Greeking out in the Greek Fest

After the Polish Fest, my second cultural festival this summer was the Greek Fest in State Fair Park in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee. The Greek Fest had one stage for cultural performances and the rest were food stalls. Compared to other big name festivals such as Polish Fest and Festa Italiana, the Greek Fest is a lot smaller. The Greek Fest doesn’t feel commercial as it is organized by the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church and all proceeds go to the same church. With a mindset of donating money for a good cause, I splurged on several kinds of Greek foods that I couldn’t find in typical Greek restaurants in Milwaukee.

Loukoumades. Almost every culture has their version of fried dough. Donuts, chinese doughnuts, chinese cruller/youtiao/cakwe, beignet, and the many cousins of theirs. Loukoumades, the Greek’s answer to all of the above, is deep fried dough balls (almost like donut holes) that are served with cinnamon sprinkles and soaked in honey syrup. According to old stories, loukoumades were served to ancient Greek Olympic champions. I certainly didn’t take this snack for granted, fully aware that I did not threw any javelin or raced Usain Bolt.

Dolmades. Dolma is quite common in Wisconsin. Some grocery stores and all Greek restaurants offer dolma, which is a mix of rice, vegetables, and sometimes meat, wrapped in grape leaves. The rolled/stuffed grape leaves are usually boiled for 2 hours, so instead of getting stuck in your teeth, the grape leaf wrappings fall apart easily as you bite into it. I found this step-by-step guide for making dolma if you're interested.

NagasakiSaganaki – Good Lord, Saganaki. It’s not related to atomic bombs but the experiece of eating it is not to be taken lightly. To put it shortly, saganaki is pan-fried cheese. Imagine you’re making omelette, but instead of pouring eggs into the frying pan, you would pour.. cheese. Many kinds of cheese. The saganaki was going for $7 at the festival. I thought it’s a bit on the pricey side, but my saganaki consisted of different, untypical cheese such as graviera, halloumi, kasseri, and feta. It’s definitely worth every penny. The flavor is excellent, especially when you take a bite of the browned edges. It’s very savory so it’s served with slices of bread to tone down the flavor. In the States, saganaki preparation is more flashy as they flambéed the pan-fried cheese, creating flames, accompanied with a shout of “Opa!”.

Ancient Greek dresses like chiton and himation (Greek drapes and cloaks) are not worn anymore as the traditional Greek clothing changed considerably during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. The guy next to me in the first picture above donned a vraka while the girl wore a variation of desfina, a loose white clothing worn underneath a colorful apron decorated with gold threads and bright colors. Also spotted were guys wearing foustanellas (those are the guys with white skirts) with pointed shoes topped with pompoms (tsarouhia).

It rained a bit after I got my third dish, but there were plenty of covered dining seats so we didn’t get wet. Overall it was a pretty decent festival for those who appreciate good ethnic foods. Did I mention FREE admissions? The only time you have to pay is when you park ($5 per car) and buy foods. If the awesome food options did not suit your taste, you can go to a small amusement park located in the same complex and ride a carousel.

Posted in: Festival, Greek, Milwaukee, United States, Wisconsin