[Food Police] Kalispera!

By Marjolein van der Veldt & Connie van Uffelen

Kalispera! This time the Food Police throw plates in The Fellowship and swop butter milk for ouzo.
Music tip: Forever and Ever – Demis Roussos (just ask your parents)

Restaurant: Maria’s Home Made
Day: Thursday, 21 February 2019
Time: 12:45
Meal: Stifado (beef with rice, feta and bread), Gemista (mixed vegetables with rice, feta and bread)

Temperature
Stifado: 10
The plate’s temperature almost burns a hole in our hands. We measure 60 degrees and then confirm this high temperature with the blisters on our tongues.
Gemista: 10
We had the last little bit in the serving dish, but it is burning hot at 61 degrees. You need to blow on it first.

Texture
Stifado: 8.5
Is it because King Willem-Alexander is on campus today or can Maria always cook such delicious food? The meat melts on the tongue, the feta melts over the warm rice and we melt with pleasure.
Gemista: 8.5
The courgette, bell pepper, tomato, aubergine and onion are well done, but still have a bite. Yum! Underneath, the rice swims in the vegetable sauce and generous amount of olive oil. It invites dipping with the bread. There is also a good splash – but not too much – of olive oil with dried herbs on the feta.

The burning hot gemista had to chill for a few minutes.   

Taste
Stifado: 8
The olive oil tastes as though it has just been squeezed from sun ripened olives and the Mediterranean herbs dance the sirtaki on the meat.
Gemista: 9
The delicious herbs, Mediterranean vegetables and fresh feta and we are drifting around Greece. Bring on that ouzo! The melted cheese and herbs on top complete the dish.

Quantity/proportion
Stifado
The absence of vegetables make us think of our first holiday without parents in Chersonissos where, after eight days of drinking and no vitamins, we rolled out of the bus home with scurvy. But this meal is very filling and we can dance the whole night long.
Gemista: 9
This is not lunch, it’s dinner. And then there’s also the bread and feta. Unfortunately we can’t fit in the tempting desserts anymore. We’ll be back!

The stifado was very filling and made us want to dance the whole night long

Price/quality
Stifado 8.5
For EUR 7.71, the charming chef scoops three full spoonfuls of meat on a sizeable layer of rice.
Tip: for EUR 0.50 more, we would have liked a spoonful of vegetables.
Gemista: 9
A large bowl of vegetables with rice, bread and cheese for EUR 6.17? Where else would you get this?

Presentation
Stifado: 7.5
However delicious this dish is, it doesn’t win any beauty prizes. But hey, we are not here for First Dates and look beyond external beauty.
Gemista: 9
Just look at this bowl with its colourful filling. And that feta feast. Need we say more?

We were just in time, because around 1 pm a long line queue formed in front of Maria’s Home Made.

Experience: 8.5
The sun is shining through the large windows while the queue for Maria’s Home Made gets longer and longer. Among much greenery, the spanakopita and Greek yoghurt whizz past us. If the ground floor is full, take the spiral staircase up to the first floor. In the style of Salt Bae, the chef sprinkles salt and pepper over the feta and we frantically try to break the plastic plates on the floor. That’s the tradition, isn’t it?

Overall rating
Stifado 8+
Gemista: 9

Scoreboard:

1. Gemista from Maria’s Home Made (new!)
2. Sausage from Chorizos & CO (8+)
   Stifado from Maria’s Home Made (new!)
   Gadogado from Warung (8+)
3. Burger from Chorizos & CO (8)
   Couscous from the Couscous Bar (8)
   Burrito from ‘t Je van het Loket (8)