Greek Festival at St. Mark's Church in Boca Raton This Weekend, January 20-23, 2011

Flickr, Blondie5000

Delicious Greek Pastries

​St. Mark Greek Orthodox Church is hosting its 29th Greek Festival this weekend in Boca Raton. From Thursday - Sunday, you can gorge yourself on authentic Greek food and enjoy traditional Greek dance performances.

 If you're curious about Greek Orthodoxy (think the end wedding scene of Sideways), you can also take part in one of the church tours available in conjunction with the festival.

St. Mark's volunteers have been working for weeks to make homemade treats and prepare for this weekend's festival. Pat Anthony, co-chairman of the festival, gave me this rundown of the food.

There's: gyros, souvlaki (think shish kebab-esque), sagnaki (fried cheese), loukaniko (Greek sausage flavored with orange peel and cinnamon), and whole dinners served with Greek salad, bread, and orzo. These include ? roasted chickens, lamb shank, moussaka (eggplant casserole), pastitso (Greek lasagna), fish with spinach, keftedes (meatballs), spanakopita (spinach pie), and tiropita (cheese pie).

You're more of a sweet tooth? Well then, you can try some authentic Greek cookies like koulouria (breaded butter cookies) and finikia (honey cookies flavored with cinnamon) as well as pastries like loukumades (honey puffs).

There's also a baklava sundae booth that serves baklava crumbled over your ice cream sundae. "I try everything every hour, " Anthony says. Sounds like a great game plan!

Information: More details at www.saintmarkboca.net/festival/ - A $2.00 discount coupon is available on the site.

Where: St. Mark's Greek Orthodox Church, 2100 N.E. 51st. St. (Yamato Road), Boca Raton.

When: Jan. 20-23; Thursday, 4-9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sunday, noon-9 p.m.

Tickets: $5, adults; children under 12 free. Food is sold separately.