Comfort Foods

When I was a little girl, the best treat my mother had to offer was not candy, cookies or cake. It was a special treat that some Greeks may be familiar with, the beaten, sugared egg yolk or "ktipito avgo". She would separate the egg yolk from the egg white by cracking the egg shell in half and shifting the yolk from shell to shell letting the white separate from the yolk. She would then drop the yolk in a cup and add sugar. Then the tedious process of beating the yolk and sugar with a spoon would begin. If she was tired or in a hurry, the finished product would have a grainy texture because the sugar was not completely incorporated into the egg yolk. However, when she had time and energy, the treat would be satiny and glossy, the sugar having been beaten into submission by her vigorous beating of the mixture against the side of the cup by the spoon. This was the sweet that I longed for. Shiny and smooth with not a hint of a sugar grain. For a really special treat, she sometimes added cocoa powder to the mixture, which gave this treat an extra special kick. Vivian and I remember this treat from our childhood, but Vivian also remembers a different experience involving eggs. She grew up in Greece during the Great Famine which took place during wartime and post WW II. She remembers our mother chasing her and giving her a precious raw egg to drink, which Vivian didn't like, while all the while telling her that her aunt's children were being deprived of the precious egg that Vivian didn't want to swallow. I, being the child born in America, had the benefit of having my egg yolk with sugar, which was in very short supply in wartime Chios. Vivian has told me that they used carob as a sweetener during that time. Yiayia also used to make this treat for her grandchildren, Stella, Mark and Angela. Stella still has memories of her Yiayia making her special "ktipito avgo me chocolata".
Another special treat that both our mother and father would make for us, especially when we had sore throats, was a drink of hot milk, butter and honey. They would heat up a glass of milk in a small sauce pan until it simmered and then pour it into a glass. They would then add a pat of butter and two to three spoons of honey. They would stir this all up and let us sip it slowly. It always soothed our sore throats and it became a sick time tradition. My children still ask for honeyed, buttered heated milk when they have sore throats.
Our father didn't have a sweet tooth, but he had one favorite dessert. He loved honey and nuts, particularly filberts (hazelnuts) and honey. He would shell the filberts, add them to a cup and drizzle the nuts with honey. If he didn't have filberts, he would substitute walnuts which are actually more common in Greece, but he preferred filberts. I remember sitting with him and him letting me use the nutcracker, while he cracked the nuts with his hands. We usually had a jar of Greek honey from Mount Hymettos which was considered the best Greek honey avaiable here in the United States. We purchased it at the Greek specialty store, Margaritis on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. After cleaning the nuts and drizzling them with the honey, we would proceed to eating them. Daddy would also sometimes have a shot of Metaxas, a Greek brandy,with his honey and nuts. Truly a dessert fit for the gods.
PKK