Month: July 2004

So it is Greece v. Portugal. For a kid of Scots immigrants, the fact that two smaller nations have made it to the final game of Euro 2004 is good. It gives some hope that another small nation’s team, wallowing in rebuilding since the 1980s, might be there again one day. But how to celebrate the game?

V.

Being Nova Scotian, I had much more contact with Greeks than Portuguese growing up. There were at least two waves of Greek immigration to Nova Scotia which affected my eating habits. As I posted to the replies below, Lunenburg sausage (see reference to it here) is apparently an accurate recollection of the descendants of immigrants by chance who crash landed on the South Shore coast in the 1800s which uses corriander and allspice to flavour the pork. I also grew up in my university days eating at Greek diners like the Spartan at the corner of Oxford and Quinpool, founded by 1950s refugees from a military dictatorship, where 3.99 in 1982 would get you soup, mousakka and rice pudding with four generations of the family having a great time around you. We have some similar diners in Kingston so there may be a brunch there Sunday morning.

For Portugal, I am not so sure what to do other than stock up on the Dão and tawny port. I know that there is a Portuguese dish (in one of the Two Fat Ladies cookbooks I have) called pork and clams with piri-piri sauce. [By the way, I have always wanted to have mahi-mahi with piri-piri sauce on a bed of cous-cous with some kind of cocoa thing for dessert.] But what else can we have for the oldest of allies of the English speaking world?

Oh…and if you are interested in the soccer, here is the Guardian’s take on Greece’s path to the finals.