St. Haralambos Greek Food Fest, Niles 7/17-7/19 2009

This is the original thread from 2007, so the dates mentioned below are different. This year's event starts on Friday 7/17. The other info is correct

Just a reminder, the St. Haralambos Greek Orthodox church in Niles is having its annual Big Greek Food Festival this weekend. I have never been, but according to steveZ, it is the best Greek Fest in the area. From reading the description of the event, I will definitely be going this weekend. The event chairperson says the Fest will "challenge even the heartiest stomachs". How can I pass that up?

There will also be Greek cooking classes offered (and magic shows for the kids).

Journal Online wrote:Eating commences Friday and Saturday evenings and all day Sunday, July 13 to 15 at the St. Haralambos church grounds on Caldwell Avenue near Jarvis Avenue in Niles.
"We feed over 15,000 people in three days -- that's not so easy," said Public Relations Chairwoman Eleni Lanzourakis. "Everything you taste, from the baklava to the souvlaki, is prepared here."
Lanzourakis described a festival of food and festivities to challenge even the heartiest stomachs.
Guests will be welcomed at the gate with a complimentary sip of wine to wet the palette before they try a cornucopia of Greek dishes. Delicacies will include roasted lamb, Athenian chicken, pastitso, mousaka, home made tyropita and spanakopita, thousands of hand-stuffed grape leaves and "the best Loukoumathes in town," she said.

http://www.journal-topics.com/ni/07/ni070627.6.html


St. Haralambos Greek Orthodox Church
7373 N. Caldwell
Niles,IL

Jul. 13: 5 p.m. - midnight
Jul. 14: 3 p.m. - midnight
Jul. 15: 3 p.m. - midnight
Phone: 847-647-8880

Yes. This is the Greek Festival to hit if you're only going to one. I'll only add to d4v3's post to say that when they say roast lamb, they mean lamb cooked on a spit over lump charcoal and sold by the pound.

stevez wrote:Yes. This is the Greek Festival to hit if you're only going to one. I'll only add to d4v3's post to say that when they say roast lamb, they mean lamb cooked on a spit over lump charcoal and sold by the pound.

thats not unique to this Greek fest..St Demtirios Church in Addison cooks lamb on pits to sell by the pound as well at their yearly Greek fest

I went to this Festival with some friends last Sunday. We had an absolute blast. Unlike many festivals, this one doesn't really get going until well into the evening (it runs until midnight). The Church is located in a light industrial area, and all of the nearby businesses allow parking in their lots. As we approached the church, we could smell the charcoal grilling from several blocks away. When we passed through the entrance gate, some attractive young Greek women handed us each an 8 page menu/schedule/map and a thimble cup of wine, a gesture of friendship that set the tone for our entire experience. Although our motley crew was obviously out of place, the hosts and fellow festival goers could not have been more welcoming.

The festival menu was pretty extensive including Grilled Chicken, Pork Souvlaki, Dolmathes, Sausages, Octopus, Moussaka, Pastichio, Spanokopita, Tyropita, Gyros, Saganaki, Calamari, Smelt and of course, the aforementioned Roast Lamb. They also had a coffee and pastry booth that sold 10 different pastries and cookies including the festival "specialty" Loukamathes, which are fried dough balls floating in a pool honey, sort of Greek style Munchkins®. On Friday, they also served Bacalao (codfish) "Plaki" style.

We arrived just before 6 PM, and the crowds were relatively light. The lines for food were still very reasonable.

1 1/2 hours later, it was a very different story, with a steady stream of people entering the festival area, and lines stretching across the entire parking lot.

Our first stop was at the "Taverna" booth where they sold appetizers and chilled bottles of Greek wine for $15. They also had Ouzo and Metaxa available.

Unfortunately, they were sold out of the grilled octopus (a good reason to go early), but the calamari and home-made sausages were very tasty. The sausages had a nice pop, a pleasing coarse grind and a pronounced fennel flavor. They went well with a squeeze of lemon and a glass of chilled Roditis.

The main cooking area consisted of two huge grills, manned by about a dozen cooks. Obviously, real Greek Men love to cook. I don't know how many chickens they go through, but last year they fed 15,000 people. People said this year's attendance was even greater. In fact, they actually ran out of food on Saturday night.

They were going through lump charcoal 3-4 bags at a time.

There was a long metal trough at the back of the cooking area where they flamed up the bags of charcoal. They used big coal shovels to put the hot embers in the grills as required. (Unfortunately I missed that picture)

These guys seemed to be having a great time cooking and joking around.

Here is the result of their work, nicely charred, crispy but succulent moist Athenian Chicken with Rice Pilaf.

Pork Souvlaki on rice. The nicely charred exterior and marinade was very good, but the meat was a little dry for my taste. My friends loved them. The Feta Cheese that accompanied every dish was excellent, as were the olives

The Moussaka was not exactly piping hot, but it was some of the best I have tasted. It had an incredibly light and fluffy egg topping, almost soufflé-like. We made short work of it.

Apparently, they go through many thousands of these homemade Dolmathes prepared by the members of the church. As we left the main food tent, I heard one of the volunteers say they were down to their last tray. The grape leaves were fresh, and the filling had a wonderful firm texture from large grains of al dente rice and a generous portion of spicy ground meat. I could see why they are so popular. The egg-lemon sauce was pleasantly tart but subtle and did not overwhelm the slightly bitter grape-leaves.

I grabbed a Spanokopita as sort of an afterthought. I wish I had bought some more to bring home. Very often Spanokopita have a plastic crust and an interior of mushy spinach and rubbery cheese from sitting around too long. Not these. The shell was light and flaky, and broke into fine delicate layers when eaten. The filling of fresh spinach and cheese was well balanced, with the spinach retaining a slight hint of crunch, and the sharp cheese providing a touch of creaminess. I wish I had opened it up and photographed the filling.

On our way out, we stopped at the roast lamb by-the-pound booth, and picked up $20 worth to take home. They gave us a nice selection of ribs and leg meat. The flavor was phenomenal. I ate it for the next two days.

The fest also featured a Gyros and Saganaki tent, where they sliced Gyros and flambéed cheese to order. Opaa!

What I really liked about this festival was the total lack of commercialism, there were no beer company owned trucks with fold out stages. There were no rock bands playing in front of giant Budweiser banners. The entertainment was supplied by (surprisingly good) small Greek combos and a troupe of Greek dancers. The focus of the event was definitely the food (and drink).

There were no carnival rides, but there were a few obligatory midway games.

There were some balloon twisting clowns and magicians for the kids. And you could get a Greek flag painted on your face. Of course, the children started off the evening's dancing, while their parents stoked up on a little liquid courage.

If you needed a little time out of the sun, there were Greek cooking classes being conducted in the Church's community center. In addition, there was a small area in front of church with tents selling Greek Cd's and DVDs as well as jewelry and byzantine icons.

Although our schedule only permitted us to spend a couple of hours at this event, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The festival reminded me of some of the Armenian church festivals I attended as a child. Events like these are the real Taste of Chicago. Big kudos to congregation of St. Harbalamos for not selling out to commercial interests.

I am sure it got really festive after we left. We passed dozens of people on their way into the festival as we were headed back to our car. I fully intend on going back next year and spending a whole evening there, now that I know the lay of the land. I figure the best strategy is to go early and stake out some space at the long tables close to the asphalt "dance-floor" then send out scouts to secure food and drink.

Props to SteveZ for recommending the Big Greek Food Fest of Niles.

dave

looks like a great fest..will have to check it out next year. The Glenview one is coming up this weekend...

BTW - there is no fennel typically in loukaniko..are you sure you werent tasting the orange peel? again it could be just someone putting a twist on the original

Are you sure about the no fennel thing? Most loukaniko I've had in greektown has had at least a slight anise/fennel flavor, and some more than others. In addition to the orange flavor.

again it could be a twist on it but all the loukaniko ive made and have eaten does not have fennel in it..
i wouldnt be surprised if they maybe toss a bit of ouzo in there(i add some white wine to mine)..if fennel was in there you would be able to see it too I would think..like in italian sausage

You may be right. I didn't detect the crunch of fennel. It did have an orange flavor and maybe a touch of Ouzo. That would make sense. The anise combined with the bitter but fruity orange peel is probably exactly what I tasted. Maybe the cook was spiking them with ouzo. As the sausage stand also doubled as a booze stand, he had a bottle within arm's reach. Whatever, they were very tasty, and surprisingly unsalty.

d4v3 - for every person ive had sample mine that didnt like it (the orange puts some people off for some reason) ive had several that went out of their minds over it...including some old school greeks who thought an American born Greek couldnt make good loukaniko
im definatly going to put this fest on my radar for next year though..
The one is Addison is really good but it would be nice to check out others a bit out of my territory
I really miss the labor Day one at Assumption Church on Jackson and Central..I grew up at that one and its really a former shadow of its old self now IMO
at one time it was the mother of all Greek Fests

You also can get an entire Styrofoam takeout container of fresh-from-the-fryer loukoumades for only $5.

Hi,

I was at a Greek festival in Glenview this weekend. I really wish I had been able to get to the festival reported here earlier. This festival did not offer fresh from the spit roasted lamb, nor dolmathes, nor moussaka. What they offered this weekend was good, it just wasn't as interesting as those reported above.

Regards,

The 2009 St Haralambos Big Greek Food Festival will be held next weekend July 17-19. Food and beverage-wise, this is the best Greek festival I have ever attended. Unlike some other festivals, they seem to keep the commercial sponsorships at a minimum, so despite the large crowds, it still has the feeling and atmosphere of a small time community festival. Go early for the food (they sometimes run out of items), and stay late for the music and dancing (and the wine).

Some food photos from the 2008 festival are here. I concur that this is definitely worth a visit.

Here is a useful article about the fest:

http://www.triblocal.com/Niles/Detail_V ... b_id=81187