Valley Greek Festival

ALL I WANT IS MEAT FROM THE CONE!  For years we have heard this at the Festival.  This year, Chris and Bucky made the cone dream a reality for many Gyro enthusiasts in the San Fernando Valley.  We all dedicate one weekend a year to the festival, well kind of two as last year we were out at another church helping, but are all in for the Festival.  For us, it is another great excuse for us to work together, laugh together, fight over how to cut meat and enjoy the growth of a community that most of us grew up in and some of us fell into.  Festival is a great reminder of one of truths that echo through this blog.  It really doesn't matter what you are doing, it matters who you are doing it with.

 I know you look across that line, see Mary, Frankalicious, Peter the machine Karagianis and the beautiful Mark Schultz.  All are related in some way to the Order of the Taco.  The support and love for our late friend, wife and sister Krissy still hangs in the booth as a reminder of the love that we have for each other.  King's flags and jersey's line the booth as we prepare to watch two games in three days in the booth so that we don't miss rooting on our favorite sports team.

I was serious.  With the help of Tony Iokiam getting us power and Bucky/James IT genius and of course sling box, we did not miss a minute of hockey action.  We love our church's community, but we really don't like to miss games.  Any chance that as many of us are together as there were, we have to take advantage.  A great part was the loud cheers and chants from us and the great reception from the Festival patrons as we yelled GO KINGS GO!

Yes, I brought tortillas and made Gyro tacos for the grew before we got going.  We had onions, we had gyro meat, I brought the tortillas, cilantro, lime, hot sauce.  WIN!  We had a little pre-festival taco feast for those of us working the Gyro booth.  The tacos were delicious, the company was better.

Yes, there were many more tacos made, but this is all that was left by the time I got my camera.  We have hungry Tacoteers pining for some tacos.  The grilled onions with the cilantro and lime were pretty much to die for.  Yes, we are generous, yes we share, we even had a guy come by the booth looking for hot sauce.  I may have pulled some sauce out of my bag and shared...

You bet your pita bread that is my brother Paul cutting some more Gyro Meat!  Look at a skilled craftsman on his task.  FYI, it is darn hot in front of those machines.  There were many booths at the festival, but the one that had the hottest chicks.

Melissa, Nikki and Evie.  Three amazing woman working the Greek Market and doing the cooking demonstrations.  It was a favorite spot for me because they were the ones making and serving the Greek Coffee!  It helped keep me awake.

Like I've said over and over, the community is great.  The way everyone binds together for each other, our church and the faith is pretty fantastic.  It is a phenomenal nod to our Greek Culture and I'm lucky to be a small part of it.

This story was more about the people than the tacos.  I'm lucky to be a part of such a great community with great people, friends and Tacoteers.  I really had to think about this blog and the gratuitous good bye photo.  Today it is Mike.  It sums up what a great guy, excellent Nouno and amazing friend he is.  We've been working the festival together since we were little kids.

Lots of great people in the photo, but look at the winning smile from Mike.

Stay Excellent Everyone!