Surrey Greek Food Festival

Summer and the cultural and food festival season is nearly upon us. We just can't get to them all. Having attended Italian Day on the Drive last year, we opted for the Surrey Geek Food Festival this year. Food, music dancing and costumes are the focal point of this smallish festival and the good news is that it continues through to June the 16th so you have not missed it!
Located at the Greek Orthodox Church at 96th and 132nd, parking is not a challenge if you don't mind walking from AHP Matthew Elementary School, just around the corner on 97th Avenue.
The food is completely prepared by the local Greek community and you can eat in the spacious tent in view of the stage. I realized that Marie had never had Greek food so we had to try some
favorites including...
Calamari. Very tender and tasty. Battered a little heavier (not in a bad way) than we are used to with the Taiwanese or Japanese versions but served with Tzatziki, that lovely mint and yoghurt dip.
We had a Pork Souvlaki Plate. The highlight for me here was the lemon roasted potatoes but a Greek salad with plenty of feta and a couple of lovely olives was very nice also. The pork was tender and just nicely charred in places. Not sure how we felt about the bread.
You have to love Spanakopita.  Flaky phyllo pastry with a savoury spinach filling. No need to say more.
And speaking of phyllo pastry, cover it with honey and nuts and you have a world class dessert. The very bottom layers were a little tough to get through but in their defence, I'm not sure how you would make this for thousands of people and have it just out of the oven perfect. It was rich and wonderfully sweet.
Marie spotted this dessert up on one of their posters. I had never had Loukoumades either and they looked good. Greek Donughts with more honey and sesame seeds. These faired a little better in the mass production being pillowy and sweet and very enjoyable.
The entertainment was top notch also! As long as you're good with the sounds of the bouzoukis there was pleasant background music and occasional dances like the Diaspora Fasolakia  (I could not find a definition for that title that did not involve green beans (?))) in the photo above. Very cute.
Thank you Greek Community for this small peek into your culture.
For everyone else, check their web site and make time to visit!

1 comment:

  1. Wow it seems so interesting! I was planning to attend the Rockwave festival this June. Now, I will make sure to attend both the festivals in Greece.

    ReplyDelete

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Are you guys eating again? At some point Marie and I became the kind of people who take pictures of everything we eat, whether in a restaura...