon from afar, both during meals at restaurants and from the balcony of my hotel room.
In Mykonos, the food was a bit disappointing, so the surrounding beauty of the island and the ocean had to compensate for the sub-par cuisine. In the photo above, I had hoped to capture the emptiness of the restaurant where I had my least satisfactory meal. But upon reviewing the shot, which also captures the surrounding beauty and backdrop of the eatery, I realized I had little to complain about.
While in Greece and upon my return, I thought about how many Greek restaurants are in the City, and marveled at how many of them are actually good! A dining experience in New York is of course not the same as one in Greece, and we don’t have the jewel tones of the Aegean to distract from inferior fare, but we are very fortunate to have a range of high-caliber Greek restaurants, rustic, nouveau and high-end, here in New York City. This month, I’ll share with you some of the Athenian cravings my trip inspired, as well as some Greek cravings that can be sated locally.
