Greek Festival Weekend

This is the 39th year for the Greek Festival on the grounds of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral near downtown Houston. This Greek community began in 1917 with just a few Greek immigrant families, and now it's one of the largest Greek communities in the country. And this was their weekend..... from Thursday afternoon till tonight. Gorgeous weekend-- sunny and warm without being broiling hot, and not a raindrop in sight.

We met our friends K & B at the festival just before noon-time. Before we got on the line to get our dinners, we stopped at the cookie and pastry booth, and it's a good thing we did--- all they had left were two kinds of cookies-- finikia and koulourakia. All of the baklava were gone, and theirs is so good that they were selling cups of the crumbs and people were putting it over their ice cream. (Another ice cream treat to try!)

The Greek church ladies must cook around the clock for weeks on end, because they feed an enormous amount of people. You can buy an entire dinner for just $10-- and they give you a serving of pastitsio, tiropita, spanakopita, soutzoukaki (meal roll), Greek salad and bread. If you don't want the dinner, then you can buy Greek foods a la carte--- tiropita, spanakopita, dolmades, gryo, souvlaki, and even Greek pizza.... and those are just $1 or $2 per serving.

Because this was such a beautiful weekend, the Greek festival has been busy for all of the days. When we got there today, the dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) were all sold out, and so were all of the desserts except for the two cookies I mentioned. We bought a dozen of the finikia, and two dozen of the koulourakia--- and by the time we got on the line for our dinner, all the cookies had sold out.

This festival is one of the most well-organized events that we've ever gone to. The lines are long for the food booths, but they have so many people helping out that you're really not waiting for a long while to get your food. The foods are so good, and all homemade with the best ingredients, that you don't mind the wait anyway.

The church group sets up a gift shop in the community room of the school...... everything from books and tee-shirts to fine jewelry and art, and there's also clothing and imported foods and Greek pottery. And wherever you go on the festival grounds, there's Greek music playing, so even if you're not Greek, you'll think you are by the time you're ready to leave. Great food, great fun...... the only thing that can keep us away from this festival is a heavy rainstorm.