By Yianni Metis
Ithaca is named after the Greek island yet unfortunately in the time I have spent here, I have seen little resemblance to any of the things that make Greek islands so great.
The prime subject in this case is the food. Being Greek and living in New York City for 18 years where there is a high standard for Greek food, I think I know a thing or two about what good Greek food is like.
This year, TasteAtlas ranked Greek cuisine as the best cuisine in the world, overtaking Italian. I will die on that hill defending that take, but that is a story for another day. What matters here is Cornell’s take on Greek food is so subpar it might just bring Greece back down to number two.
I hope you haven’t been eating Greek food here thinking that’s what it’s like everywhere else. If you were, here are all the problems with it that should be corrected.
Dining Hall Chicken Souvlaki
Souvlaki is probably the most common Greek street food. When prepared correctly, it can be a superb lunch or a midnight snack that hits the spot perfectly. Cornell serves chicken souvlaki, if it can be called such, as we will explore here.
The dish is served at Okenshields, Toni Morrison and Northstar Dining. While the meal isn’t bad on its own as a simple grilled chicken dish, that is exactly the problem. There is nothing that actually makes it chicken souvlaki besides the fact that it was probably bought from a food distributor that labeled it as such. It’s just grilled chicken breast with olive oil and oregano.
The whole aim of souvlaki is to cook it in smaller pieces on a skewer and marinate it, so that the meat is crispier and holds more flavor. The larger pieces, clearly not grilled on a skewer, fail to achieve this. Okenshields sometimes releases a variation of it mixed with spinach and milk, which is more strange than creative and doesn’t add value to the chicken.
Tzatziki and Other Foods
If souvlaki is being served, a crucial element is obviously tzatziki, preferably of at least a mediocre quality. Normally, of course, it isn’t served with any of the Greek food options, but the one time that I had seen it was, it was called “white sauce with cucumber and dill.” In terms of the dip’s quality, there was no taste of lemon, olive oil, cucumber, or any other essential ingredient. They may as well have named it “warm yogurt” and called it a day.
What is “gyro smashburger?” I’m not sure, but they have it at Okenshields, sometimes more than once a week. It’s just smashed ground beef, and mushrooms. I’ve been Greek for many years, and not once have I seen gyro served with mushrooms. Mushrooms aren’t necessarily bad, I just have absolutely no idea how the word gyro was added to this dish. It’s just a smashburger with mushrooms. I’ve seen them smashing the burgers behind the counter, and the burgers are just normal patties. Confusing to say the least. If Odysseus traveled 20 years back to Ithaca and saw that, I’d like to think he would just turn around and let the sirens seduce him.
The Terrace Restaurant
Another of the most basic and delicious Greek street foods is gyro. Gyro is of course cooked on a vertical spit, so the meat stays hot and fresh, and the slices are flavor dense. In its infinite wisdom, Cornell has failed to do what village people in Greek mountains have done for 100 years.
The Terrace in Statler doesn’t have gyro on their everyday menu. But they do serve it from time to time. On one of these occasions I decided to indulge, and was thoroughly disappointed, as one could predict from the article title.
The gyro was dry, cold and flavorless. The other toppings in the bowl had nothing to do with Greek food, and failed to add any element of quality to the meal. While my expectations for college dining halls may be low, the standard for excellence should be higher for a hotel with such a fancy website.
Other Establishments
With Cornell lacking, the only place to look was outside entities in the Ithaca area. It felt like looking in the fridge and seeing the leftovers your mom has been making you eat for the past week.
There is only one establishment outside of Cornell’s campus that serves Greek food within a 15-mile radius of Ithaca, The Souvlaki House on Eddy Street. I want to start by saying that if you ever see a restaurant that serves Greek and Italian cuisine, or any two cuisines, that isn't fusion, don’t go there. Being Greek, I felt compelled to go to ensure there weren’t any quality options in the area, but you don’t have to. The restaurant is fine as a diner, or a quick place to get a burger or a sandwich during the day. There isn’t much else great to say about the food.
The souvlaki and gyro were completely dry, the tzatziki had the same issues as Cornell Dining’s and the loukaniko (Greek sausage) had little flavor. The only truly quality food was the bifteki. The problem there is that bifteki is just the Greek term for ground beef, and the only aspect that would make it more “Greek” is potentially its mixture of seasonings.
To say the least, a town named after a Greek island could and should do better. This campus could have great prospects in its future if it feeds its students the best of what the cuisine has to offer. In my unbiased opinion, all the funding currently going towards fixing the clock tower should go towards better Greek food, since there’s no progress in the former anyway.
Yianni Metis is a first-year in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. He can be reached at jpm395@cornell.edu.
