L A Greek Fest

This blog has been neglected, and it has other things besides Greek festivals, but anyhoo...

Food, dancing, entertainment and America's most famous person of Greek descent Tom Hanks!  Special guest star, Thanos Petrelis.

Saint Sophia Cathedral.

http://www.lagreekfest.com  323-737-2424

2012 Camarillo Greek Festival: Photos and extended coverage.

 

Top:  A costumed team sets out on the mud run.

2nd:  Running through the mud.

3rd:  A refrigerator sports festival stickers dating back to 1999.

4th:  Artist's conception of the new St. Demetrios.

5th:  The current church as it stands today.

Bottom:  Dancers start to pack the floor as The Olympians dig in.

All of the above pictures were taken on Saturday, the second day of the festival.  It began with a tie-in event, a mud run.

Of course, there are festival menu items to report.  The chicken dinner was fantastic, as were the gyros.  Even the snow cones were great.

For those of you still wondering, Opa Dude was back for this festival, though his image was only used as part of the social networking efforts.

 

Camarillo Greek Festival

Keftethes:  This meatball dish comes with traditional flatbread and a yogurt dressing with cucumbers.  The meatballs have lots of seasoning.  It's fantastic.

Galaktoboureko:  This tasted ok, but the texture was off.  I suppose you have to eat it right after it's made.  It's made fresh every day, but I had it at the end of the day.  The moisture from the custard had dampened the once flaky layers of dough.

Souvlaki:  This pork dinner is excellent.  It comes with Greek green beans, rice pilaf, pita bread, a dinner roll and a salad.

Saganaki: Flaming sheep cheese!  What a great highlight!  Sheep cheese is one of the great Mediterranean diet items.  It tastes great and has too many health benefits to mention.

The entertainment was great as usual, though I missed the dance troupes.  The Olympians are as hard-driving as ever, playing much longer than their advertised, scheduled sets.  Yesterday, I heard bass lines from "Louie, Louie" and "Smoke on the Water."  Olympians, if you're reading this, follow your impulses and cut loose for a few minutes.

Camarillo Greek Festival: Extended Coverage

The Olympians are back!  You can hear their love of the music.  Some sets are traditional Greek, while others veer towards a rock instrumental vein.  The melodies get carried alternately by the singer, electric guitarist and a traditional instrument that resembles a Portuguese guitar.

The other highlight to the festival is the menu.  Today, I sampled the lamb and pastichio dinners.  The lamb is more substantial, while the pastichio features an over-the-top cream sauce that makes up for the lack of nutrition.

Hello and goodbye to the ICF

The Italian Catholic Federation 340 is folding up and merging with the Fil-Am group and others to form the International Catholic Federation.  There have been no public events that I'm aware of, but their food sales should be extremely interesting.

Watch this space.

2012 Camarillo Greek Festival

Will Opa Dude come back?  How will the baklava be this year?  Come to the Camarillo Greek Festival and find out.

June 22-24, at the Greek Orthodox church by the airport.

Bounce houses galore!

Chaldean Event, La Mesa

I was in the area and heard some melodious singing. I walked over to Harry Griffen Park, and I found this procession. Later on, I heard lots of Middle Eastern pop music, but I was unable to go back and see what the event was.

Photos of the 2011 Philippine Cultural Arts Festival

Putting up photos shouldn't take 6 months, but it's only recently that I looked up how to get them off my camera. It seems that near the end of his life, Steve pulled a Bill Gates and decided to make things incompatible. The once able iPhoto became a wreck, incapable of recognizing even the iPhone. My photos are here courtesy of a PC. Anyway, here are some sights from the festival, including two members of the Samahan Dance Company.

The Year of the Dragon begins.

I went to a religious, semi-private event that took place in Vietnamese, Mandarin and English. It was mentioned that dragons are significant because they fly, and are thus, closer to Heaven than the other animals that show up every year.

There was some Vietnamese music and dancing. The dancing was movements of slow waves that went in stops and starts. This was also a time when expensive silk outfits are worn.

At the end, people got to take an envelope from a money tree. It was a bare tree in a pot, with red envelopes clipped on. It symbolizes prosperity for the coming year. I had originally thought of taking one, but there were so many little kids that I didn't dare.

2012 Events

This post will get longer as the year goes on. It's a catalog of the events that were written about, both ahead of time and after the fact.

January

ICF 340 Sandwich Sale, El Cajon

Tet, Garden Grove

The Golden Dragon Parade, Los Angeles

February

The Pan-African Film Festival

March

Los Angeles County Irish Fair and Festival

San Diego St. Patrick's Day Parade and Festival

May

The Long Beach Holland Festival

June

Camarillo Greek Festival

Write up of the ICF 340 Sandwich Sale

This one caught me by surprised. I was there, and they had the sale. They were out of their tomato and onion sauce, but my meatball sandwich was still fantastic. Unlike other places, you get a lot of meat, and the meatballs stay between the bread.