Grilled-meat-smoke Thursday

Carnival's not carnival without the carne-
the tables in Modiano market are covered with souvlakia and grilled pancetta. No plates- just greasepaper.

There is a rhythm to the orthodox Christian calendar that goes unnoticed in Manhattan. I sorely miss Jewish holidays and baking, and Chinese New Year (and the baking), and making dinner for the boys who did the heavy work in the kitchen in the take-out falafel place I worked at in graduate school- "Sunset's in ten minutes" they would smile- famished!- during Ramadan. I grew up between Little Italy and the Italian South Village so the seasonal treats of the Catholic calendar were familiar too. Anyway, in New York there was always celebrating, and a little repenting, going on. It lent a tremendous texture to everyday life, but no single discernible rhythm.

Greece is primarily Orthodox Christian and when pretty much all of your neighbors are participating in the same holidays and the stores are stocking foods for those holidays it is easy to get into the community's rhythm- both in public life and at the table. The Thursday that marks the start of Carnival (carne = meat= same holiday) is a mad Dionysean carnivorous frenzy of debauchery- by the time Lent rolls around (Monday of the following week- 10 days later), it feels like a gentle reprieve.

"Τσικνα" is the fragrant smoke of grilling meat; "πεμπτι" is Thursday- "Tsiknopempti" = grilled meat smoke Thursday = Mardi Gras (except "Jeudi" not Mardi). Like any socially organized form of debauchery (bachelor parties, New Year's eve...), it can seem a little forced, and there is a lot of Latin music. But the mood is infectious- grilling starts in the neighborhoods by mid-morning. Barber shops, tire salesmen, pretty much everyone has a grill set up on the street in front of their business, Malamatina bottles on the table and some popular music from the car stereo with the windows rolled down. All the school kids are dressed up like it's Halloween.

By night, it's not just school kids:

The ubiquitous sexy Nun costume meets its
 much less subtle replacement.

It's hard to to make out the
shower head above her 

A handsome couple!-
 but it looks like Morticia is stepping out on Gomez with Lurch?

The grills from the afternoon are still smoking, bamboo skewers litter the busier streets, and now big speakers are set up for makeshift street parties everywhere.

Vasileous Irakleiou- bordering the central market,
 is packed on all the feast days.

Finally, up on the hill in Tsinari, an outdoor table in the cold with riotous festivity just on the other side of a thin pane of glass:

Grilled fat lamb chops always taste better outdoors, and so does red wine:

Eventually, the city winds back down, and stray revelers make their way home through the nighttime marketplace-

- in just enough time to get a little sleep before it all starts up again. Nine more days of this, and it's flying kites and eating tarmosalata and laganes.