{"id":354142,"date":"2024-01-04T12:19:33","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everybodyhatesatourist.net\/?p=354142"},"modified":"2024-01-04T12:19:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T20:19:39","slug":"eating-making-greek-pasta-in-arcadia-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everybodyhatesatourist.net\/eating-making-greek-pasta-in-arcadia-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating & Making Greek Pasta in Arcadia, Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I was a kid growing up in Tempe<\/a>, Arizona, my family frequently went out to dinner at a place called The Spaghetti Company. Given my particularly picky palate, I preferred ordering the plainest pasta possible, spaghetti with butter & grated cheese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this grated cheese wasn’t the usual Parmesan or Romano found at most restaurants. The house special at The Spaghetti Company used a cheese I’d never heard of called Mizithra. Somehow, despite my general reluctance to try new foods, I ate it. I didn’t know what this mysterious cheese with a mythical-sounding name was or where it came from; all I knew was that it was delicious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now know that Mizithra is a soft Greek cheese made from sheep’s and\/or goat’s milk. Its roots are from the island of Crete. The salted & aged Mizithra cheese used for grating over pasta is called Xynomizithra (“sour Mizithra”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although The Spaghetti Company was an Italian restaurant, its roots also ran across the Adriatic to Greece<\/a>. It was a franchise of a restaurant chain you may have heard of called The Old Spaghetti Factory. The original Old Spaghetti Factory<\/a> was founded by the Dussin family in Portland, Oregon, in 1969. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guss Dussin was the child of Greek immigrants. The Arizona locations were operated by the Pulos family, who were relatives of the Dussins. In hindsight, I’d heard their last name but didn’t realize then that it was a Greek surname.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to serving classic Italian dishes, one item on the menu was a beloved family recipe from Guss Dussin’s Greek heritage: this Mizithra & butter pasta that I enjoyed so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I visited Greece, these memories came flooding back as I encountered simple butter & Greek cheese pasta dishes at restaurants from Santorini<\/a> & Naxos<\/a> to the Peloponnese<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Table of Contents<\/p>\n