Tassia's Mousaka

Every time maman goes away Tassia panics I'm going to starve so she bustles round cooking up a storm and stocking the larder - pushing the bottles towards the back with loud clunkings and meaningful looks at baggy-eyed massa. The darling.

Tassia is abbrev for Anastasia and she had her name day last Dekembrios 22 for which I had some sweetmeats ready as in years past. This always cracks her up because it's the namee who's meant to stock on goodies and ply all visitors.

I gobbled it down to the pumping sounds of Junior Parker:

"Going down to Gouvia, get my hambone boiled
Going down Gouvia way, git my hambone boiled:
Those Dasia darlings, they let my hambone spoil."

Just kidding.. Them's the words I put in when I sing it in the locale.

Yo! Listen up, folks - it's not mOUsaka, accent on the Mou, it's mousaKA, accent on the last vowel. I never hear it pernounced kerekt by the visitors. Nor is it spelled avec 2 sigmas.

(Boy I'm in pedant mode going into the year of the Earth Ox (牛), 26 January 2009 - 14 February 2010.)

Moussaka ([musa'ka]; Greek: μουσακάς, South Slavic: musaka, Macedonian: мусака, from Turkish: musakka, ultimately from Arabic: مسقعة‎ musaqqaʿa "chilled".

A traditional eggplant (aubergine)-based dish in the Balkans and the Middle East, but most closely associated with Greece and Turkey.

The Greek version, which is the best-known outside the region, traditionally consists of layers of ground (minced) lamb or red meat, sliced eggplant and tomato, topped with a white sauce and baked.

Despite its Arabic name, moussaka is usually thought of as a Greek dish in the West.