The Search for the Ever Elusive Pita

There are certain things I associate with a country and for the most part, these associations have rung true. Like Crepes in France, fresh Pretzls in Germany, Strudl in Austria... So you'd think that Greece would not let me down when I tried to find Pita. In a way she didn't let me down, there was pita available at most restaurants and certainly at every Gyro stand. But whenever I tried to find fresh pita in the grocery store, there was none to be found.

Lunches are generally picnic affairs and we try to vary things a bit and often try to inject as much of the local staples as possible, so I thought pita at lunch would be a nice change up when in Greece. At first we found NO pita in the grocery stores we went to. Bakery's too. None, zilch, nada, nichts, kanenas... Now these were not always little stores - even the large ones where they had everything else - Greek and otherwise. "Where are the Pita?"we would ask. We usually got a shrug and the best we got was a 10 pack in the frozen section. Now the frozen 10'r was an improvement, but it still wasn't the same.

Often with will and determination there is a happy resolve to these kinds of quests, but alas, I must admit defeat. We never did find a source of the fresh pita. Perhaps all of the Gyro stands have the market cornered? Maybe Greeks don't eat it? Maybe you can only get frozen imported from... Canada? Whatever the case, we never did track fresh pita down and will have to make this a priority should we ever find ourselves in Greece again. I hate to think we were simply missing something obvious - though that is a possibility as well. I will have to resign myself to the fact that the frozen 10 pita were pretty good (once they thawed) and the ones from the Gyro stands and restaurants were great.

Fresh Pita - Where are you?

On Eating France

We are in Spain now and the French must be happy about that. Like many before us, we soon were determined to devour France and even had the appetite to do it. Our objectives were innocent enough to begin with - enjoy the scenery, visit the odd church, try some French language.., but we soon followed the lead of Michael, Jackie, and Josh and when in France do as the French do (in this case do as the Brits living in France do).

Mattias and Emila were to corner and conquer the Pan au Chocolat market while Karen and I focused on the sea food, particularly the mussels. Who can say "non" to all of the good food? Gallettes and crepes became part of regular take even when back into camping mode. Great cheeses and nice wine were staple food items and sooo easy on the budget.

One often hears that the French take their food very seriously and we would have to concur. The dent we made into the food supply should have them worried and though they may be happy about us leaving, we will be back soon as we swing back through France on our way to the Weisskircher enclave near Trier. We will be back and we will be bringing our appetites with us again. The Spanish are trying their best to fix that, but when it comes to food - my money is on the French. Of course, we have only been in Spain a couple of days, and are happy to prove ourselves wrong.