beanpastestew

With friends, I sat at a rickety little table outside the taverna just up the hill from the village of Milli on Greece's Mount Ochi on the island of Euboa (Evvia), where I would be staying with them for the spring and summer. We were waiting for our dinner, my first Greek countryside dinner, when there came an unsuspected, loud, high-pitched, nerve-chilling, split-second animalistic cry from behind where we were sitting.
"I cook for you," the proprietor of the taverna spoke heartedly as he stepped out from behind the building, holding a baby lamb by its hind legs, its body hanging limp, its head dangling obliquely to one side, the animal's life dripping from its neck all along the ground. My friends, being Greek countryside people, went on talking nonchalantly, glancing over at me to take account of my reaction to the scene, the look on my face obviously screaming out: "How in the world did I end up HERE?"
But I did end up there, in that ancient place with its history intertwined down through the millennia with the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Turkish, its people cultivating a culture in herders of goats, people of the sea, growers of olives, lemons and herbs - bakers of bread. As my stay lingered with the slow pace of life of that quiet land, I made friends with farmers, fishermen, a merchant, a monk and 'Missus' Basiz, dear old 'Missus' Basiz, eighty-six years of life on Euboa and still herding her goats up Mount Ochi every morning, leaving twice-a-week as she passed the veranda of our house a round of her freshly made "Mizithra" cheese - Ah, that Mizithra! And that lovely Missus Basiz.
That slow pace of living that was an ongoing integral part of Euboa's culture and way of life when I was there, gave me much time to think about and be thankful for being invited to join a group of artisans, in the restoration of one of the many historic Greek Orthodox churches that dot the islands throughout Greece, and how that invitation led me to 'end up' in the village of Milli enjoying my first taste of braised lamb in the tradition of the Greek countryside.