It’s a tough gig I have here – getting paid to go eat Greek food at the St. Nicholas Church’s Greek food festival. It’s one of the best eat-around festivals in the region. Much of the food is made by an army of church volunteers. My favorites? Always the dolmades, stuffed grape leaves, and the tiropites, feta cheese turnovers, and anything found in the pastry display case. Today I found a few new favorites – ouzo cake and galaktoboureko. Click “read more” to see what I ate. Also, please comment and tell other readers what you feasted on at the festival. What’d you think? Read more »

I go every year hungry, and leave reeking of Greek eats: oregano, garlic, lamb and more garlic. The St. Nicholas Greek Festival is one of my favorite festivals and it really should be on your list, too. If anyone knows how to throw a big Greek feast, it’s the parish members and volunteers at the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Tacoma. Church volunteers have put on the food festival for 50 years, introducing countless Tacomans to baklava, gyros, melomakarona, koulorakia, dolmades and plenty of other Greek dishes and pastries that many may find unpronounceable, but utterly delicious. Click “read more” to see the details of this year’s festival, which begins Friday. Read more »

Why have I never tried the loukoumades?

A dining partner brought back a tray to our table earlier today at the 48th annual St. Nicholas Greek festival, and I eyed them curiously (which is code for “I wanted to pounce on them”). Golden puffs of dough, dusted with cinnamon, sitting in a pool of honey syrup. One bite of the crusty puffs earned loukoumades (also spelled loukoumathes) a spot on my must-eat list for every Greek festival from this point forward. Loukoumades. Make a note of them. You won’t regret it. They’re $3 at the booth over by the souvlaki.

What else did we eat at the 48th annual St. Nicholas Greek Festival? Click “more” to see. Read more »

If anyone knows how to throw a big Greek feast, it’s the parish members and volunteers at the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Tacoma.

For 48 years, church volunteers have thrown a Greek festival that has introduced countless Tacomans to baklava, gyros, melomakarona, koulourakia, paximadia and countless other dishes that many find unpronounceable but utterly delicious.

The 2010 festival starts Friday Oct. 1 and continues through Sunday Oct. 3.

The food? Homemade by an army of volunteers.

Rewind to August when myriad volunteers began hand rolling nearly 5,000 dolmathes, grape leaves stuffed with rice and seasoned ground beef.
In the following weeks, volunteers mixed the dough for 500 loaves of tsoureki , a Greek sweet bread, and next they made more than 4,000 tyropitakia, a flaky cheese-filled pie. Read more »

TNT staffers have returned to the newsroom reeking of Greek.
It was a challenge, but we woofed down double orders of calamari with scordalia dip, gyros, souvlakia, Greek fries, dolmathes and tiropites. Oh, and don’t forget the pastries and Greek coffee.
There are a few ways to eat around the The 47th annual Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Church. Click “more” for our insider tips on navigating the food festival.

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Sign me up for gyros, baklava and Greek coffee. I’ll be dining around at the 47th annual Greek Festival this weekend at the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tacoma. The festival begins tomorrow (Oct. 2) and continues through Sunday. Last year’s event yielded myriad selections of Greek classics – all delicious, and all inexpensive – but I really am looking forward to a cup of Greek coffee. Last year, they served tiny cups of the classic Greek coffee at the pastries/dessert booth. If you’ve never had Greek coffee, it’s ridiculously strong coffee sweetened to the tenth degree. It’s rich and thick and burly enough to kick you into next weekend (and great for hangovers). If you’ll miss the Greek festival this weekend, you can find Greek coffee at Opa! on Sixth, where the coffee is served in a traditional long-handled briki (pictured above). Click “more” for recipes and details about the Greek Festival, and to read more about Opa’s Greek coffee.

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