Carnival= carne (meat) + vale (from the latin verb levare that means remove).
It is this time of the year again, where here in Greece we celebrate the last week of our Halloween (Halloween= Apokries in Greek, means to exclude meat from our diet). According to our tradition, it is customary this day to eat all the dairy products (that's why we call this day Tyrini =Cheesy) that are in our fridge, but also it is the last day that we can eat cheese and meat.
From tomorrow, Kathari Deytera, or as it is called Ash Monday, Monday of Lent or Pure Monday, begins the fasting season till Easter, so we can't have any meat.
So, in order to honor the custom, we went to my favorite taverna.
As always, the meal always starts with something green, a salad.
This time we preferred boiled edible greens and we eat them as salads accompanied by olive oil (always), lemon and salt.
And since we are eating cheese today, we couldn't miss "bougiourdi" from our table (you can read about "bougiourdi" here)
But the main part was the meat dishes .
Pork kebab and chicken kebab on a wooden plateau. If you watch closely, the pork kebab is on the left, where the chicken is on the right.
This plateau was about one kilo of meat. Too much for two persons, but good enough for five persons.
Kebab is one of the favourite dishes of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine. Pieces of meat, between which they put sliced peppers, onions or tomatoes, placed in a large skewer and slowly simmered with the skewer constantly turning to achieve perfect cooking.
And of course one of the favorite delicacies of all Greeks, kokoretsi.
Maybe to some people this particular dish may seem strange, but I assure you if it is made by someone who knows (a master craftsman we say here) and grilled as it should be, it is delicious to the point you lick your fingers.
A special delicacy that the specific taverna also serves is "giaourtlou".Small soutzoukakia (small beefs) with lots of spices to make them fragrant, fried in the pan and served on a skewer pie with lots of yoghurt with sauce on top, which gives the name to the dish.
All these were accompanied with fried potaoes - a must for all this meat...
And of course, some wine, red and white (dry)
The truth is that we couldn't eat all the food. We were five persons and this is what was left after three hours of eating...
Βut we shouldn't throw away food so we fed the little dogs that were outside the tavern...
so that's how we spent the day of Carnival.
And as it says, the word from tomorrow : CARNE VALE !
No more meat (for 40 days till Easter)
From tomorrow we will eat legumes, seaweed, fish and greens. I'll have lots of fasting recipes to show you.
Until next time, I bid you farewell.
Thank you for reading!
(All the photos were taken by me, or else the source is stated).
