Mediterranean food cheat sheet
Hummus: a dip made of ground chickpeas, sesame tahini and seasonings
Baba ghanoush: roasted eggplant, with herbs and spices, served with pita bread
Tabbouleh: mixture of bulgur, which is cracked wheat, diced tomatoes, onions, herbs, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil
Falafel: ground and cooked garbanzo beans mixed with spices and then fried
Gyro: thin slices of meat that are cooked on a rotisserie then sliced and served in a pita with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion and typically cucumber dressing
Stuffed grape leaves: pickled grape leaves stuffed with ground beef, rice, tomatoes, onions and spices
Shish kebab: marinated meat put on an skewer and cooked over a grill
Baklava: sheets of phyllo dough baked with butter, nuts and honey
Moussaka: Greek lasagna with eggplant, Parmesan, beef, potatoes and zucchini
Pastitsio: ground beef with macaroni
Spanakopita: spinach pie with spinach and feta cheese baked in phyllo dough
Pawan Amedi, Peter Costopoulos
Study shows health benefits of Mediterranean diet: Diet good for the heart and may even prevent Alzheimer's
Foods like olives, fresh vegetables, nuts, feta cheese, fish and even small amounts of red wine make up the Mediterranean diet.
And because of these heart-healthy foods, many Americans are looking to the Mediterranean coast for smart meal choices.
"We don't necessarily deal with low-fat items. ... Greek ingredients don't hold anything back," said Peter Costopoulos, owner of Lanier Diner on Dawsonville Highway. "Very wholesome natural ingredients — milk, different vegetables and dealing with fresh items."
The typical Mediterranean diet may not hold back on fat, but the fats are "good" fats like omega-3 fatty acids from olive oil and fish.
The Mediterranean Sea reaches the coasts of places like Spain, Italy, Greece, Syria and Egypt. So the choices for Mediterranean cooking cover a variety of countries and flavors. But some of the most important parts of the diet include lots of omega-3s, the use of spices instead of salt in daily cooking and consuming small amounts red meat.
Costopoulos grew up in a Greek family who fed him moussaka, spanakopita and gyros in his youth. Pawan Amedi, owner of Divana Mediterranean Grill in Oakwood, said his diet growing up was from signature Mediterranean flavors like "oregano, basil, extra virgin olive oil, lamb, tomatoes, pita bread, falafel, yogurt and feta."
Both men agreed, though, that the hardest part of Mediterranean cooking is the amount of time spent in preparation.
"It is not really easy, just like cooking anything ... there is different preparation of meat and a lot of fish and soups," Costopoulos said.
Amedi suggested making sauces like tzatziki on the weekend. "Make your (tzatziki) sauce and then marinate it ... and it is ready for cooking after work during the week."
Tzatziki sauce is a cucumber-yogurt sauce used as a dipping sauce for shish kebabs, salad or on gyros. Amedi said the sauce is easy to make at home.
"You can make it with sour cream or yogurt," Amedi said. "We make it with sour cream, it makes it thicker. We put dry mint in it, extra virgin olive oil, salt, a little bit of mayonnaise, lemon juice and cucumbers."
Just don't be intimidated by the unfamiliar food names in Mediterranean cooking and it will be easy to have your family experience the healthy flavors, Divana cook Shilan Amedi said.
"You have to know cooking," said Shilan, Pawan's sister. "When we cook at home we always say it takes so long to prepare and five minutes to eat."
Take stuffed grape leaves for example - the leaves, which are pickled, are rolled out and stuffed with a ground beef, rice, tomato and onion stuffing and then boiled. It takes time, but the results are worth the effort.
"Some people will tell you to line the bottom of the pan with grape leaves but I use lettuce leaves," Shilan said. "Then you line the bottom of the pan ... cover with water or beef broth, even tomato juice."
Then cover the stuffed grape leaves with a plate to keep them from unrolling.
"Boil until most of the liquid is gone," she said. "Do not pull the first grape leaf and taste it as a measure of cooking. The ones on the top are going to be harder than the others, so go to the one underneath and taste them, if they are too hard, add more liquid and let it simmer."