SiR,_Peo who do not know Greece will get, on read ing
Mr. Simon Hodgson's article 'Attic Attitudes,' a very untrue impression of that lovely country, of its PeoPle. of its officials and of its food.
People who do know Greece will be merely amused at the almost unbelievable inaccuracy of most of Mr. • Iodgson's categorical, and in some cases really regrettable, statements. Fie starts off by informing us that : 'Greek food is unik,t k !isally disgusting.' He therefore clearly can never have been to a good restaurant in Greece of which there are legion. One might just as well state, having thianide,one indifferent 'Frankfurter' at Boulogne Mari- disgu that French food is equally and universally
st;
aot ng. (I choose 'Frankfurter' deliberately so as ,row :0 get out of step with Mr. Hodgson's Belsen —he will understand.) , M , cHodgson then goes on to tell us that Greece is ! expensive e. . . compared with Italy or Spain. aking establishments of the same category, this I an also state is definitely not so. You will eat more "PlY in the average Athens taverna than in its
etlui
j4iniValent in Rome or Barcelona, and you will cer- , Pay considerably more at a really plush hotel
Madrid or establ Milan than you will for an equally plush ishment in Athens.
re hallY Mr. Hodgson informs us that: 'the small suriyek official has no parallel, in my experience, for officious Oriental sluttishness.' NI( 8111411)1W,, as Mr. Hodgson fails to qualify the epithet and as most Greeks are short, are we to rile that he includes all Greek officials in this most regrettable, uncalled-for, and very discourteous statement? I have been, over a score of times, to Greece, and I have always found Greek officials smiling, courteous, and anything but sluttish.
However, should Mr. Hodgson have the courage to return to Greece and boldly announce his identity, he may well find Greek officials surly and officious . . . they may even quite conceivably suggest that he stays away, because rudeness is not considered a virtue by the people in whose alphabet the second letter is veeta. The letter beeta is of course reserved for the Barbarian . , . possibly also for Belsen crows.—Yours faithfully,
MERLIN MINSHALL President, The Gastronomic Travellers Club 416 Kings Road, Chelsea
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