05 August 2011

Nostos = nostalgia

I'd been hunting for an interesting place to take my family for dinner when they visited and was pleasantly surprised to find Nostos, a new Greek restaurant, a mile from our front door.  Talk about convenient and it turns out, delicious too.

With certain groups of adventurous friends, I don't mind trying new places blindly.  However, my family tends to be a little less adventurous.  That means that before I take them somewhere, I test drive it.  This is especially true of Greek restaurants, as my father is genetically programmed to critique them.  So a couple of weeks before my family came to town, N and I spent a Friday night exploring the menu and trying some of the simple mezze to get a feel for just how well this place does Greek.

Turns out, they do it pretty well.  For our test meal, we ordered kolokithakia, zuccini sliced thin, battered and fried; tiropitakia, individual cheese pies made with kasseri cheese and dill; avgolemono, a simple chicken based soup made with egg, rice and lemon; horiatiki salata, a traditional village salad made with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives and feta, and; Tzatziki, a dipping sauce made with yogurt, cucumber and dill.

Even in this small field there were standouts and small disappointments.  The kolokithakia was perfect. Light and crispy, this mezze made me heartsick for days spent on a Greek beach with my whole extended family.

 The presentation of the kolokithakia was an added benefit for this dish.

Further standouts included the bowl of avgolemono that elegantly balanced the chicken and lemon flavors and the horiatiki, which while quite small for the $9 price, used exceptionally ripe tomatoes and the exact right amount of oregano.

 A good sized block of feta never hurts!

The final two items, the tiropitakia and the tzatziki were a little disappointing for me.  This was not entirely their fault though.  My chief complaint was the amount of dill used in each.  I don't care for it and I've never had to get used to it because my hillbilly people (my family is from Southern Greece) don't cook with it.  The addition of dill in these dishes marks them as from the islands.  Objectively, there was nothing wrong with them. They were well composed and for someone without a dill bias, probably delicious. 

Since our test drive panned out positively, with only personal taste complaints to speak of, I locked in the reservation for my family's visit.  And our evening proved to be as memorable as the one N and I had shared, with some new additions.  For our first course we ordered some of the same mezze N and I had tried before - kolokithakia, horiatiki, avgolemono and tiropitakia.  But we added in some new dishes as well including saganaki, a hard Greek cheese doused in Metaxa (Greek Brandy) and then set aflame table side; a cheese plate that included feta, kasseri and (my favorite!!!) kefalograviera and; haloumi, a mild Cypriot-made goat cheese, gently grilled.  Everything was great and everyone had their favorites.  My brother cannot eat in a Greek restaurant without saganaki, so he was thrilled.  Kefalograviera cheese is VERY hard to find in the US.  So my dad and I both ate far too much of it far too fast, but it was SO good!! And finally, to my surprise, my father had never tried haloumi, which he also came to love.

Everyone was getting full by the time the main course arrived.  Knowing that will always be the case for me, I chose nothing by a bowl of avgolemono as my entree.  My dad, brother and B all choose the arni youvetsi, a lamb shank braised in tomato sauce and wine, served over orzo pasta.

 Arni Youvetsi

According to all three, it was delicious. The meat was fall off the bone tender. But B also added that while it was good, it was no better than mine.  Yay!!!  This is a hillbilly Greek dish that I make at home a few times a year and apparently I do it well.  Not that I didn't love him already, but compliments like that never hurt!

My mom, who inspite of nearly 40 years of Greek affiliation, has never developed a taste for lamb.  She chose a chicken dish, kotopoulo skaras, a simple grilled, marinated chicken breast served with oven roasted potatoes and fasolakia, green beans with garlic and tomato sauce.


Chicken always makes me nervous in restaurants since it is so easy to dry out, but she said it was extremely juicy and well prepared.

By the time we were done with mains, everyone was too full for dessert.  But with risogalo on the menu, a rice pudding made thick and delicious, we had to at least take some home. When we cracked into it the next day (at breakfast, ha!), it was the BEST part of the meal. Creamy and thick and just sweet enough!

All in all, I've had two great experiences with this place and would go back or take friends back again!

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