By Sean Melrose.
Richmond’s Bahari The Hellenic Palate is one of those rare places that transports their diners to a different time and place. It might be the flavours, like the unique tang tzatziki produces when it hits, contrasted with creamy, smoky eggplant that set off the daydreams of the type of blue waters that only seem to exist around the Greek Islands.
What it could also be though, is the manner of service, which doesn’t revolve around the same menu day in and out, but changes like the breeze, bringing in something new to try every time. That’s the way it’s done in the traditional restaurants of the Mediterranean, places where an old man with a twinkle in his eye and a substantial pot belly will tell guests not to worry about a menu, to just sit down and he’ll bring them some food.
It’s from this environment that the below recipe was born, and short of going to the restaurant, or Greece, what better way is there to float away in spirit to somewhere by the sea, with foreign voices in the ear, than to tumble some fresh octopus onto the grill and pair it with a glass of Ouzo on an ample amount of chunky ice cubes.
