Of Goddesses and Greece

Circe + A Trip to the Cyclades

As promised, I’m back – filled to the brim with joy and lightness from 11 days of blissful travel. I started in London with four solo days of eating, walking and art and boy, did it deliver. I hit all of my favorites for meals (Rochelle Canteen, Lyle’s, Brawn, Towpath, Honey + Co) and saw the most unbelievable art (Judy Chicago at the Serpentine, a show of Elton John’s photographs at the V+A – including an entire *room* of Nan Goldin, Peter Kennard at Whitechapel Gallery, and a mind-blowing show at the Tate Britain called Women Artists in Britain covering unsung female artists from 1500-1900). I also walked too many miles to acknowledge publicly (no blisters!), and my hip injury seemed to magically heal just in time so I could even go for my favorite run in Victoria Park. And the bookshops! I revisited my go-tos (Daunt, London Review Bookshop, Broadway Books) and shipped about ten unreleased-in-the-US books home (more on that soon, obviously). I left feeling incredibly full of culture, energy and lifeforce…and then flew to Greece for a week with my friend Ally. 

To say the second half of the trip was game-changing pretty much sums it up. It was a life-affirming, time-altering vacation that tripped up ideas I had about who I am (I love the sea! And swimming! Who knew?!) and how I like to travel (not just alone, it turns out). We started out in Athens for two days (gritty magic), then ferried to Sifnos (there are no words). I wore a bathing suit for four days straight – we’re talking 8am-midnight, which is required if you’re swimming in the Mediterranean approximately seven times a day. I’ve truly never had more fun, felt more relaxed, eaten better food, been more grateful for a friend who’s fully in tune. I left my computer at home. I didn’t check the news. It was a Peak Life Moment and I feel so lucky I got to experience it. It’s not lost on me that this kind of travel is a major privilege. 

I knew I needed a good book as my third travel companion. Travel reading is its own thing. You have to find the *perfect* book to align with whatever type of trip it is – something engrossing, but not so engrossing you can’t put it down in lieu of a dip; deep, but not dry; light, but not frothy; and, ideally, something that works thematically. Read on for what I read, plus a recipe inspired by the trip.

P.S. Considering changing up the structure of the emails a bit and would love your input. Shorter book recs? More recipes? Travel? Culture recs? (I contain multitudes!) Let me know because this is a labor of love, and I want you all to love it back. 

Read

Circe by Madeline Miller, pub. 2018
Buy: Bookshop.org or your local bookstore

Another day, another book that sat on my shelf for years before it called to me to read it – and what better time to call in the Greek Gods than when you’re actually in Greece? This book is beyond special: Madeline Miller is a treasure, and I will be reading her entire oeuvre over the next stretch. Circe is the retelling of an amalgamation of Greek myths, weighted heavily toward The Odyssey. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I blacked out during high school when learning about Greek mythology. You know who didn’t? Madeline Miller. She studied classics at Brown, then went onto the Yale School of Drama where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms. Circe is the result of those efforts: a reimagining of one of our most notorious myths from a feminist perspective. 

Circe is daughter of the sun god Helios. She’s technically a nymph (but still a Goddess, meaning she’s immortal) and, from the time we meet her, is the family outcast: her siblings and mother are cruel and diminishing; she isn’t considered beautiful or powerful; her soft voice is mocked and compared to that of a mortal. She spends her days alone and lonely, pondering the various powers that be, awash in questioning her presence and state of alienation among her relations. A brush with Prometheus leads her to explore a relationship with a mortal, Glaucos. She falls for him and yearns for his immortality, then spontaneously concocts a potion that grants it. Turns out our heroine is a witch! Glaucos – cocky and enamored with his newfound Godhood – quickly forgets Circe, her friendship and her gift. He falls in love with Scylla, a sycophantic nymph more beautiful and socially acceptable. 

Circe is amazed at her powers, but doesn’t yet understand that it takes time and maturity to properly wield them. Humiliated and heartbroken, she makes a spell that turns Scylla into a monster – and it works. She eventually fesses up to her father, who, with Zeus behind him, banishes her to an island to live out her days completely alone. This is where the story takes hold. The island isn’t desolate or bleak: It’s beautiful, replete with a home filled with endless food and wine (being a Goddess has its perks), hills and valleys and animal life. Circe embraces this new world, befriending wolves and tigers, learning every square inch of her surroundings, gathering herbs and committing to memory their powers. Slowly, she harnesses her skills, growing more and more comfortable in her solitary life. Then visitors come, and still more visitors, and things get interesting. 

The most significant of these guests is Odysseus, who arrives worn and weathered with a crew of young men. Circe takes him as her lover (not her first); they connect deeply, and Odysseus and the crew stay months rather than days. Circe is filled up, rejuvenated, but knows it’s fleeting. Eventually, Odysseus sets sail to return to Ithaca, and then our heroine surprises us with some big news. I’m not going to go further here, but suffice it to say this story is one of female strength, turmoil, fortitude and immense love. Miller turns what you learned (or, in my case, didn’t) in history on its head, gender-bending her way to a feminist retelling and man, is the payoff good.

Eat

The food in Greece can be summed up as ‘cozy peasant Blue Zone chic.’ 14/14 of our meals were stellar, and I felt incredible — energized, capable — physically after eating fish for lunch and dinner for a week straight. My nails grew like claws and I’ve been eating sardines like candy since arriving back in LA. The vegetables, though – those were something to really sing about. The Greeks cook them until they fully surrender — we’re talking utter caramelization and release. We ate boiled zucchini, which I’m now obsessed with and had literally never thought to do before; imam biyaldi, aka eggplant stuffed with caramelized onions and tomatoes and baked for hours; bamies latheres me domata, otherwise known as okra stewed in caramelized onions, garlic, passata and tomato paste. I could go on (and will in future letters!). For now, though, my take on bamies latheres me domata is below. It’s so easy and pays dividends. I’ve been eating it all week in various forms (room temp for lunch; stirred into eggs; with a dollop of sheep’s milk yogurt atop; you get the idea). 

Bamies Latheres Me Domata (aka Greek Okra)
Makes…a lot

1½ pounds okra
½ cup white vinegar
2 yellow onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1½ cups passata (I just blended heirlooms in my food processor)
Lots of evoo

Toss the okra in a large bowl filled with water and ½ cup white vinegar and let sit while you do your dicing and mincing (this is said to reduce the slimy texture; I tried it and it kinda worked!). In a Dutch oven or other large casserole dish over medium heat, pour about ¼ cup evoo. Sauté the onions until translucent, then add the garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add the tomato paste and passata, mix well and sauté for a minute, then drain the okra and add that plus about a cup of water and mix everything together until incorporated. Cover the pot and let it simmer until everything is stewy and delicious, about an hour. Check every once in while to ensure the bottom isn’t burning; add water if it feels dry. You’re looking for the okra to be completely collapsed, and the passata and onions to have caramelized. Add salt and a lashing of evoo and devour.