Greek food worth the wait
By John Fladd
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If you wanted to throw a world-class Greek food and culture festival, you’d need to start with a ton and a half of lamb shanks, half a dozen giant gale-proof tents, and an army of steely-eyed church ladies.
George Skaperdas is the President of the board of directors at Saint George’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral (650 Hanover St., Manchester, 622-9113, stgeorgenh.org) and the Chairman of Glendi, Manchester’s largest food and culture festival. He is in charge of everything from renting tents and arranging permits to ordering a seriously gigantic amount of fresh lamb. He said that even in Glendi’s 45th year it remains a logistical challenge.
“The planning for this really starts in February,” Skaperdas said, “even though we laugh and say it starts the Monday after Glendi’s over, with getting the permits, making sure we got the insurance, reserving the tents, the porta-potties, all of that. And then starts the real nitty-gritty. What do we have to order for supplies and all that? Some of the cooking starts taking place in the middle of summer so we can freeze it, and then it’s not completely cooked through. The lamb shanks start being cooked Thursday before Glendi and we start braising them at 5:30 in the morning on Friday morning so they’re ready for everybody to go, for everybody to have their lamb shanks.”
The amount of food to prepare for Glendi is staggering.
“We’ve got almost 2,500 pounds of lamb shanks,” Skaperdas said, “almost 1,700 pounds of lamb kabobs. I don’t even know how many pounds of chicken — you know, the half chicken, the marinated chicken that we do? There’s 200 spanakopitas [Greek spinach and feta pastries], thousands of meatballs, stuffed grape leaves, and stuffed peppers. It’s just astounding how much food we go through.” After a moment of thought, he clarified that by 200 spanakopitas, he meant 200 18- by 26-inch sheet pans of spanakopitas.
Glendi has been a fixture of Manchester’s culture since 1980.
“Before that, it was just a little harvest bazaar,” Skaterdas remembered. “It was done for the church, and [we’d] make a few dollars here and there to help with whatever ministries and things that the church needed. Then all of a sudden, it just started growing. So in 1980, the decision was made to have Glendi — Glendi means a good time — and it’s just grown leaps and bounds. The city of Manchester expects us to have Glendi now, and it’s a great time for everybody, just good food and great times. And an awful lot of work.”
In this year’s official program, Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais called Glendi “legendary” and wrote that it is an excellent representation of the city’s Greek population: “The Greek community has a proud, prominent heritage here in Manchester and Glendi is the perfect showcase for Hellenic culture.”
Gov. Sununu was also effusive. “St. George’s is known far and wide for the pride it takes in Greek heritage and the hospitality that the parish shows to all who visit,” he wrote. “Throughout the years, the members of St. George’s have treated my family with incredible kindness, and I thank them for always making us feel so welcome.”
Of course, there are many people who come to Glendi every year for Greek music or dance, or crafts, but essentially there are two main camps of Glendi fans: the pastry enthusiasts, and the lamb buffs.
The most popular pastries, especially with children, are loukoumades: hot, fried dough balls that are soaked in syrup and covered with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Other popular cookies and pastries include kataifi(shredded phyllo dough mixed with walnuts and syrup), koulourakia (sweet butter cookies), finikia (honey-dipped walnut cookies) and at least two varieties of baklava. Skaperdas’ favorite is a dessert called galaktoboureko. “It is layers of phyllo with like a custard in between, just, it’s like heaven on earth, that stuff,” he said dreamily.
In the other camp are Glendi attendees who wait all year for the lamb.
How tender or tough a cut of meat is is determined by how much an animal exercised it before making its last great sacrifice. Tenderloin, for example, is a cut of meat that comes from the center of an animal, and because it has never had to work very hard it is extremely tender. One of the hardest-working muscles in many animals is the shank — the muscles around the shin bone. Lamb shanks are one of the most eagerly awaited dishes at Glendi, but to make them moist and tender, they must be cooked “low and slow” for 12 or more hours. “It takes more than a couple of hours to make sure that they’re nice and soft and tender,” Skaterdas said. The shanks are braised in Pappou’s sauce. “You know, ‘Pappou’ means grandfather in Greek. Every grandfather has his secret recipe for a sauce and all that and the different spices that go into it.” By the time the shanks are served, they are fall-off-the-bone tender.
The lamb kabobs and chicken are grilled over charcoal.
“I don’t know what the exact number is,” Skaterdas said, “but I think that we can have 16 skewers [of lamb] per machine. And there’s two machines, where you stack all the charcoal in the middle and it rotates the skewers around so it’s getting a nice even cook on it. The pit guys just do an amazing job marinating them and having them ready to go. It is pumping out food and the kitchen is pumping out food. Every once in a while we get behind. But we’re very fortunate that people are patient. Sometimes they’re waiting in line up to 45 minutes to get into the food tent to get food. But it’s worth it; the food is worth it.”
Glendi
When: Friday, Sept. 13, and Saturday, Sept. 14, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Food service will end at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Where: Saint George’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Hanover St., Manchester
Additional parking will be available beginning at 5 p.m. Friday at the McDonough School near Derryfield Park, with free shuttle service to the Festival.
Glendi will be held rain or shine.
More: stgeorgenh.org
