Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
Our daughter Kristin with a Kokkari cookbook making a visit to San Francisco complete!
We love Greek food and although much of our food has Greek influences , we still enjoy Greek night whether or not we are visiting Kokkari… But Kokarri is special.
No great meal is complete without Baklava Ice cream!
I spent a few years in my youth living in Palo Alto. Those were good times and Palo Alto was a simple and affordable university community. Oh how times have changed. I am sure it wasn’t their intention — but maybe it was — to design their streets for ‘locals only’, but that is how it has turned out. I had two tasks: 1) to buy my favorite Spartan Olive Oil and 2) find the sister restaurant to my favorite San Francisco restaurant Kokkari named in Palo Alto Evvia. This wasn’t an easy task.
One of the neighborhood defensive measures in Palo Alto is to close off streets and to turn two way streets into one way. If this isn’t enough, there is very little lighting at night to find your way around. Well, my bride commented to me,” I thought you grew up here?” Yes, but that is before silicone valley money poured in. With a little luck, we found our way.
Evvia is a nice very popular Greek Restaurant in a nice setting with a selection of traditional and modern Greek food. I even own a cookbook of theirs and made most of what is in it! We were able to get reservations on a Saturday night… but not until 9:15 pm. I enjoyed the reddened lamb shank, various Greek Wines and Baklava Ice cream. Laura enjoyed an assortment of traditional Greek foods in a sampler, Greek wine and cookies for dessert. Oh yes, the service was superb.
Definitely a fun place to stop.
Kokkari restaurant is a favorite stop of mine in San Francisco. It is a wonderful Greek Estiatorio offering orginal and traditional Greek cuisine. Recently, I picked up their cookbook and read how they prepared my favorite dish… their ‘reddened lamb shank.’ A lamb shank is nice if you aren’t into ‘sharing’, but I wondered if I could make it in a similar fashion using an entire leg of lamb? The answer is yes!
Part of the key to any good meal is in the preparation, but one has to tip ones “Toque” to the key role quality ingredients play. My lamb came from Superior Farms and was exceptional in every way. My herbs and seasoning was fresh … and the Greek wine I consumed in the process made it all very festive. Opa!
We didn’t have lamb growing up ( although I am told we did) as it was expensive compared to a diet of all-you-can-eat carrots. However, it has been one of my favorite foods.
Here is how I prepared (basic recipe) my lego of lamb!
My daughter Karla wanted to take a picture of ‘hungry Dad’ … believe me, little acting was required in this photo!
Nothing was leftover in this meal!
When we are in San Francisco, our favorite place to savor the flavor of the city a a wonderful Greek Restaurant. If you are not familiar with Greek food it is a lot more than Baklava, Grape leaves and Ouzo. The Greek cuisine is all about lamb and pork and some of the delicious wines made from ancient grapes.
The most interesting aspect of this beautiful culinary experience is they have come out with a new cookbook! I have already ordered it and anxiously await to see how they do this and that… because when I was there the last time, they were very tight lipped about their ‘secrets.’ One meal I most enjoyed was a lamb shank where the meat was moist, flavorful and melted off the bone! This is the way to do lamb!
Here’s the book… take a look at a few pages and see what I mean!