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Thank you for sending me a message. Although I do read them all, I am not always able to answer them right away. Thank you for your patience! – Elena
Hi Elena,
thank you for promoting the glorious mediterranean food. Your site is an inspiration for all of us trying to show to the rest of the world that Greece is producing some of the most exquisite products on the planet.
Tasos
Thank you Tasos!
Dear Elena,
Please accept my sincere congratulations for your Possitive contribution to the marketing of Greek products and more specifically the Greek olive oil
Thank you Bill!
I LOVE your blog! Do you happen to have a cookbook published with all your wonderful recipes?? They are so delicious and healthy. I would love to try them all! Thanks for such great information on Greece and Mediterranean cooking. My relatives are from the island of Crete and I look forward to when I can go back and visit this beautiful place again.
Thank you Mary! I am working on it.
Γεια σου,
I recently found your blog and I am truly amazed at the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet! I grew up in the U.S. but in my yiayia’s house so I was raised on many of these recipes. I had to laugh when I was reading your about page about the μελομακάρονα και το παστίτσιο. My yiayia used to do the same thing to me while I was in school. I have moved out now, and though I visit her at least once a month, I have missed these recipes and I am so happy to have found them here! I knew the food tasted amazing, but to know that it provides such a benefit is so comforting to know.
You have inspired me to begin cooking them on my own now instead of running to yiayia every time I’m craving σπανακόπιτα ή αυγολέμονο ή γαλακτομπούρεκο! The traditional cooking is definitely one skill that I do not want to be lost over time.
Thanks Sophia!
Yiayia was right! I’m happy that I have inspired you to do your own cooking. Good Luck!
Hi elena,
Do you have a clinic in athens greece? If yes can you please provide me with contact?
Thanks
First of all, thank you for your blog. It’s great to finally have some of the bio-chemistry facts about a diet taught to me by my grandmother. It all makes more sense with your valuable input.
My Question:
A group friends and I were discussing the benefits of a Mediterranean type diet. I shared with them that I use only olive oil when cooking or seasoning and there there were several grades of oil from which to choose depending upon the flavor desired.
The question came up, “Are all olive oils grades or origins equally healthy or do different grades/origins have more benefits that others? I.E. extra virgin VS pomace Oil as example.
Thank you! Yes, definetely there are nutritional differences among different olive oils. I will be posting a guide soon!
This diet – is very unhealthy too. Maybe a bit better than including meat, but diary and fish are also culprits in our diet. Check out Dr. Neal Barnard. He is proving that meat, dairy and fish are the cause of cancer, heart disease, diabetes. He was on Dr. Oz talking about these 3 causeing alzheimers as well. Check it out — save your health.
Thank you Janet for your comment and concern. The Mediterranean diet is not unhealthy. There is no research pointing to that, quite the opposite. The milk consumed in the Mediterranean diet was goat and sheep’s milk (not cow’s), and the small fish consumed are some of the components of the diet that have the protective effects. Greeks and Italians who followed this type of diet had the lowest rates of heart disease and cancer in the world.
Janet–on Dr. Oz one day, there was also a top cardiologist of the U.S. who said that eating ‘grass fed’ (and finished) meat (in moderation of course) is actually very healthy for you. Normal American meat, as we buy in supermarkets, he said, is not.
Greeks do not traditionally eat all that much meat, since the traditional diet consisted of almost half the year being essentially vegan, due to the Orthodox fasting days. I follow these church rules, and I can tell you that it has made me an ‘almost’ vegetarian, and I am thankful for that.
Also, the EU, and especially Greece, bans genetically modified foods, so the meat there is not full of genetically modified corn (like in the United States), even when it is not grass fed.
Greeks love to consume delicious cooked ‘olive oil based’ vegetable dishes as a main course…and if not a church fasting day, there is always some lovely sheep’s milk feta cheese on the side.
Hi Elena, I stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say hi. I am an American married to a Greek, and we just moved to the USA after 3 years together in Greece. I am so thankful for our time there and look forward to returning this summer.
I started a Greek food blog while living in Greece when it seems like all I had was time on my hands. I wish now that I had more time to spend hours cooking Greek food and trying to master things like phyllo and avgolemono!!!
I also love the nutritional aspect of your blog. I am trying to get back to a more pure Mediterranean diet these days.
Just wanted to say hello… and lovely blog! Thanks for sharing and I hope all is well in Athens these days!!!
Hi Jacquline,
Thank you for stopping by! Wonderful blog and photos!
Athens (and Greece) is going through some tough times right now but we’ll get through it.
Christiana Thank you so much!
Congratulations on such an accomplishment, you are an inspiration!
Hello Elena, I stumbled across your website and fell absolutely in love with it! My name is Christiana and I am 19 years old.
I reside in Kansas, USA at the moment, but I lived in Cyprus for 13 years. My father is Cypriot, and my mother is Mexican, so half Cypriot!
The Greek community in my city is very small, and it’s so nice to find websites like yours that take me back to my Greek routes. I have always loved the Greek diet, and grew up on it, but once I came to the United States I fell in the American diet… gained a ridiculous amount of weight of course. Enough was enough, I began to exercise and eat Greek homemade foods that I remember my father cooking for me. I’ve lost 60 lbs and feel amazing! OliveTomato is a wonderful site with great recipes. It’s just what I need to brighten my day, you’re so inspiring Elena! I’m going home and making tiropita with your recipe!
Found your blog via your great Huffington Post article.
Nice work! I love your point 3 about drinking water. I always think it’s wierd when people ask what I want to drink with a meal. Besides wine, water’s the only thing!
Also, Are you related to the late Nick Paravantes? My parents used to tune into him on scratchy AM radio while we drove back from visiting our Yia yia & Papou in Hammond.
Hello Helen,
Thank you! Yes we are related! We are from the village Ahladokabos in Peloponissos. I grew up in Chicago too.
I’m glad you enjoyed the article
Greetings again !! Your dipping sauce is, somewhat, similar to one Mother used to make for egg rolls. It’s Japanese, but, I’m sure similar in exquisite taste. It goes like this:
Japanese Ponzu Dipping Sauce
1 Tbs chopped green onion
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs mirin *rice wine vinegar*
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp fish sauce
mix and enjoy !!
Greetings !!! I’ve enjoyed your MediterrAsian.com site. Being Greek myself I’ve enjoyed some of my mothers’ favorite dishes. On your 19 recipes for feta, with your watermelon / feta / mint mother used to use EVOO and lime juice also to add another dimension !! If you try it you will be amazed !! Have a great one and I hope to keep checking back with you. PS if you have any kind of email sign up for your ideas I’d love to be included.. Mixalis in Orlando
Thank you Michael! The lime juice sounds great! I will try it. I do not have an email sign up right now, but you can like the Olive Tomato Facebook and see all the updates there.
I am now allergic to wheat gluten and night shade vegetables; my body seems to tolerate organic ones better.
Is there something else I could use in place of the phyllo dough; which I really like? Thank you.
Hi Pamela,
One substitute would be to use rice paper or wonton wrappers and wrap the cheese mixture in those. You won’t be able to make the triangles but you could do little rolls instead.
Thank you for the suggestions!! Now if I can find someone that make baklava using rice paper/wonton wrapper, I will really be happy!!
Thanks again.
Hi there Elena. Love it, Love you, Hope to talk to you soon!
Thank you Niko!