My big fat Greek Festival - Day 3

Saturday, September 3, 2011

We were lucky our trip coincided with the Annual Monterey Greek Festival. This is held at the park next to the Wharf.  We were also lucky to find a parking garage near the wharf that still have spaces.  So everything worked out for us today.

I left the camera in the car, and after getting to the festival, I was not in the mood to go back for it, so I decided to just use my camera to take pictures.

The festival was already in full swing as we entered the park.  Tents were set up selling Greek food and drinks.  On the other side were crafts and souvenir goods.

Most of the food stalls only take tokens.  You go to a token booth to pay and exchange you money for tokens. Unused tokens can be exchanged back for money.

I bought $100 worth of tokens and distributed among ourselves.  We each went out to get some food and drink.  I bought a Green stuffed cabbage, very much like a Polish golomki but less tasty.  I think the leave is a grape leaf, instead of a cabbage leave that you would find in a Polish golomki.

Louis and I were at the  cocktail booth, and we bought three red Greek beers (one for Sue.)  We were lucky to find a big table under a big umbrella near the stage, and settled down for food and music.

I don't remember how it happened, but someone said I will not dare to go up to the stage and dance with the  people already dancing on the stage.  Anyone in the public is invited to go up and dance, but there were not many people dancing. I bet for $10, I will go up and dance, and Sue, Ann, and Paula accepted my challenge, so I did.   I walked up to the stage, held hand with one of the men dancer, and danced.  He took me in and showed me the steps.   I could not follow him, but later found out it is a 12 step dance.  You start with your left foot, cross over the right foot, then with the right, cross over the left foot, and keep count.  On count 8, you kick that foot, and bring it down, continue crossing the feet, and on count 12, kick that foot.  What nonsense.  Who thought of this?  At count 8 and 12?  so unsymmetric.  Anyway, after a while, I lost interest, and went back to the table, where I put my hand out and happily counted the cash Sue, Ann, and Paula handed me.   (I later gave the money back to them.)

At the fair ground, Paula found a Turkish bag that she liked.  It was just the right size for her sun glasses.  She had been looking for something small to store her sun glasses on the trip. She like this very much, so I bought it as her birthday present.

We stopped at the Wharf, locally called the Fishermen's Wharf, after leaving the fair ground.  This is similar to the famous wharf in San Francisco.  There are restaurants on both sides of the board walk, and shops selling jewelries, souvenirs, candies, and what-not.  You can take a whale watching cruise from here, or go on a fishing trip with the party boats as well.
 The party boats that dock here will clean up the fish for you, throwing the guts into the water.  This is why they attract sea gulls, pellikans, and seals and sea lions around the docks.

On the far side, looking at the Pacific, we spotted two sea otters.  They were too far to be photographed. 

On the way back, off Route 156 West, we came across Perzini Farms.  This is where Sue gets her artichokes.  We stopped at the store in front of the farm, and bought some small items.

Parked outside the farm is a food trailer.  Sue recommended we try the French Fried Artichokes.  This is artichoke hearts dipped in batter and deep fried.  It is obviously not good for your health, but oh so good tasting. As usual, by the time I thought of taking a picture of it, it is already half gone.  The white powder on the fried artichokes is Parmasean cheese .

At supper time, we gave up our plan to go out and decided to just cook up a simple meal for the night. We have some Brussels sprouts.  I cleaned them, cut off the bottom tips, and halved them.  With a little squirt of olive oil, I pan fried the sprouts until they are tender, then sprinkled some balsomic vinigar on the sprouts.  They were delightful.

We had some fingling potatoes.  Sue brushed with with some olive oil and had them baked.  Another beautiful dish.  With the leftover salmon and chicken, we had a very happy meal.