Fakes

The story

Fakes, pronounced fah-KES, is the lentil soup of Greek home kitchens. Lentils are among the oldest foods found in Greece: archaeologists recovered them from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic layers of Franchthi Cave, roughly 13,000 to 9,500 years old, and the comic playwright Aristophanes called lentil soup the sweetest of delicacies. Today the soup is cooked with brown or green lentils, onion, garlic, bay leaf, olive oil and sometimes a little tomato, and in some regions dried oregano takes the place of bay. Many cooks boil the lentils briefly and pour off that first water before the real cooking begins. At the table Greeks add a splash of red wine vinegar to each bowl, and the usual companions are olives, feta, bread and salted fish such as sardines, anchovies or smoked herring. Lentils from the island of Lefkada, grown on Mount Eglouvi, are prized and expensive because so few are produced. With no meat or dairy, fakes is a Lenten soup, and Greek food writers remember it as a regular Friday meal at home. Brown lentils from any American supermarket work well; set the vinegar cruet on the table rather than adding it to the pot.