There are two clubs in Pera — the Little Club, the title of which is I believe the Cercle de Constanti- nople, and the Cercle de l’Orient in the Grande Rue. The Cercle de l’Orient is the club of Cercle the Ambassadors and the Great Ones of de l’Orient the Land. It is hospitable to properly introduced strangers ; its chef is a most accomplished artist ; and it has all the dignity of an old-established cosmopolitan club. It is closed during the hot months when all its members are either on leave or at Therapia. The Little Club keeps open all the year round. In the hot weather it rolls up its carpets and takes the doors off their hinges ; in winter it becomes The Little snug and comfortable. The officials of Club all the consulates, and the diplomatists and the merchants, are members of the club, and at lunch- 364 T^he Gourmet' s Guide to Europe time there is a British table, and a French, and a German, round which cluster the various nationalities. It is a very comfortable and merry and hospitable club, and as it is almost next door to the big hotel of the city, its hospitality is much appreciated by the clubbable men of all lands. AFTER DINNER There is generally a French company playing in the theatre of the big pavilion which stands back some way from the Grande Rue, just above the Pera Palace Hotel. Such native entertainments as there are it is wise not to visit without a guide in attendance, who will explain the nature of the performances, and very probably save the inquiring stranger from many dull half-hours spent in very hot and crowded little rooms. XVIII GREECE Grecian Dishes — Athenian Restaurants. No one lives better than a well-to-do Greek outside his own country, and when he is in Greece his cook manages to do a great deal with comparatively slight material. A Greek cook can make a skewered pigeon quite palatable, and the number of ways he has of cooking quails, from the simple method of roasting them cased in bay leaves to all kinds of mysterious bakings after they have been soused in oil, are in- numerable. There are pillaus or pilafis without number in the Greek cuisine, chiefly of lamb, and it is safe to take for granted that anything a la Grec is likely to be something savoury, with a good deal of oil, a suspicion of onion, a flavour of parsley, and a good deal of rice with it. These, however, are some of the most distinctive dishes : — Coucouretxi , the entrails and liver of lamb, roasted on a spit ; Dolmades , meat balls wrapped in vine or white cabbage leaves, and served with a cream sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice ; Tomates Termistes , which are tomatoes stuffed with forcemeat ; Touvarlakia , balls of rice and chopped meat covered with tomato sauce ; and Bligouri , wheat coarsely ground, cooked in broth, and eaten with grated cheese. Argokalamara , a paste of flour* and yolk of egg fried in butter with honey poured over it, and Chalva and Loukoumia , 365 366 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe are some of the sweets of the cuisine. All Grecian cookery is done over a charcoal fire. A too great use of oil is the besetting sin of the indifferent Greek cook. The egg-plant is the great “ stand-by” of the Grecian kitchen ; it is stuffed in a dozen different ways.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

There are two clubs in Pera — the Little Club, the title of which is I believe the Cercle de Constantinople, and the Cercle de l’Orient in the Grande Rue. The Cercle de l’Orient is the club of Cercle the Ambassadors and the Great Ones of de l’Orient the Land. It is hospitable to properly introduced strangers ; its chef is a most accomplished artist ; and it has all the dignity of an old-established cosmopolitan club. It is closed during the hot months when all its members are either on leave or at Therapia. The Little Club keeps open all the year round. In the hot weather it rolls up its carpets and takes the doors off their hinges ; in winter it becomes The Little snug and comfortable. The officials of Club all the consulates, and the diplomatists and the merchants, are members of the club, and at lunch- 364 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe time there is a British table, and a French, and a German, round which cluster the various nationalities. It is a very comfortable and merry and hospitable club, and as it is almost next door to the big hotel of the city, its hospitality is much appreciated by the clubbable men of all lands. There is generally a French company playing in the theatre of the big pavilion which stands back some way from the Grande Rue, just above the Pera Palace Hotel. Such native entertainments as there are it is wise not to visit without a guide in attendance, who will explain the nature of the performances, and very probably save the inquiring stranger from many dull half-hours spent in very hot and crowded little rooms. XVIII GREECE Grecian Dishes — Athenian Restaurants. No one lives better than a well-to-do Greek outside his own country, and when he is in Greece his cook manages to do a great deal with comparatively slight material. A Greek cook can make a skewered pigeon quite palatable, and the number of ways he has of cooking quails, from the simple method of roasting them cased in bay leaves to all kinds of mysterious bakings after they have been soused in oil, are innumerable. There are pillaus or pilafis without number in the Greek cuisine, chiefly of lamb, and it is safe to take for granted that anything a la Grec is likely to be something savoury, with a good deal of oil, a suspicion of onion, a flavour of parsley, and a good deal of rice with it. These, however, are some of the most distinctive dishes : — Coucouretxi , the entrails and liver of lamb, roasted on a spit ; Dolmades , meat balls wrapped in vine or white cabbage leaves, and served with a cream sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice ; Tomates Termistes , which are tomatoes stuffed with forcemeat ; Touvarlakia , balls of rice and chopped meat covered with tomato sauce ; and Bligouri , wheat coarsely ground, cooked in broth, and eaten with grated cheese. Argokalamara , a paste of flour* and yolk of egg fried in butter with honey poured over it, and Chalva and Loukoumia , 366 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe are some of the sweets of the cuisine. All Grecian cookery is done over a charcoal fire. A too great use of oil is the besetting sin of the indifferent Greek cook. The egg-plant is the great “ stand-by” of the Grecian kitchen ; it is stuffed in a dozen different ways.

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