Saturday 15 March 2008

Sophia's World Famous Omelette

Sophia Koukoutsakis


Sophia’s World Famous Omelette.

The story goes that sometime back in the 1950’s when Sophia Koukoutsakis, the grandmother of Lucky, was in her kafenion – across the road from the present site of the Alpha Kafenion – two American tourists arrived in the village and called in looking for something to eat. They were noteworthy characters being the first tourists seen in Azogires and being much bigger and healthier than most of the villagers.

Since it appeared that the word “omelette” was the only one that the visitors and Sophia had in common, she prepared them an omelette with three or four eggs and whatever else she had to hand that day.

Her cooking obviously had the desired effect because when the visitors went, they left behind a 100 Drachma tip – three or four day’s wages for work in the fields in those days. Apparently the villagers were still talking about the size of the tip several months later!

By the 1960’s and 1970’s the fame of Azogires had spread and it had become the home of 30 or 40 hippies from all over the world. Many of these young people had little or no money and so every day Sophia would cook a huge omelette of eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, onions, mizritha cheese and herbs to feed those who couldn't otherwise afford to eat. The hippies eventually moved on but they took with them the memory of Sophia’s omelette and when they returned to visit, as many still do, they always seemed to want Sophia’s Omelette.

Today, Harriet Koukoutsakis, Sophia’s daughter in law, is the one responsible for keeping the tradition going and for preparing and cooking “Sophia’s World Famous Omelette” and if you try one you’ll soon see why it’s so famous!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lucky how are u man???im kostas!!!!just found your blog accidentally....nice job!!!keep working that!!!!give kises to my grandpa when you see him!i ll keep in touch!!!cyaaa!