My grandmother was famous among our extended family for her spanakopita. It consisted of Stouffer’s spinach soufflé folded into phyllo dough. You’d think I would be saying “infamous,” but the rest of my family loved that $@*#. I only discovered real spanakopita with feta in it as an adult. Around the same time I realized that feta wasn’t as gross as my mom had made it out to be. (I don’t blame her–she has no sense of smell, so I imagine the stuff just tastes like salty chalk to her.)
When ordering Greek food, I tend to gravitate toward saganaki, dips, and meaty entrees. But every so often, the craving for spanakopita strikes. At those times, Our Mom Eugenia is the answer. I prefer the sleek, newer Mosaic District location to the darker, homier Great Falls original. But never one to just settle in for a single plate of food, I recommend feeding a spinach-pie jones with chef Eugenia Hobson’s vegetarian platter.
For $18, it includes four meat-free delicacies, including a buttery, flaky feta-filled triangle of spanakopita. My favorite of the dishes is the gigantes, appropriately oversized beans stewed in tomato sauce and doused in mint. Tomatoes also play a featured role in the imam baildi, eggplant that’s showered in tomato, onion, parsley, mint, and pine nuts that are covered with soft bruléed feta. The refreshingly tangy beets, or patzaria, are best left until the end. Their bright flavors are topped with a pistachio skordalia and even more of the crumbled nuts.
All of these dishes also appear independently on the vegetarian appetizers section of the menu. There are meatless cheese appetizers, too, like the feta psiti, a brick of fromage coated in sesame seeds and sunk into a pool of honey. As our server said, it’s as good an appetizer as it is a dessert. And finishing my meal with it just seemed right. Because, despite what my mom says, feta should be enjoyed at every opportunity. // 2985 District Ave., Ste. 185, Fairfax
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