Opa! The Greek Food Festival

Gyros

Faux Dome - Christ Pantocrator

Dolmades

Trying Spanakopita

Trying Spanakopita

Saints Icons

Baptism of Christ Icon Loukoumades

Dancing & Loukoumades

Dancing & Loukoumades

Entry into Jersusalem Icon

One of the tastiest days on the Cleaver family calendar is the day we visit the Greek Food Festival. Hosted annually by the Holy Trinity Church in Portland on the last full week of June, we start anticipating our visit as soon as the weather gets warm.

It's not that you can't get good Greek food in the area other times of the year, it's  just that there's something about the food that you get at the Festival that makes it extra delicious. We eat light in the morning so we have plenty of room to stuff ourselves with dolmades (lamb and rice-stuffed grape leaves), spanakopita, gyros, and loukoumades. And oh the loukoumades - the Greek equivalent of a light crispy doughnut hole, made fresh and served in a honey-nut syrup.

Despite being rather full, I gave Mr. Cleaver some serious stink-eye when he suggested only getting one serving of loukoumades this year.  It only comes once a year! Even LMC, who for the most part was too busy taking it all in to pay much attention to the food, loved the loukoumades. She ate her little snack and danced her little toddler dance to the Greek music playing on the loudspeakers. Happily swaying back and forth with the taste of honey on her lips. We usually go in the mid-afternoon on a weekday to avoid the crowds and lines, but it would be fun to go see the live music and dancing one of these years.

We did however take the opportunity to get a  private tour of the church from Father Sarantides himself. If you ever get a chance to see the inside, I'd highly recommend it. Holy Trinity features a number of stunning small and large scale icons throughout the sanctuary.  All we had to do was ask one of the volunteers and they set it up. They're truly beautiful.

Print Friendly and PDF Follow
follow us in feedly

It's Greek to Me

This Friday after work, Mr Cleaver and I stopped by the annual Greek Food Festival at the Holy Trinity Church. Mr. Cleaver has been talking this thing up since May and fortunately the weather was dry enough for us to grab some dinner.

Greek Food Festival

When we got there at a quarter to five, the line barely fit in the tent, by the time we got our food there was hardly a seat. This thing in popular and there's no doubt why:

Domaldes and Spankopita

Greek Doughtnuts

After stuffing ourselves full on delicious Greek food , we wandered through the neighborhood a bit and looked  at the fancy old buildings. I thought the color-coded townhouses below were particularly charming.

Colorful Townhouses

Print Friendly and PDF Follow
follow us in feedly