Touch of Greece celebrated in park
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
The climate inside McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Park this weekend took on a Mediterranean feel, and the salt breezes whispered of the Aegean Sea.
The pavilion was the site of the 22nd annual Greek Festival. Its transformation was the work of members of the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific, and the smells, sounds and flavors they conjured took visitors to the tip of the Balkan Peninsula.
Ai Leen Choo of Hawai'i Kai sat with friends on a low rock wall under a shade tree in the Banyan Courtyard. The group listened to the Hellenic Sounds Band, savored memories of the foods they'd tasted and basked in a cultural experience. On the other side of the tree, nearer the band, four women linked hands, raised their arms high and danced.
Dimitri Xixis danced a moment with Patti Ikeda, and then the two went back to cooking and serving gyros.
The food selection also included moussaka, a sort of Greek lasagna with eggplant, beef and cheese. Spanakopita — spinach and feta cheese in phyllo dough — was served with dolmathes. There were vegetarian dishes fashioned by the chef from the Olive Tree Cafe, two types of souvlaki — skewers of lamb or pork — and, of course, tray after tray of baklava, the heavenly sweet pastry crammed with nuts and honey.
"All of it," said festival chairman Tom Sofos, "is very low calorie."
Greeks are not a large population group in Hawai'i, Sofos said. The cathedral's congregation is made up of about 100 families, and about half of those are Serbian, Russian and other ethnic groups. But on festival day, everyone finds a link to Greece.
Manos Leondidis, who ran the deli booth stocked with imported cheeses, olives, coffee and other delicacies, said many of his return customers have traveled to Greece.
"One was a hippie in his youth," Leondidis said. "He lived in a village in Greece, and every year he comes here on a Saturday and spends $300. That gets him through the year."
Around the corner from the deli, John Breinich made fresh coffee by the cup. He used a demitasse cup-sized measure of water, a teaspoon of sugar and a heaping teaspoon of finely ground coffee, combined them in a brass, hourglass-shaped pot, and heated the mixture to a boil. Then he lifted the pot from the heat, put it back down and let it boil a second time, and then a third.
Some people boil the coffee only twice; other insist three times is not enough, Breinich said.
At the taverna, Austin Vali poured glasses of Mythos beer, red and white Greek wines, and stiff shots of ouzo. And at the Orthodox book store booth, Gregory Malick, the church chanter, told a sad story about an Orthodox saint who, having lived a life of sin, purified herself by living alone and naked in the wilderness.
Guitarist Sotos Kappas played ballads in the Fountain Court, and Susan Evans served moussaka nearby.
"He'll be playing again on Dec. 28," she said, nodding toward Kappas. "At my wedding."
Sofos said he hadn't intended to chair a festival and get married all in the same year, but he wants to live with Evans and she wants to be married. So there would be two events.
Evans said it was like a movie.
"Big fat Greek festival," she said, "And my big fat Greek wedding."
