The rabbit hop hello (see the Rabbit Hop Goodbye

SALLY

“I like to speak to the old people – they share with me treasures of their lives …….”

For the second year Henry and I started our sailing in Chios and we stayed in Kiriaki and Dimitri’s magical Spilia once again, where the ruins fringing the old village and the mountain have been sensitively and authentically restored as close as possible to their former simple beauty.  Kiriaki is a font of wisdom and information, much of which is, as she says, learnt from the old people.

“ To make rose petal preserve, you can only use the sweetest small roses….”

 “The factory man says, use copper sulphate to keep figs green; the old woman say’s, use the leaves of the bitter orange. When I asked a chemist, he told me that copper sulphate is in bitter orange leaves – how did the old woman know? And the best is that the smell of the bitter orange goes through to the figs.”

“For bitter orange preserve, only use the peels……”

“To get rid of the damp, musty smell in your boat, burn cloves and cinnamon.” (It worked!)

And when we found that 4 of the vacuum packed bags of biltong had unsealed ..... "place in biltong in a large container and cover iwith olive oil". It also worked!

The lesson she gave us in making Greek coffee made me an instant convert to the thick, black coffee much loved by Greeks and Turks. “It is an art – never boil the water. Watch it constantly and just before it boils when you see the small bubbles, pour from a small height. The more small bubbles on the surface, the more money you are likely to get.” Trying Greek coffee the next day in a Kafeneion, I realized I am not a general Greek coffee lover, just Kiriaki’s.

We were privileged to be invited to Kiriaki and Dimitri’s wonderful house for Sunday lunch. Dimitri is a collector of old things beautiful, intriguing, useful. Seeing how much we had enjoyed the coffee making lesson, Dimitri had set out a small exhibition of antique coffee making paraphernalia. The 12^th Century ancient urn, crafted meticulously and beautifully from copper; the various pourers, each a delight of careful metal craft, the traditional grinder not dissimilar to those we use today.  Dimitri does not speak English, but his passion for every object transcended language and we were able to understand how everything was used.

And then the feast was set out on the rose adorned dining room table. Fresh dolmades made with the newest spring vine leaves, (apologies for not making her speciality – fresh sardines wrapped in vine leaves), tangy tzatziki,  succulent keftedes (small meat balls),  deep fried cucumber balls (who could imagine fried cucumber could be so delicious. And then, the dish that Kiriaki had promised in honour of our “Rabbit Hop hello”, rabbit stifado. Freshly skinned rabbit slow cooked with cinnamon, ouzo, tomatoes, cloves, baby onions all soaked up with a delicious Chiotan pasta. “The best stifada”, connoisseur Henry enthused, “in all of Greece”. I agree - my mouth is watering at the memory.

HENRY:

SALLY

As usual, we were sad to say goodbye to our great friends and to Chios.  After a week spending fascinating time with Kiriaki and Dimitri, getting Pegasus ready for sailing and exploring Chios, we set sail and within two days, crossed the stretch of Aegean between Chios and Lesvos, leaving earlier than expected for a safe anchorage on Lesvos ahead of the predicted violent thunderstorms. 

But one thing is clear for us, we will be back for another Rabbit Hop Hello – and we hope that as many people reading this will come to visit this lush and beautiful island that has been so devastated by the economic crisis and fallout around the refugee situation.