Ta Avra

One of the really nice things about Greece is that you can often get really fresh unprocessed foods at a reasonable price.  Eggs, or ta avra in Greek, are one such example.  Here is a big bin of farm fresh eggs nestled in amongst the fruit in one of the local produce stores.  I got to choose my own eggs, and of course I selected a nice assortment of colors.

We eat a lot of eggs in Greece, but our favorite way to consume them is hard boiled; they are called ta vrasmena avra in Greek.  We eat so many hard boiled eggs, that it has become somewhat of a joke to the Greek archaeologist who oversees our field school.  Everyday she asks me questions in Greek about the vrasmena avra, and she is overcome with laughter as I try to answer her in my remedial Greek.  However, today I did give her a complete and grammatically correct answer in Greek and she was very proud of my efforts.  I have taught Andrea a few sentences, and of course one of them is about hard boiled eggs.  She will happily repeat her vrasmena avra sentence to any locals who will listen.

I had hard boiled eggs for breakfast and tonight I will have another variation of them for dinner.  I am making a tortilla espanola, which is comprised of potatoes, eggs and onion.  Of course since I only have one burner to cook on, this is a two day process.  I cooked the potatoes yesterday.  Today I must saute the onion, slice the potatoes into the pan and pour the beaten egg mixture over the top.  Then it cooks until the eggs are done.   It will be served with a Greek salad.  The ingredients for tonight's salad were a gift from one of our neighbors, she left a bag of freshly picked tomatoes and cucumbers on our patio yesterday. Local people are always very generous with us, we often receive fruits, veggies and cookies as gifts.  As a matter of fact, our studio was stocked with watermelon, honeydew and peaches when we arrived, a present from our landlord.

More soon.