I enjoyed a low-key week relaxing in Rhodes. Walked to a few places, drove around a bit, met some folks, dinner, entertainment. Didn’t do the tourist-must-sees just yet.
On this day, I stayed around the hostel and used the multicooker I purchased in Athens to soften chick peas to make a huge batch hummus to share (the ingredients were also purchased in Athens, so it was easy).
The multicooker makes part 1 of this job as easy as pressing a button — but it’s an all-day affair when (like me) you don’t soak your beans the prior night, because you’ll be steaming them for 6 or more hours.
But that’s not what I want to tell you about: What I want to tell you is that I spoke with Michael (of Michael & Maria, owners of the Rhodes Backpackers’ Hostel) who encouraged me to take lemons from his family’s abundant yield.
Michael shared that the hostel’s known for their excellent hand-pounded mojitos made from fresh, home-grown lemons — but that the bar will not open until May and he’s got more lemons than he knows what to do with. And that’s when I said “hey, we can use them to make limonana.” And he said “limo what?”
So I proceeded to tell Michael about the refreshing Israeli drink that combines a generous portion of mint with lemonade. Admittedly, I didn’t know the history of this beverage. Growing up, I never heard of it. And then one day, there it was. What I learned when I looked it up was well worth the price of admission: It seems that in the 1990’s, an ad agency in Israel was intent on demonstrating the power of print ads on buses. So they plastered ads for “Limonana” (a name they invented: limon is lemon and nana is Arabic for mint; a play on the word limonada which is Hebrew for lemonade) and demand for the beverage that didn’t exist went through the roof. Well, the recipe probably originated in Turkey or Syria, but it was not widely known outside of the region and the bottled stuff in the ads didn’t exist. At least not yet. Limonana took off overnight.
Check out this video (your excited narrator’s storyline is not entirely coherent) where I show you the lemon stock. It’s also a good peek into the hostel. Michael’s stoked about the idea. I went out back and picked lemons. We should prepare our first batch in a couple of days.
Now the day is done and it’s Friday night, so going out to listen to music. Koutouki Ta Mantala‘s a bit out of town (minutes out of town, nothing major) and Israeli reviews say it’s well worth the drive. This quaint taverna has a good reputation among the few locals who say they have heard of it. There were about 12 tables. Unfortunately (for the staff), only 4 were occupied that night. But everyone will tell you it’s hard to fill a place before Easter and the tourist season. So I practically had the place to myself.
