101 USES OF A CEMENT MIXER

Henry and I were having our now habitual siesta one afternoon in Skala Loutra, a small fishing harbour in the Gulf of Gera on Lesvos, when we were woken up by a dull and rhythmic thwack, thwack, thwack. We dozed on a bit and then a cement mixer clunked into life, breaking any chance to carry on sleeping. We dragged ourselves upstairs and saw, on the opposite side of the harbour, a man whacking what looked like a wet t-shirt onto the quay with an arcing arm motion.

 After a few minutes, he threw the long, straggly t-shirt to a man sitting next to him and he proceeded to hit it over and over again with a paddle. We ventured round to have a look and watched in fascinated horror while dozens of octopuses were beaten to a soft and palatable pulp. 

We strolled back to the boat, past a yellow cement mixer which was reverberating continuously on the far side of the quay. 

A man was periodically pouring what looked like sand from a bucket and water from the harbour into it. We stopped to have a look – it was strange as the mixer was right on the edge of the harbour and it did not seem to be mixing cement so we were curious. When we got closer, we could see that he was throwing what looked like coarse salt, followed by a bucket of murky harbour water into a churning mass of ………..octopuses. 

From the back of the boat, we watched fascinated for the next hour as, after 10 minutes or so of being tumbled in the cement mixer, the octopuses were loaded into a crate and driven around the harbour to the two on the other side who, only then, began the over-arm whack and paddle smash.  The very friendly fishermen told us that they supply all the tavernas’ and kafenions’ in Lesbos with fresh octopus, a much loved delicacy, the tentacles eaten grilled and slightly charred with ouzo.

Henry's sketch of the taxi with Perama in the distance

Just a few hours earlier, we had enjoyed the most memorable lunch of our trip so far. We had walked the 2km from our simple little harbour through olive groves to an even smaller harbour where a small taxi-ferry took us across the Gulf to the village of Perama on the other side. 

We had read about this industrial agricultural town which, along with the rest of Gera, had helped to make Lesvos prosperous with the production of olive oil in the 1800’s. The shoreline is dotted with the strangely beautiful ruins of these old, disuded factories with their tall, slender chimneys. 

After wandering around the town, we stopped for lunch at what we later found out was one of the most famous and excellent tavernas in the whole of Lesvos - a large island with many great restaurants. 

From the taverna back to Skala Loutra

Two men next to us were drinking ouzo with a giant sea-food platter in-front of them. When we asked for the same, we were told that this was ouzo mere which comes with ouzo - at Euro 8 per person including ouzo. We would have to order the standard sea food platter – at Euro 30.00 excluding drinks, a bit over our budget. So, ouzo it was - for Henry at least. The owner allowed me to have the ouzo meze with a carafe of the house white wine, and so for Euro 16.00 including drinks, we tucked into a pile of the most delectable sea food, all just hours out the sea – succulent sardines, tiny crispy deep fried shrimps, grilled squid tentacles, fried tender calamari rings, mussels, clams and ….. octopus of course. 

At the time we did not feel queasy at the idea of eating these most delicious creatures, grilled to chewy perfection over a hot fire. The meal was sublime, the view breathtaking, the drinks deliciously chilled. We clambered back onto the taxi-ferry, full and happy – and got back to the boat for our siesta – the same one that we were so rudely awakened from earlier!

The cat waited in vain for some left over morsels