Taking the Kids: Meeting locals the best way to explore

Talk about making a dream come true! Like most Greek women, she explained, she has always loved to cook. When her daughter was born, like many moms, she wanted to switch careers to spend more time at home rather than in an office.

Why not cooking classes and demonstrations for tourists who come to Mykonos during the tourist season, she thought? Her husband not so much. “He thought I was crazy,” she told our small group, as we settled in her charming garden with bougainvillea growing up trellises and large tables. Her kitchen, complete with stone walls, has been remodeled to accommodate her classes.

She didn’t let that stop her and now 10 years later, despite the pandemic, she has a thriving business teaching visitors — including families — how to prepare local dishes, including spinach pie, tzatziki, the popular cucumber yoghurt sauce, stuffed tomatoes and peppers. Later, she also served up a beef dish served over orzo typically served for extended family.

As the men in our group step up to volunteer for each dish, she jokes that Greek husbands don’t cook. Nor are there exact measurements. a pinch of this; a finger or two amount of that. Very important, especially with food prices climbing, Greeks don’t throw anything away that can be used. “You can create another food,” she said. The water squeezed out of the spinach? That can flavor risotto. That extra rice from the stuffed tomatoes? Freeze it and use for another meal.

When we arrived, we were served something sweet — “so your life will be sweet,” she explained — a soft Greek sweet called Loukoumi with mint and a lot of sugar and gelatin, as well as some sour cherry wine.

We taste a local cheese and Louza ham with a liquor called Raki — 60 percent alcohol made from the skin of the grapes. “We use it for everything,” she jokes – rub on your head or belly if you have an ache; drink to relieve congestion, even clean your hands with it!

Fragedaki’s two efficient assistants bring the needed ingredients — and whisk away the used dishes. Because of the pandemic, we can’t eat the food we have handled, Fragedaki explained. The animals at her farm are well fed, as were we as the dishes we had learned to cook appear in front of us.

For dessert, the popular Spoon Sweet — Greek yogurt, honey, and cooked fruit. We are all happily stuffed.

She sends us back to the ship with recipes and a tiny bottle of Raki.

Bravo, Teata! Happy eating to all in 2022!

========

(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kid’s Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kid’s guide series, was published in 2020, with The Kid’s Guide to Camping coming in 2021.)