She described a place. I found it.

The cover of the cookbook Καλή Όρεξη: Treasured Greek Recipes

My Yiayia Theone edited a Greek community cookbook and growing up, it was always used in our kitchen and our cousin’s kitchens.

What I didn't realize – until this year – was that it was published in 1966, the year I was born. And I had not yet read the full preface that she wrote.

She wrote about the islands she had visited and the food she ate there. The Lemonothasos — lemon forest — in Galata. The almond cakes of Mykonos. The sardines of Lesvos. The Froutalia of Andros. Plomari the birthplace of her Yiayia Dafne.

Thirty years later, in the summer of 1997, I went to those same places. I ate those same foods. And only afterward did I go back and read the full preface – connecting it to the places I had visited. She had described it all in her own beautiful words. Long before I ever arrived.

The cookbook was published the year I was born. She died when I was seven. I never really got to know her.

But somehow, she left me a map.

Called to Greece — currently seeking a publisher. More to come.