Greek Festival coming to town with pastry prizes

TEMECULA – The Greek Festival, a popular family event held annually in Temecula since the early nineties, is happening Saturday, Oct. 15, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 16, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Temecula City Hall area. Admission is $2 per person, with kids under 12 getting in for half price.

The festival site will be set up like a Greek village and will feature live folk music and dancing, booths offering Greek delicacies, and games for children.

A feature of the festival that receives perhaps the most attention each year is the variety of unusual (and delicious) Greek cuisine available that includes pork and chicken souvlakia (better known to some as shish kebab), pastitsio, gyro sandwiches on pita bread, feta cheese fries, Greek salad, dolmathes, spanakopita, tiropita and moussaka and so much more..

The highly popular varieties of sweets include the famous baklava, melomacarona, kourambiethes, kataifi, galactobouriko, and karithopita.

This year, something new has been added. A contest has been created, offering a prize to the person who makes the best guess on how many eggplants have been used to make the moussaka, a yummy Greek favorite. The announcement of the prize winner will be at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The winner receives a variety of pastries.

On Sunday, another contest will offer a prize to the one who guesses how many pounds of feta cheese have been used to make Spanakopita, Tiropita, Feta Fries and Greek Salad. This winner will also get a variety of pastries and winner will be called out at 5 p.m.

The Temecula Old Town City Hall is at 41000 Main St., Temecula. Free parking is available at Old Town Garage. For more information, go to www.temeculagreekfest.com or write to [email protected].