My sister Caroline makes a mean pork tenderloin, or should I say tenderloins. She's made it in so many ways and with various sauces such as apple, raspberry, mustard cream - you name it, she’s probably tried it. Today she made it in one of my favorite ways - Greek style, which is also one of the easier ways to…

A meeting with an anarchist in Exarcheia, a district of Athens. Photos by Henry Langston for Vice

Sisa is called the cocaine of the poor, and it seems to be austerity's drug of choice. It's an epidemic that is sweeping through the streets of Athens, and something needs to be done soon.

Alex Miller's Vice article excerpt:

Standing in the Athens police headquarters,…

Rouketopolemos (Greek Рουκετοπόλεμος, literally Rocket-War) is the name of a local traditional event held annually at Easter in the town of Vrontados (Βροντάδος) on the Greek island of Chios. As a variation of the Greek habit of throwing fireworks during the celebration of the…

The second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC) at the Battle of Marathon which ended Darius…

Many of you who follow this blog know that we constantly scour the internet for fun and interesting bits of information that relates to the Hellenic culture in some way. We especially love when we find info that shows how Greeks influence the population as a whole, so when we saw a tweet by …

Ancient Spartan rituals have been the topic of many books, movies, and research papers. They were a fascinating people to say the least. The specific topic of how ancient Spartan boys were bred and trained for battle is legend, but they also had some very interesting methods of raising and training…

The other day my sisters and I were talking about our favorite dishes from childhood. Joanna listed araka me saltsa as one of her favorites. Our mom used to make it for us all the time. Partly because she could make a big batch at once, partly because it was good for us. But mostly because we all would eat it. We loved…

Even though he is one of the pioneers of electronic music, composed and performed legendary soundtracks to Blade Runner and The Bounty, and even won an Academy Award for his score to Chariots of Fire, Vangelis cannot read a single note of music.

Vangelis was born 29 March 1943, near…

In honor of Greek Independence Day, we decided to make one the most famous and traditional Greek desserts we could think of... baklava! And we're not talking just regular run-of-the-mill baklava in a pan or in triangles, which is typically how you will find it. We made baklava rolls! Baklava rolls are known as…

Apples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit. One of the problems identifying apples in religion, mythology and folktales is that the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all (foreign) fruit, other than berries, including nuts, as late as the 17th century.…

A form of election designed to curb the power of any rising tyrant came into effect soon after the Athenian victory over the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The Athenians began the practice of ostracism, which was probably inspired at least in part by the fact that their old tyrant Hippias, who…

In the 1830's, Greek prime minister Ioannis Kapodistrias tried to spread the potato in Greece but people weren't interested, so he put armed guards in front of shipments of potatoes so that people would think they were an important and expensive crop. People later started stealing these potatoes so much, that it…

Pastitsio is a lot of work, we all know it. So when my sisters make it, it's definitely a treat, because really, there's nothing like homemade pastitsio! You don't really need to make anything with it, besides maybe a salad. And it is soooo good as a leftover dish too, so it can keep you fed for a day or two. Go…

A recent exhibition is completely changing a long standing belief. Most people as well as experts believed that the great statues and buildings of ancient Greece were all pure unpainted stone or green tarnished bronze, but researchers have recently been suggesting that this may not have been…

The premise was like something out of a movie. In 1977, John Aristotle Phillips found worldwide fame as the Princeton junior who designed a working Nagasaki-class nuclear weapon the size of a beach ball. In fact, after calling DuPont and asking for a good detonator for…

One of my favorite Greek stars is, obviously, Nia Vardalos. She has done more to put Greeks in the pop culture spotlight in recent times than anyone else we can think of, and she's very talented to boot!

I met her years ago when she had one of her…

Someone sent us a message recently asking for a traditional Moussaka recipe, and sadly I realized my sisters have never posted one, which seemed odd, but sometimes the most obvious things are the ones that are overlooked! The lack of a good Moussaka recipe made us all sad, but the sadness was short lived, because…

"Only when you lose everything, do you find it all"

Following his ruin in the latest banking crisis, a self-made millionaire reluctantly re-unites with his estranged freewheeling brother to re-open the abandoned fish and chip shop they shared in their…

Many of my fondest food memories consist of the summers I spent in Greece. At the top of my food memory list is fresh baked pita bread. The pita we buy at the grocery stores here does not compare, so my sister wanted to try her hand at making some home-made pita. She didn't want to make it alone so she paired…

The Ptolemaic dynasty, (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖοι, sometimes also known as the Lagids or Lagides, Ancient Greek: Λαγίδαι, from the name of Ptolemy I's father, Lagus) was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years,…