Food Truck Friday - Athena's

This week's Food Truck adventure took me to Athena's - a Greek food truck that seems to have won the SLU lottery. You see, South Lake Union is going through some growing pains right now. Up until a few weeks ago, there were tons of parking lots, and many of them rented portions of their parking to food trucks. It was a veritable food truck heaven. But all those property owners are now attempting to cash in on the growth in the area, turning their lots into underground parking with buildings on top. I've been forced out of two parking lots now, and we lost two of the best food truck 'pods'. That means a big reduction in food truck options. Hopefully, I'll still be able to find new places to try out so I can keep this series going!



But enough about my first-world problem of not enough food truck options...





My first trip to the truck was way back in October, and I took an old friend's advice and went for the Souvlaki. I'd never had it, but it's apparently her go to item. I went for the Chicken Souvlaki Gyro. The meat was a little over-done (chewy), but the sauce helped that a lot.







I followed that visit up (8 months later) by giving the 'Greek Philly' a try. It's described as "Thin shaved beef, green peppers, grilled onions, Provalone melted to perfection, Wrapped in a warm pita.". The pita and beef were definitely there, and a little bit of cheese, but almost no peppers.




If they end up being one of the few trucks around, I may find myself there again to try some other menu items (the lamb has my attention), but I wasn't blown away by either of my selections so far.






(sorry for the delay on this post - I lost my phone the day I was supposed to write it, then got very busy)

Lamb Sliders w/ Turnip 'Fries' & Greek Yogurt Sauce

Baked Falafel Salad

Tonight we made up some falafel (from a mix), baked them for 10 minutes in the oven (on silicone mats) at 375 degrees, and had them with some warmed pita slices, a mixture of chopped olives, diced tomatoes and crumbled goat cheese, and a sauce of Greek yogurt and chopped cucumber.

Spaghetti & Mizithra, with Salad Mix

Greek Pizza

I got home a little early today and made up some homemade pizza dough, then after Dan got home and it had a chance to rise, we topped it with spinach, onion, garlic, feta and mozzarella cheeses, capers and kalamata olives, and some grape tomatoes from our garden.

I should've oiled the pan a bit, because even with corn meal under the crust it ended up sticking. I also should've baked the crust for a few minutes prior to putting on the spinach mixture, to help crisp it up. Next time. Next time.

Salmon with Greek Pasta

At the farmers market on Saturday, we decided to buy a whole pink salmon from Loki Fish Co. that was caught right here in the Puget Sound, for the bargain price of $10. I figured I could learn how to break it down, like I did when we bought whole chicken. How hard could it be?



Turns out, harder than I thought. I used Martha Stewart's Cooking School as my guide, but the instructions indicated that you had to work a little differently with round fish that have soft bones, like salmon - and all the pictures were of round fish with hard bones. So I only had text to work from, which is not the best method for me to learn. I'm a visual learner. My success with this project attests to that.



As you can see, I butchered the fish, and not in a good way. But it still resulted in big chunks of fish that I can cook, so no worries. That $10 fish is going to produce a lot of meals.



The first of those was our Salmon with Greek pasta tonight. We cooked up some radiatorre pasta, and tossed it with capers, kalamata olives, feta, mizithra, garlic & red peppers cooked down a bit, plus some yellow Summer squash from our garden.



I seasoned the salmon simply with salt and pepper, and cooked it in a pan with a little olive oil, and topped a bit of the pasta with the salmon. For leftovers, we broke up the remaining salmon into the pasta.

Costas Opa & Circus Contraption

About a month or two ago, Leah (my monthly lunch buddy), proposed that we get together outside of work and go to a show. She'd heard Circus Contraption was excellent - and doing their final performance ever this Spring - and we decided to make it a date. The show was tonight, in a huge factory space attached to Theo Chocolates in Fremont - so beforehand we grabbed dinner together at Costas Opa - a restaurant I hadn't been to since I was a kid.

I had the Athenian Platter ($13.50) so that I could try lots of things on the menu. It included a cup of Avgolemono soup (that delicious egg, lemon & rice soup), as well as one beef souvlaki, 2 dolmades, 2 keftedes (Greek meatballs), spanakopita, rice, and vegetables.



Both Dan & Leah went with the Chicken Souvlaki Platter ($11.50), with two skewers, rice, and vegetables.



And since we still had a bit of time before the show - we indulged in dessert. Leah & I went for the Chocolate Mousse Cake ($5.50), while Dan had the Tiramisu ($5.50).



Everything was really flavorful and the service was great. During the very short wait in the lobby before Leah arrived (Dan & I were a little early), we had 2 folks check in and make sure we'd been helped. And our waitress was friendly and kind - even relating a story about her husband accidentally hitting their son in the eye with a piece of lamb souvlaki once, after I had a mishap with my souvlaki trying to get it off the skewer.



And after dinner, we walked over and took our seats for the show. It's hard to describe, but I would recommend Circus Contraption to everyone. Their current, final show - The Show to End All Shows - is running through the end of May on Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 7pm. It's 21 and over, and they have a full bar. It's a 1 ring circus, with a full band, and oscillates between comedy and drama - sometimes so quickly it makes your head spin and leaves you with your mouth agape. And it's participatory in a good way - nothing forced or uncomfortable - just singing and screaming along with the rest of the diverse, enthusiastic audience. And it runs the gamut from the innocence of a poodle act, the horrors of the geek, to the decadence of an strip club... well, almost.

As they describe it themselves...

"The SHOW to End All SHOWS imagines a family-owned circus with all of the glamour and glitz of the 70’s and 80’s. The time, however, is now, or even slightly in the future, and the glamour shows signs of decay. A sense of imminent destruction looms as things begin to go awry under the tent. The Ringmaster, (a Jim Jones-style patriarch), insists upon the willful denial of their world’s demise by not only his progeny, but also the audience. This joyful romp to oblivion will draw inspiration from the circuses of excess in those decades of decadence, and feature “traditional” circus acts such as trained pink poodles and aerial mermaids, all re-imagined by their human counterparts in Circus Contraption and scored by the incredible Circus Contraption Band. Their latest twisted take on Americana also tells the story of the show that must go on, despite all evidence that the show, maybe even the world, will be extinguished before the closing act."

So if your looking for something a little different to do on a Weekend night - go check it out. It's well worth the ticket price and the cost of a babysitter. And be sure to pull out a crisp $1 bill by the middle of the second act.