Cassie Cakes Goes to Paniyiri

Finally!

Finally. FINALLY. I went to Paniyiri. And I was so excited. In the fortnight leading up to the Greek festival, I told everyone I was going. As if it was an exclusive thing. The famous celebration of Greek Culture started in 1976 and gets bigger every year. 60,000 people are expected to attend this year. That's a lotta baklava! And a lotta haloumi...and a lotta lotta Greek food! Check this blurb from the Paniyiri website:

This year festival goers are expected to down some 300,000 Honey Puffs, more than 100,000 Souvlakia, almost 12,000 Dolmades, 18,000 coffees, 1,600 kilograms of grilled Haloumi, 10,000 Shiftalies (Greek Cypriot sausage), 1,000 kilograms of calamari and another 1,000 kilograms of baby octopus.

I can only do my bit to help Paniyri reach those goal.

 

Let's get amongst it.

Mr Cakes and I arrived in the early afternoon on the first day of the weekend festival. The weather was gorgeous, a beautiful Autumn day. Clear blue skies, crisp and sunny. Forget about street parking, there wasn't a hint of a free space for blocks around Musgrave Park, at least not by the time we arrived. We found parking for $10 close by though and it was worth the money to hasten the eating of Greek food.

 

I was pretty excited about this shot, the flags flying together..unity...symbolism. Stuff.

As we came over the rise of the west side of Musgrave Park, I was surprised at the size of the crowd. Musgrave Park seemed a lot bigger full of all these people. The air was fragrant with the smoky smell of spit roasts and barbeques. I was so excited, dancing round Mr Cakes as he paid the $10 entry for us both. The stalls formed a large crescent around the large stage with a fairground of rides and games behind the food tents. The choice was too much for me so we started by knocking back a few drinks at the bar overlooking the amphitheatre.

Opa! That's a free wine right there. For liking dry wine. Go me. 

I don't know too much about Greek wine but then again, I don't know too much about any other kind of wine. I ordered a Roditis Savatiano dry white wine and Mr Cakes got a Mythos Greek beer. The bar man was very impressed that I liked the dryness of the Roditis so for that, I got another wine for free! The festival was off to a good start.

Mr Cakes has food handling skillz.

After we took the edge off with the drinks, we got down to business. I was fanging for some calamari! We made our first purchase of calamari and our first serve of haloumi from the Pan-Rhodian Society of Brisbane stall. The calamari was every thing I hoped it would be with lashings of lemon and salt. The haloumi got the same treatment. The haloumi was just amazing, I don't know if it's cos the Greeks are privy to a secret supplier or the way they cook it but it was unlike any I've had at cafes or at home.

Smell-a-internets is needed.

Meaty goodness.

Our next stop was at the Pankoakos Association O'hippocratis stall. We could resist the sweet smell of spit roast lamb no longer. Both Mr Cakes and I wanted to try the Yiros Wrap but I exercised rare restraint and insisted  we got the meat only serve. Mr Cakes showed no restraint and got a spinach and feta filo as well. 

Look at the texture of that lamb.

A filo that wasn't quite in to Paniyiri.

The lamb tasted as good as it looked, which was amazing. The little bits of fat on the lamb were my favourite, so unctuous and delicious. The filo wasn't the best but we soon remedied that...

Everything in this photo was awesome. Oh my god, that chicken.

...at the Cypriot Community of Brisbane stall. Mr Cakes got another filo, stat, along with a serve of sheftalies, which are Cypriot sausages, a juicy serve of barbeque roasted chicken and another serve of haloumi. 

These filos were much more in to the festivities. 

Don't you love Mr Cakes' shirt?

If it is possible, this haloumi was more delicious than the last serve! The sheftalies were tasty and well seasoned with herbs - I think with parsley. The piece of roast chicken thigh was just out of this world. Mr Cakes barely got a look in.

This looked like fun!

I was pretty full by then but you can't keep a good pair of eaters down. We took a break and watched the traditional Greek dancers then we wandered round the games area.

I really wanted to go in here, but Mr Cakes was not in to it.

No thanks.

After the intermission, we were ready to go again. 

Is the singular of diples diple?

Boss moussaka.

We got a serve of moussaka and a diples from the Panayia's Southside Parish stall. A diples is thin, fried pastry drizzled with syrup. It was okay, but I think it would have been better fresh and hot. The moussaka was also okay, the eggplant in the moussaka was really nice but the mince was a little dry and the topping was a touch stodgy.

A well-oiled honey puff machine.

Now it was time for honey puffs. Well, almost. We were pretty full so we had to have a nother drink and a bit of a sit down. But then! It was time for honey puffs. I'd been scoping out every stall for their honey puff prowess. It was to be my first honey puff experience and I needed it to be good.

Life changing.

We decided to go with the Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society of St George Greek Patisserie, not least cos of the awesome name but also because the turn over was high and the place was pumping out honey puffs like ... I don't know, like the Greek Ladies Philoptochos Society of St George Greek Patisserie. Mr Cakes also ordered a Greek coffee which ended up being Nescafe which confused us. But the honey puffs! Oh the honey puffs! Everything I heard of them was true, they were amazing. Hot, sweet, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. I ordered a small plate and I don't think I could have eaten a large plate but oh how I was I'd tried. Honey puffs. More like HEAVEN  puffs. 

Wow. WOW. I don't know how I paused to take this photo.

We couldn't have possibly eaten more but there was so much more that we could have tried. My first Paniyiri was so much fun, next year I'm going to get there earlier to really give us time to digest more and eat more. OPA!