Kythera Rusk

After the meat market on Tuesday we passed the pie bakery on the way for F to buy some Kythera Rusk. 

The pie maker was just an interlude. 

Kythera Rusk

When F first came to work here she lived temporarily in an AirBnB. Her landlady's family were from Kythera. (Most families around here, it seems, are from somewhere else - as in not Athens or Piraeus - so there are lots of shops that advertise their specialties as including the produce of their particular place or island.  Our butcher for instance also sells a family brand of Kefalonia cheese and sheep butter. That's a diversion that could fill several posts - and might do so.) Her landlady stocked the place with some food including a bag of Kythera rusk.

On her first day at work, observed eating one with her lunch,  one of F's colleagues (who comes from Thessaloniki, so relatively impartial concerning Kythera) proffered the view that Kythera rusks were the best in Greece.  While we haven't done an extensive surveys on this, no one we've asked has offered any opposition to that.

They are sprayed with olive oil before they are baked to make them dry and crispy. 

Think croutons.

Big ones.

Despite being agreed by humans to be excellent, they are remarkably difficult things to source. F finally tracked a little shop you might call a 'deli', that stocks them.

We went there. We have been there often.  The man there knows us now. We asked if we could photograph his specialties and he gave us a link to his website saying the photos were better.

Here's the link:https://www.avakian-aram.gr/el/  He's right of course.  His photos are better.  And even more interesting is his family history - Armenian Greek. 

There was a stage of history that Greek speaking communities extended half way from here to India.  In 1922 many linguistically and religiously Greek people in other nations east of here became refugees. Their descendants continue to add to the diversity of food, colour, music and culture that is modern Greece and particularly Athens and Piraeus. 

The family that runs one of our favorite tavernas had grandparents from Smyrni (modern day Turkey) and include on their menu many recipes that grandma brought with her from there.  It's one of the reasons my humans like the place. 

I just like the chicken souvlaki.