Greek Dinner Recipe
We are wrapping up the 2019-20 school year, and this means we are finishing the final action projects of the year. In the last humanities course of the freshman sequence, we replicated food from a local restaurant or grocery store at home, Our assignment was to pick a food we enjoy purchasing that is already made, and attempting to make it at home to see if we could achieve restaurant quality food at home, which is an especially relevant project to be doing right now when food access is an issue for so many in the city of Chicago. It was a very interesting project to try, and the results definitely surprised me. It was a wonderful way to close out a very, very strange school year, and I hope that it is interesting, and that maybe you even visit the restaurant mentioned or try some of the recipes in it!
For this project I visited the Athenian Room on Webster Avenue in Lincoln Park, and ordered the Vegetarian Salad and an order of Greek Fries. The Athenian Room is a restaurant my family and I visit frequently because along with being delicious, at 9.50 cents, a salad, pita bread, tzatziki and Greek Fries (we ordered extra just because it's a favorite) is a pretty great deal.
The salad is fairly basic, with just four ingredients, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and olives. It is elevated by the salad dressing, which is simple, with only red wine vinegar and olive oil. The salad is tossed in oregano before the dressing is added, and while it is a very small ingredient list it tastes amazing. The vegetables are always crisp and fresh with just the right texture, and the dressing adds flavor without being overpowering.
The salad comes with greek fries, which are steak cut and served in a similar if not the same dressing as the salad. They are served warm but not hot enough to burn if you eat right after you get them, which I usually do. They are served with the dressing poured over, and while I don't usually like soggy French fries, Athenian Room greek fries are definitely the exception. They are cooked until golden, and usually served on the same plate as the salad, so the dressing really soaks in.
The salad also comes with pita bread and tzatziki. The pita bread isn't technically pita bread since it isn't leavened and doesn't have the pocket in the middle that pita is known for, but instead flatbread, however the menu labels it as pita so that is how I will refer to it. It is soft, and best eaten soaked in the salad dressing then dipped in the tzatziki sauce. The tzatziki is creamy and made of greek yogurt with cucumber and herbs mixed in. It was the icing on the cake of this meal.
When I made it at home, I used some recipes claiming to replicate the exact food from the restaurant at home. The Athenian room was recommended by Tina Fey in an interview a few years ago, and became very popular with many people wanting to see what she was talking about. I imagine this may have contributed to why it was so easy to find replica recipes.
For the salad, I used the same ingredients, although my olives were pitted. The lettuce was slightly less crunchy, partially since it had been in my fridge all weekend. I got the salad dressing recipe from the website where I found the recipe for the greek fries, however from the way it was packaged in takeout it wasn't hard to tell it was just the vinegar and olive oil, though I also added garlic. Before I added it the ingredients were tossed with oregano. The salad was easy to replicate since the ingredients were very simple. My family also enjoyed it, and I'm sure we'll make it again.
The fries were the highlight of the dish. I cut the potatoes into wedges and coated them in canola oil and oregano. I roasted them for 25 minutes at 450 Fahrenheit, shaking once in the middle to make sure it cooked evenly. The salad dressing called for 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, one teaspoon of olive oil, one small clove of garlic, and salt and pepper to taste, although I did double it for both recipes for extra flavor. The fries were still warm and with a similar texture although a paler color and slightly different dressing, and were definitely another hit here.
Finally, the pita and tzatziki. This was my favorite to make. I started off by mixing the dough ingredients and letting it rise for an hour, before dividing into eight parts and letting ride for 20 minutes. While it was rising, I made the sauce by grating a cucumber and mixing in yogurt, dill, mint, lemon juice, and salt. Once this was done I cooked the flat bread dough one at a time on a hot skillet. It turned out very well, with great texture, and I am having it as a snack again as I write this.
All in all they were both great meals, and while I may make some of the recipes again I am sure I will still visit Athenian Room, especially because I don't have the materials to make gyros, which are another thing I highly recommend there.
For this project I visited the Athenian Room on Webster Avenue in Lincoln Park, and ordered the Vegetarian Salad and an order of Greek Fries. The Athenian Room is a restaurant my family and I visit frequently because along with being delicious, at 9.50 cents, a salad, pita bread, tzatziki and Greek Fries (we ordered extra just because it's a favorite) is a pretty great deal.
The salad is fairly basic, with just four ingredients, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and olives. It is elevated by the salad dressing, which is simple, with only red wine vinegar and olive oil. The salad is tossed in oregano before the dressing is added, and while it is a very small ingredient list it tastes amazing. The vegetables are always crisp and fresh with just the right texture, and the dressing adds flavor without being overpowering.
The salad also comes with pita bread and tzatziki. The pita bread isn't technically pita bread since it isn't leavened and doesn't have the pocket in the middle that pita is known for, but instead flatbread, however the menu labels it as pita so that is how I will refer to it. It is soft, and best eaten soaked in the salad dressing then dipped in the tzatziki sauce. The tzatziki is creamy and made of greek yogurt with cucumber and herbs mixed in. It was the icing on the cake of this meal.
When I made it at home, I used some recipes claiming to replicate the exact food from the restaurant at home. The Athenian room was recommended by Tina Fey in an interview a few years ago, and became very popular with many people wanting to see what she was talking about. I imagine this may have contributed to why it was so easy to find replica recipes.
For the salad, I used the same ingredients, although my olives were pitted. The lettuce was slightly less crunchy, partially since it had been in my fridge all weekend. I got the salad dressing recipe from the website where I found the recipe for the greek fries, however from the way it was packaged in takeout it wasn't hard to tell it was just the vinegar and olive oil, though I also added garlic. Before I added it the ingredients were tossed with oregano. The salad was easy to replicate since the ingredients were very simple. My family also enjoyed it, and I'm sure we'll make it again.
The fries were the highlight of the dish. I cut the potatoes into wedges and coated them in canola oil and oregano. I roasted them for 25 minutes at 450 Fahrenheit, shaking once in the middle to make sure it cooked evenly. The salad dressing called for 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, one teaspoon of olive oil, one small clove of garlic, and salt and pepper to taste, although I did double it for both recipes for extra flavor. The fries were still warm and with a similar texture although a paler color and slightly different dressing, and were definitely another hit here.
Finally, the pita and tzatziki. This was my favorite to make. I started off by mixing the dough ingredients and letting it rise for an hour, before dividing into eight parts and letting ride for 20 minutes. While it was rising, I made the sauce by grating a cucumber and mixing in yogurt, dill, mint, lemon juice, and salt. Once this was done I cooked the flat bread dough one at a time on a hot skillet. It turned out very well, with great texture, and I am having it as a snack again as I write this.
All in all they were both great meals, and while I may make some of the recipes again I am sure I will still visit Athenian Room, especially because I don't have the materials to make gyros, which are another thing I highly recommend there.
recipes used:
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