The patsadzidika of the East in the Thessaloniki of the West

“But Thessaloniki is an erotic city, what erotic can a tripe have?”

Words: Lena Kalaitzi – Oflidis

Do you like tripe?

The question, as a joke, somehow plays on the famous phrase “Do you like Brahms?”, title of a book by Françoise Sagan.

And if with that poetic question a great, albeit incongruous, love began, in the case of tripe the question is relentless:

“But Thessaloniki is an erotic city, what erotic can a tripe have?”

However, the romantic character of our city is not betrayed by its pubs, because where there is passion and devotion, there is also love.

And tripe is a proof, perhaps most concrete and tangible of all, of her love affair with the East.

After all, many diner customers are attached to their culinary preference with the devotion of a lover.

So much so, that they consider a hot plate of “soup” at five in the morning to be a real love mystery.

* * *

Listen to what I have to say, you Levantine suitors. We have here goats’ bellies put on the fire, which we filled with blood and vinegar for dinner.

Odyssey, rap. p. f. 43-45.

The above verses of the Odyssey are a very ancient literary reference to tripe, a version of the black broth, while several centuries later we find in the Byzantine Ptochoprodromus’ “Learn my letters” more specific descriptions of the chorcoiligin that the Byzantine day laborers ate for breakfast.

Tripe met the eating habits of the East (Persians, Arabs, Ottomans, oriental nomads) and returned to Greece as a professional activity with the refugees of the 22nd, who had successfully worked in tripe shops, mainly in Istanbul, as master chefs tripe.

The first patsatzidikas were called acropreparations as a more elegant and socially decent version of the word patsatzidiko, which is not particularly elegiac.

And as tripe became popular not only among the lower classes but also among the middle and upper classes
he too was renamed soup.

The patzagidiko is a kitchen. Simple and modest in its appearance because it should be. If the other eateries try to “catch up” with granite counters, lacquered chairs and collared tablecloths, patzazidiko keeps the tradition as a popular-cheap shop and its clientele with these two as its main characteristics. If it is adorned with extravagant ornaments, it will lose its character and frighten the customer.

The traditional grocery store has simple tables and chairs, in the past made of wood, today usually made of Bakelite which
it is easy to clean and does not require layering. In the center of the table, the bottle with the vinegar and the jar with the grated, hot bukovo are unique decorations. In the back of the shop, the cauldron is steaming. Usually in view of the customer or behind a glass partition. The cauldron is the most basic equipment and a patzajidiko without a cauldron is not considered genuine.

Pot tripe is for mixed so-called shops that just serve “and” tripe.

Next to the cauldron is the wooden bench of the master-cutter, from where the non-stop and rhythmic beat of the teziahtar chopping the tripe musically accompanies the beat of the spoon on the plate and the lips on the spoon.

On the walls are old photographs of Thessaloniki, the Kamara, the Castles, the White Tower or paintings by some miracle worker. Photos of the owner’s preferred football teams and advertising calendars.

The capricious smell of tripe is everywhere.

Cloudy boiler fumes escaping from vent funnel.

No particular color.

The “atmosphere” that sets you up is not necessary in the pub, because it is not and has never been, except in a few rare cases, a hangout but only a passage. And so it will remain.

The tripe shop is undoubtedly a place for fast but not junk food, since the preparation of tripe takes a lot of effort and time. Art, passion and knowledge.

Tripe never made it to the West, except in some odd variations. Our city is his last kingdom to the west. Because tripe is not only a food of great nutritional value and a tasty treat.

It is a culture, a way of life and a way of thinking. And if it thrived so much in Thessaloniki, it is because this city has never stopped being caressed by the rhythms of the East, even if it looks to the West with its eyes.

*”Patzazidikas of the East in Thessaloniki of the West” by Lena Kalaitzi-Oflidis – Epikentro Publications