Once upon a time in the exotic land of Far East, Ali Baba, a poor logger, discovered a cave that was filled with gold and precious stones, a treasure that was stolen and gathered there by the 40 thieves. All he had to do was to shout at the cave’s door: “Open Sesame”. And just...
Since the 5th century B.C., bread was made from barley here in Greece since the morphology of the land discouraged any cultivation. From 5th century B.C. and forward, thanks to trade with Egypt, the cultivation of wheat begins to expand in Greece. Bread was a basic and very important element of the Greek diet from...
Greek pastries were very limited before 1922 when the Greeks of Asia Minor came as refugees in Greece. The country was very poor and the sweets people had, were based on simple ingredients they could find in nature. Some pastry shops that existed in big cities had French inspired sweets that could be enjoyed only...
Santorini island is basically what has remained after a massive volcanic eruption that destroyed all previous settlements, and created the current geological caldera. This enormous volcanic eruption has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. It may have been one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in...
After Greece’s liberation from the Ottoman Empire, the countries that protected the newly born State i.e. England, Germany, Russia and France agreed in placing a king of mutual acceptance as the head of the country. That King was Otto Friedrich Ludwig von Wittelsbach from Salzburg. Because of his descent, as a ruler, he favored German...
One day all birds gathered in the woods and decided to create a school for their small ones to learn how to read and write. They found a teacher and a place and the school opened for all the little birds of the forest. After a few days some small ones went to school without...
Puppet show has its roots to all ancient civilizations such as the Chinese and Greek. All of them have a common characteristic, that being the domination of one character who is cunning, crafty, naughty, sneaky and inventive. He uses all these “virtues” to survive and trick the authority and sometimes he acts also as a...
Alexander the Great, son of King of Macedon Philip II and Olympias was born in Pella in 356 BC. When he was 20 years old, he succeeded his father to the throne. Undoubtedly, he is considered to be one of the most successful military heads throughout history as he managed to stretch his empire from...
Greece was among the last countries that learned about and started to consume chocolate. In 1841 and while Greece was having half the size of what it is today Pavlidis family opened a pastry shop in down town Athens. In there they were selling baklava, lokums and other traditional Greek sweets. The after the Turkish...
Today is Clean Monday for Orthodox Christians. This signals the beginning of a fifty days’ Lent from now until Easter Saturday, which this year is on 30th of April. This particular Lent is a very strict one, having everyone who follows it, to refrain from anything that comes from animals i.e. meat and its byproducts,...
