Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-04
AT A. GREEK RESTAURANT.
Oriental Dishes, Excellent Coffee and
Deadly Cake That Greeks Enjoy.
From the New York Sun


Greek cooking in New York is something
between French and Turkish. In the mat
ter of solids and sauces French influence
seems predominant; in the matter of sweets
and coffee oriental influence is stronger.
Time was when nobody who could dine
elsewhere dined at a Greek restaurant. but
the Greek restaurants have greatly i'm
proved within ten years. and they flourish
nightly. This prosperity is largely due
to the fact that of the thirteen or fifteen
thousand Greeks resident in the city, it is
estimated that hardly five hundred are
members of families One Greek resident
says that there are hardly fifty Greek fami-
lies in the city.
A dinner in a Greek restaurant of the
better sort begins with a white, slightly
aromatic, sweet liquor served in a pony
glass. An excellent soup follows, and then
comes the meat. which is often in effect
a rich ragout, with spinach or okra as part
of the dish.
One or more other vegetables may ac-
company the meat Fish also is served
when the meal is al all elaborate, and in it's
usual place after the soup.
Before the coffee, and often with it, come
the sweets. They are of many kinds. Some
of them suggest the old-fashioned Washing
ton pie with the addition of chopped nuts.
Another dessert suggests hot, moist
sweet breakfast food Sparsely sown with
kind of oblong seed. Americans seldom
like this particular dish. Dried currants
form part of several other characteristic
Greek desserts.
Coffee is the serious business of the Greek
meal 1t is in effect Turkish coffee plus
sugar, though it is not prepared in the
approved Turkish fashion.
The first essential of Greek coffee, ordi-
nariIy served in demitasse is that it shall
show on the surface the cream This is
not cream, ordinarily understood, but
the essential oil of the coffee berry floating
like a light VQllOWiSh brown foam uDOn the
surface of the beverage.
A cup of coffee in which this is achieved
is excellent to the palate of most Americans
who like black coffee The Greeks do not
drink or eat the thick pudding of coffee
powder that remains at the bottom of the
cup.
So fond are the resident Greeks of their
special coffee that many men drink ten or
twelve cups during the day. In nearly all
the restaurants you may see men sitting
about the tiny tables reading. talking,
playing dominoes or cards and slipping cup
after cup of their pudding coffee.
Sometimes the coffee is accompanied by
an odd triangular cake thickly vanished
with sticky molassesl1ke sauce. Within
the cake has the inevitable chopped nuts,
and the whole. in taste and smell, suggests
something between drug store and bar
Der shop.
This particular cake is probably the
deadliest form of food served for human
consumption anywhere in New York, out
side the cheap restaurants, the speciality
of which is ptomaine poison. The Greeks,
however, seem to eat it with impunity.
Perhaps the cognac that often accompanies
the coffee acts as an antidote.
You may dine abundantly a la Greque
for 60 or 10 cents. and sumptuously for
little over 81. for the dishes cost from only
3 to 80 cents. Half a dollar more will
give you the opening liqueur, cognac with
coffee and glass or two of potable wine.
Even the remnants of your college Greek
will not take you far into interpreting the
bill of fare.