{"id":764,"date":"2011-09-04T10:18:09","date_gmt":"2011-09-04T17:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=764"},"modified":"2019-05-30T13:57:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T20:57:54","slug":"food-family-fun-at-the-av-greek-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2011\/09\/04\/food-family-fun-at-the-av-greek-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Food, family &#038; fun at the AV Greek Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_765\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-765\" style=\"width: 644px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theavtimes.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Giant-Lamd.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-765\" title=\"Giant Lamb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theavtimes.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Giant-Lamd-1024x660.jpg\" alt=\"40 lb lamd\" width=\"644\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Giant-Lamd-1024x660.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Giant-Lamd-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Giant-Lamd-171x111.jpg 171w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-765\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 40 lb. lamb rotating on the rotisserie was to be shared with event goers late Saturday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>LANCASTER \u2013 Hundreds of people flocked to the grounds of the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church Saturday for the Annual AV Greek Festival.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis started out about 53 years ago as just a big dinner among friends, then it grew a little bigger, then we got to the point now where it\u2019s a full fledged festival,\u201d said organizer Bob Koukourikos. \u201cThe Festival is built on three things: food, family and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All three building blocks were on full display Saturday.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Food.<\/em><\/strong> Lines of people snaked around the tables, as festival goers waited their turn to taste authentic Greek cuisine, including Greek chicken and lamb chops, Souvlaki (Greek shish kabob), gyros, dolmathes(stuffed Greek crepes) pastichio (Greek version of lasagna) and Athenian fries. There was even a 40 lb. lamb rotating on a rotisserie to be shared with event goers late Saturday, at no charge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Family.<\/em><\/strong> Families and friends gathered around dozens of tables under tents to beat the heat and enjoy the food. \u201cWe love to have a good time with our families and we like to relax with our <em>parea<\/em> \u2013 the Greek, which means dear circle of friends,\u201d said Koukourikos.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Fun.<\/em><\/strong> There were Carnival rides for children, Greek dance lessons to live music, cooking shows featuring Greek cuisine such as baklava and lamb, and even tours of the cathedral-style church.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Festival, which continues from 12 to 9 p.m. Sunday, will take place on Labor Day weekend going forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe used to do this later in September, but we moved it to earlier in September this year,\u201d said Koukourikos. \u201cWe want to make Labor Day weekend Greek Festival Weekend in the Antelope Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LANCASTER \u2013 Hundreds of people flocked to the grounds of the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church Saturday for the Annual AV Greek Festival. \u201cThis started out about 53 years ago as just a big dinner among friends, then it grew a little bigger, then we got to the point now where it\u2019s a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}