FAT PIRATE OF THE AEGEAN SEA.

Well HELLO WORLD. Do I still have any readers out there? My greatest apologies for not having kept up with this blog business. Don't worry - I'm still alive, and still eating out, and still irresponsibly spending money. I just began feeling a tad AVERSE to the cyber-world after my unfortunate Gawker experience...which actually lead to my picture being on page 19 of a Friday edition of the New York Post. But that's old news. Very old news.

In newer news: HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE. It is 2009 and O.M.G. I have plans for this year!!! But I will save that for another blog post. Let me add that to my ongoing VIRTUAL RESOLUTIONS 2009 list.

VIRTUAL RESOLUTIONS 2009
1. Blog about my Thanksgiving excursion to LOS ANGELES, the City of Angels.
2. Blog about my NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS.


OK - so enough procrastinating. Onto my most immediate task at hand: blogging about my recent holiday to HELLAS, aka Greece.

I finally chose 120 pictures from my trip to post onto Facebook. Sometimes, I think that 60 picture limit is both a pain and a blessing. It definitely forces you to trim the fat. However I am now in a state of ANXIETY and PANIC because NO ONE has yet to comment about any one of my photos. I mean, WTF, I spent almost 2 hours uploading pictures and I'm afraid it's being LOST IN THE MIX of everyone else's status updates, event invitations, and video uploads. This is like high-traffic hour for Facebook right now - when everyone is uploading their Christmas pictures, writing status messages about their New Years resolutions, and complaining about going back to work. URGH I picked the WORST time to upload my pics. NO ONE is going to notice them now. But anyways, speaking of FAT (remember when I wrote about "trimming the fat" up there before I lost track of what I was actually talking about). I GOT fat from nonstop eating in Greece.

Which is a convenient segue into the first portion of my blog: FOOD IN GREECE.

OK so now would be a good time to mention that I DO NOT LIKE GREEK FOOD. I think it's mainly because I am vegetarian so my dinner options consisted of spinach pie (which is nice once every 3 years) or..


BEANS. I got bowls and bowls of these BAKED BEANS on the lunches provided by our day tours or cruises. That along with a side of nasty COLE SLAW. And as if I already did not like cole slaw enough, they served cole slaw without the mayo (I can't decide if that was a good or bad feature). So yea, it was shredded cabbage, carrots, and then these BEANS. I don't mind a serving of beans as a side dish atop a bed of rice, in a Chipotle burrito, or eaten raw in a salad. But it's just depressing as a main course. I felt like an orphan straight out of Oliver Twist.

Beyond beans...there are other items found in traditional Greek fare that I do not find pleasing to the taste buds. Example: Fish baked with tomatoes. Assorted vegetables drenched in olive oil. Stuffed grape leaves. But in an attempt to avoid being stoned by any Greek that might come across this blog...I will now talk about some foods found in Greece that I absolutely ADORE. You will find that the following items will be foods that can be found in NATURE.


There are orange trees all over Greece with fruits abundantly blossoming. Their oranges are amazing!! So fresh and juicy. Delicious.


The pistachios from the island of Aegina are to die for!!! It's hard to describe...but they have almost a creamy taste to them, that is unlike those that we normally consume from California. I also found it interesting that a lot of Greek snacks remind me SO MUCH of Asian snacks..like pretty much exact replicas! Like their sesame snacks, their candied and roasted nuts, and even certain cakes! I was pretty much ready to find Greek Pocky in a convenient store. I wonder where that connection came from.

So I spent much of my time avoiding traditional Greek tavernas and found a few notable dishes within the Athens restaurant scene.

Seafood Risotto from Dionysus, the restaurant across from the Acropolis. Shitty service but beautiful food...


Not to mention...a stunning view of the Acropolis!!

The next series of photos will be from Thalasea Restaurant in Athens, which was probably my favorite meal of the entire trip. Probably because it was the restaurant that reminded me the most of New York...and probably because it was a restaurant that specialized in lobster. Lobster flown in alive from Maine, to be exact. The food and service were absolutely spectacular. And here are some pictures to prove it.


Four balls of flavored goat cheese...dill, cayenne, thyme, and saffron. Delicious.

Lobster salad and mango salad atop toasted brioche bun....very generous amounts of lobster = happy Jean.

The lobster I still dream about...Thermidor Lobster filled with fish cream, mushrooms, dijon mustard gratin, and parmesan cheese. Oh lord. Someone teach me how to make this. I will eat like a king.

Some notable restaurants on Rhodes Island were Alexis 4 Seasons and Red Restaurant. Alexis 4 Seasons specializes in fresh seafood...the kind of restaurant where if you want a fish, you go to the tank and point at the one you want. Again..borrowing from the Chinese. OK I am getting bored with this post...I will publish it only because it took me about 3 days to crank out this much, and I owe it to myself to get this blog rolling again. If you want to see pictures from these restaurants...and others...feel free to peruse my Facebook album.