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Jennifer Palazzolo makes homemade baklava at the event, which featured a variety of authentic Greek cuisine.
Photo by Erin Sanchez
TROY — Guests enjoyed a wealth of food and activities celebrating Greek culture during the recent Opa Fest at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church the weekend of June 12-14.
Troy’s Opa Fest started in 1993, and since then has allowed attendees to experience Greek culture and history through food and spirits, church tours, a marketplace, folk dancing, live entertainment by Enigma Detroit, a children’s play area, an Iron Chef contest and cooking demos.
“Of course, it has the cultural aspect of the Greek food and the music and the dances, and the kids doing the costumes that are traditional,” said the Rev. John Souza, an interim priest at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. “So, there’s that which is a lot of fun, but there’s also a sense of coming together as a community, having meals together, having drinks together, families, kids. It’s been wonderful.”
The bake sale at Opa Fest is one of the festival’s most popular features. Volunteers bake a bunch of different pastries in the months prior to the event or bring their own dishes to sell.
Some of the sweet treats this year included baklava, brownies, galaktoboureko, karithopita, kataifi, koulourakia, kourabiethes, melomakarona, pantespani, spanakopita, thiples and tiropita, among others.
“Some of the baked goods are done here at the church,” said Demetra Manolias, a volunteer at the bake sale booth. “Like the spinach pie is done here, and the cheese pie, the galaktoboureko … and the rest of them are all donated. I made two karithopitas, and those Easter braided cookies, too — like 60 of them. We canvassed people early on to help us bake, and it’s always a success.”
The market is another major draw, featuring even more food items, as well as clothing, jewelry and accessories made by local businesses. Dimitra and Simone Theodorou, from the Bakaliko market next to the Golden Fleece Restaurant in Detroit, sold a wide variety of food and drink items from Greece. This was their first time at Opa Fest as a vendor, although they have attended the event before.
“All of our products are authentic from Greece. We have things that you can’t find in your (typical American store), like Greek coffee, rosewater, cookbooks, Greek soap, olive extracts for shampoo and conditioner, body gel, the Greek pastas that they make the pastitsio with, and the spices,” Dimitra said. “Everything that we have is imported.”
For more information, visit stnicholastroy.org.
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