My inlaws are Greek. Like hundreds and thousands of others, they moved to Montreal in the fifties from Crete. Ultimately this means that as well as adopting their extremely long last name, I get to enjoy Cretan cuisine on a regular basis. Boureki happens to be a firm favourite as well as a special tea, which for my benefit has always been referred to as "Greek mountain tea". It's real name is Malotira and it grows wild in the Cretan mountains near the villages where both my husband's parents grew up.
I have been suffering for the last few weeks with cold after cold and a cough which I can't shake. On a visit this weekend to the inlaws, Yaya gave me mountain tea with honey (from Crete, of course) to ease my cough. It does always seem to do the trick so I googled it to find out that it's very popular and used for many ailments including colds, respiratory problems and digestion to name a few.
Normally I'm strictly a builder's tea kind of person and snub anything remotely herbal or fruity (apart from the odd cup of chamomile) but this stuff is tasty indeed. And, because I could never possibly leave my inlaw's empty handed, I returned home with my very own little stash of mountain tea.
Cheers!
