How the flavors of her Greek childhood modified the way in which we take into consideration meals.
Nestled on a nook of Lafayette Avenue in Richmond, Stella’s radiates a golden heat with its tin ceilings, wood accents, and welcoming lighting. Katrina Giavos and her husband Johnny preside over this fashionable spot—together with a small restaurant empire all through the town. However the soul of Stella’s is Katrina’s mom, Stella Dikos.
Generations right here embrace the flavors of her spanakopita, pastichio, and souvlaki, one thing she couldn’t have imagined when she arrived from Trikala, Greece in 1962. “No one knew Greek meals after I got here right here,” she recollects. “There was one French and one Italian restaurant.”
Though she’ll inform anybody she’s not a educated chef, says Katrina, “she has an incredible palate. I’m amazed to look at her cook dinner.” When guests come from out of city, they marvel, ‘‘‘There’s an actual Stella?’ We set our requirements excessive out of respect for her.”
Easy and wholesome, Greek meals highlights recent substances with the recurring flavors of the Mediterranean—lemon, mint, oregano, thyme, and rosemary. Meat sauces in pasta dishes are mellowed with a touch of cloves and cinnamon, an intriguing mixture that’s “extra Center Jap than Italian,” Dikos notes.
Stella’s menu captures these flavors of their purest kind. “It’s the way you eat in Greece,” says Giavos.
Stella Dikos discovered to cook dinner as a baby in Trikala. “The meals at Stella’s now, in some ways, is the meals I grew up with,” she explains. She recollects gathering dandelion greens, wild and candy. And leeks, which she nonetheless makes use of as an alternative of spinach when making spanakopita at house. “Lots of people don’t know in regards to the leeks, however they’re scrumptious,” she says. And though she lived within the mountains, seafood was plentiful. “A practice arrived with recent caught fish every morning,” she recollects. “Maridas, sardelas, squid, octopus—all recent.
She has no reminiscence of her mom, who died in childbirth when she was simply three, and so it was her grandmother and the ladies of her close-knit neighborhood who taught her about meals. “They referred to as me Stellita—little Stella—and took me below their wing,” she says. “I watched how they have been making issues and discovered about cooking, social graces, the whole lot. I used to be very fortunate to develop up there.”
She arrived in Richmond at 18, working together with her husband Stavros at his Village Restaurant, positioned within the coronary heart of the Virginia Commonwealth College campus. The couple opened the primary Stella’s within the early ‘80s, on the second flooring of a Fan District constructing. “Folks stated, you’re loopy, who’s going to stroll up 26 stairs to eat in a hippie neighborhood the place you’ll be able to’t discover parking?” she recollects.
However she had religion. “I’ll always remember one crisp November morning there. I seemed out the window and a strong emotion came to visit me that stated, I’ll do effectively right here. If I make an excellent plate of meals utilizing all of my coronary heart and all of my intelligence, individuals will come.”
They’re nonetheless coming. A Stella’s outpost in Charleston, South Carolina, opened 5 years in the past. And the Lafayette Avenue restaurant simply celebrated ten years. Throughout the road, a boutique shares housewares and presents curated by Katrina and her daughter Maria providing “the remainder of Greece.” And, at six areas throughout Richmond, Stella’s Grocery—small markets stocked with ready meals, bakery gadgets, wine, and different requirements, some with desk seating—are thriving.
When you’re fortunate, you’ll see Stella on the restaurant, the place she nonetheless involves bake often. “I’m at all times within the background,” she says. “It’s what I like. I’m type of shy.”
However when talking of Richmond and the love she’s acquired, she doesn’t hesitate. “While you develop up with no mom and a really strict father, you develop up not having the help and reward that you just see different ladies having from their moms. And when the individuals right here present you that love and reward, you stand again and suppose ‘the place does this come from?’”
“I believe one thing guided me the correct manner, how you can deal with individuals, and in return, individuals handled me very well. I’ll always remember the help of the neighborhood of Richmond.”
Right here, the household shares a couple of recipes so that you can strive in your personal kitchen. Begin with a crisp lima bean and feta salad, dressed merely in olive oil and herbs. Use creamy, cucumber-based tzatziki as a dip for breads or greens. And, benefit from the distinction of savory beans with salty olives in a country noodle dish—all, in fact, alongside an excellent glass of Greek wine. StellasRichmond.com
Recipes
Lima Bean and Feta Salad
- 1/2 small candy onion, finely chopped
- 3 inexperienced onions, chopped small
- 3 stalks celery, plus 3-4 springs middle celery leaf, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 kilos frozen lima beans, thawed
- 8 ounces feta cheese, crumbled softly
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup further virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- Salt
- Pepper
Combine collectively onions and celery. Add limas, and blend in feta. Add lemon and olive oil and stir. Add parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper to style. Serves 6.
Tzatziki
- 1 quart entire Greek yogurt
- 2 massive cucumbers, peeled, seeded, grated, and squeezed to take away water
- 5 cloves garlic, smashed in mortar and pestle
- 2 teaspoons granulated garlic
- 4 sprigs dill, chopped finely
- Juice of two lemons
- 1/4 cup further virgin olive oil
- 1/2-1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Mix yogurt and cucumbers in a big bowl. Add garlic, dill, lemon juice, and olive oil and blend gently. Add salt and pepper, and regulate to style. Serves 6.
Hilopites: Rustic Greek Pasta
- Olive oil
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
- White wine
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- 1 pound Greek egg noodles, cooked
- 2 cups gigantes (Greek large beans)
- 1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts
- Salt
- Pepper
- Mint, chopped
Warmth pan, add olive oil, butter, and garlic. Add white wine till garlic is fragrant. Add tomatoes and noodles and toss till tomatoes begin to blister. Add large beans and olives and proceed to toss. Add feta and blend till creamy. Add pine nuts, salt, and pepper. Take away from warmth and garnish with mint to serve Serves 4-6.
This text initially appeared within the February 2022 challenge.
