How an invitation for one ouzo started
A very Greek invitation is “Pame gia ena ouzo”, that implies that we will go to drink one ouzo, that is never one, without any special preparation.
This is what happened when Karin, a German student of ours, entered chapter 12 of our book for levels B1-B2, titled TRAVEL TO GREECE. The chapter is about travelling to Messolonghi, a very historical and picturesque city of Greece, which among others produces fish of renowned quality . One of these fish, named bafa, bears a special kind of eggs that are the basis of Avgotaraho, that is considered the Greek caviar and is the best meze for ouzo.
Teacher and student did not know what is this avgotaraho, so they asked the advice of Costas our director, who by coincidence comes from Messolonghi and likes both, ouzo and avgotaraho.
Costas at the end of the formal lesson explained everything about this Greek delicatessen but he moved some steps further by inviting Karinn and other students for one ouzo accompanied by the real Messolonghi avgotaraho .
The invitation was for three days later as he would have to ask somebody to send everything from Messolonghi.
Three days later around a table in the School’s kitchen
Costas has set a table for ouzo!
A small plate with pieces of tomatoes and green peppers and black olives , with salt and oregano.
Another with pieces of cucumber , with salt and vinaigrette.
One whole avgotaraho from Kostas Passiopoulos , Messolonghi.
A bottle of ouzo, a bottle of water, small glasses for ouzo and glasses for water.
Everything brought specially from Messolonghi, except the ouzo that had been forgotten.
And around it a group of students, teachers and staff ready to follow the instructions of Costas and eager to enjoy food and drink.
Costas gave all necessary information while preparing everything and especially while cutting avgotaraho in thin slices and setting them in a special way on the plate.
And then he led everybody on what to eat first and how to drink ouzo straight so that it retains its whole flavor and taste ( no water or ice in the glass but one may drink water only after two or three glasses of ouzo) and how to evaluate the quality of avgotaraho in three steps (semi transparency, sea smell, sea taste).
And in parallel we discussed about everything under the sun while listening to the right kind of Greek songs some of which were about ouzo (the relative anthem being “ouzo san tha pieis).
Two hours later we have eaten and drunk and enjoyed everything, we were smiling and happy, not dizzy.
On board were Costas, our teacher Zoe, Myriel from France, Karin from Germany, Natalia from Chile, Irini and Nikoleta, valuable members of our team.
Promised to repeat.
