This weekend, the 200 families of the St. Elias Eastern Orthodox congregation invite you to join them in a celebration of Mediterranean culture: the food and drinks, the music, and the folk dancing. George Oldziey, chairman of the annual St. Elias Mediterranean Festival, says they expect to welcome between three and four thousand guests to the big party in the tented parking lot just east of the church this Friday and Saturday evening. That’s a far cry from the first Lebanese dinner prepared by women of the fledgling congregation in the fall of 1932, served to the public in a loaned building at the corner of Sixth and Congress. In those dark days of the Great Depression, St. Elias was still the dream of a group of Lebanese families named Haage, Attal, and Balagia. They envisioned a pan-Orthodox church to service the spiritual needs of their growing community. During the next few years, the group raised money to purchase land and build a functional church hall on East 11th, down the hill from the Texas Capitol complex. The hall was soon followed by a beautiful sanctuary in 1937. The women’s Lebanese Food Festival became an annual tradition and a very reliable fundraiser that helped fulfill the congregation’s dreams.
As the St. Elias congregation grew and became more ethnically diverse, so did the menu at the festival. What had once been a predominantly Lebanese meal blossomed into a full-fledged Mediterranean feast, with heirloom recipes passed down from Lebanese, Greek, Palestinian, Armenian, Russian, Arabic, Ethiopian, and Eritrean families. “There are wonderful different cooking aromas coming from the kitchen every weekend before the festival,” says third-generation member and choir director Bill Attal. Indeed, different cooking teams gather on Saturdays for weeks before the event, preparing menu items that can be made ahead of time and frozen, to be finished off just before serving time. Festival cooks compiled the treasured recipes into the St. Elias Ladies Guild Cookbook in 1996, but it’s now out of print. However, we’re told the women will begin work on a new version of the collection around Christmas and expect to publish the updated book in 2005.
The ladies of St. Elias encourage you to take a mouthwatering culinary tour of the dynamic cuisines of the Mediterranean as a preview for their new book. Stroll from booth to booth, sampling malfoof, the ever-popular lamb-stuffed cabbage leaves, or kibbie, Arabic meatballs made with cracked wheat, sautéed onions, and pine nuts. There will be shish kebobs (Arabic) and sovlakia (Greek), as well as plenty of gyros wrapped in nan bread with tomatoes and cucumbers, plus fresh pitas filled with falafel and tangy tahini sauce. Feast on hearty hummus, tabooleh, and spanakopita, then satisfy your sweet tooth with slices of crisp baklava, melt-in-you-mouth buttery kourbiedes, or cannoli. If you’re unfamiliar with Eritrean food, the festival offers a unique opportunity for culinary discovery. Be sure to load up a sheet of enjera (flat bread made with teef flour) with servings of either of the two beef stews, zigini and alicha, or hearty vegetarian dishes made with carrots and green beans, spiced lentils with roasted onions, and spinach or collards. The menu will be complemented with Lebanese and Greek wines as well as a selection of American beers. If you’re concerned about your waistline, don’t be. We hear the dancing at the festival is also irresistible.
The live music and dancing that are crucial elements of today’s festival were added in the early Seventies, Attal recalls. For the past 25 years, he has taught Lebanese and Greek folk-dancing classes in the church hall on the three Sunday evenings prior to the festival. This gives newcomers and youngsters a way to learn the traditional steps, and veterans get the chance to brush up on their skills. In addition to the folk dancing there will be belly dancing performances to delight the crowd. The live music this year will be provided by the Fadi Sultan band from Dallas, with interludes of pre-recorded Greek tunes. Even if you missed the lessons, don’t resist the urge to dance. “Once the music starts,” Attal knowingly smiles, “it’s just impossible to keep still.” Opa! 
Mediterranean Festival
St. Elias Eastern Orthodox Church (408 E. 11th)
Oct. 8 and 9, 6pm to 12mid
$5 per person includes food, drinks, live music, dancing, and children’s activities
Ample parking in state lots within walking distance of the church
This article appears in October 8 • 2004.