Take the Starbucks challenge! Can you feed 30 refugees for less than price of a coffee?

Modern life is tougher than ever and full of a seemingly endless list of First World Dilemmas; domestic or imported beer, Chinese or Italian, Starbucks mocha double latte with added cream or feeding 30 hungry refugees. So here is the smart guide to having it all, a clear conscience and a decent meal for hungry kids camped out in your local park and all for less than cost of a coffee that has more calories than visible stars in the sky.

For this you will need a few things organised in advanced, other than the ability to give a damn about fellow human beings not mentioned in the gossip columns.

1kg of dried white beans (approximately 1.19e from Lidl)

1kg rice (1.20e) from Lidl)

3 cans of tomatoes (3x0.37e) from... guess where)

1 cartoon of concentrated tomato juice or small tin of tomato paste (0.40e)

4 large onions (0.60e)

8 cloves of garlic 0.20e

1 chilli pepper or a few pinches of chilli powder (0.10e)

1 large zucchini/courgette (0.25e)

loads of green peppers (optional)

1 cup of olive oil (0.40e)

1/2 cup of cooking oil (0.15e)

salt/pepper/oregano/bay leaves/sugar.

Total cost is less than 6 euros. That's not a bad deal on 25-30 portions.

Alas, nothing is ever as simple as it appears in the ads on TV so will need to prepare a few things in advance, so in keeping with that thought you will need to soak the beans overnight (add a tablespoon of baking soda to the water). You could just buy beans in a can but then cost increases even more exponentially than Greece's debt repayments.

Basically, you are making two one pot dishes so will need...... wait for it..... two pots. The one dish is the traditional Greek bean soup known as fasolada, the source material nationwide for endless fart jokes since the time of Plato. The other is a fusion/hybrid/bastardised rice dish designed to provide carbs as cheaply whilst still being edible.

Fasolada recipe

1 Wash the beans well and then add enough water and level tablespoon of salt to cover them, just

    like you would cook rice.

2 Boil till they're kind of soft, which may be between 1-2 hours depending on whether the 

   beans are big or small. (you may need to add more water)

3 In your other pot add 1/2 cup of olive oil (doesn't need to be fancy extra-virgin stuff).

4 Gently fry 3 thickly sliced onions till they are translucent.

5 Add half the chilli pepper/powder and 6 cloves of garlic chopped/crushed/grated/ atomised

6 Cook for few minutes more then add 3 cans of tomato and 1/4 of the tomato paste/concentrated 

   juice, along with a tablespoon of sugar, teaspoon of salt, handful of oregano and 4-6 bay leaves

7 Cook gently for another 10-15 mins.

8 Put aside till beans are cooked or at least not rock hard.

9 If you can put the tomato mix in the blender and give it a whizz, Makes for better presentation and 

   easier to serve.

10 Add the tomato mix to the beans and cook on a medium/low heat for another 20-30 minutes.

11 Add the remaining 1/2 cup of olive oil along with more salt/pepper to taste.

How do I know it's ready? Well, the beans shouldn't break a tooth and the sauce should be fairly thick, but that's a matter of personal preference.

Refugee rice 

I call it that as I had to think of something quickly this morning when I went to the park and saw that my fasolada dish was nowhere near enough to go around.

1 Slice thickly 1/2 onion and whatever softish vegetable (eg. courgette/zucchini, peppers) are 

   cheapest or in your fridge and gently fry them in 1/2 cup of cooking oil.

2 After onions have gone translucent, add the remaining chilli pepper/powder and  2-3 cloves of 

   garlic chopped/crushed/vapourised. Cook for a few minutes.

3 Add 1kg of rice (your choice) and gently fry for a few minutes.

4 Add tablespoon of salt and sugar along with 2 two and a half times much water as rice.

5 Bring to the boil and after turning it down to a milder setting add the remainder of the tomato 

   concentrate/paste.

6 Cover and leave for 10-15 minutes.

Now you have a recipe that can feed approximately 25-30 people and all for less than the cost of a coffee that frankly, tastes crap. 

A Tale of Three Starbucks - Or a day in the life of the Greek economic crisis

On Tuesday I happened to pass by three separate Starbucks here in Thessaloniki and in each case witnessed  scenes that in other times would have been considered unbelievable. In the first case I saw a smart young man come in, case the place and sit down next to somebody's laptop which has been left unattended, I know that this guy was probably up to no good as I regularly saw him do the same thing in another cafe I used to hang out at. Every two, three days he'd, come in, look around and sit down for a few minutes next to any jacket, bag or mobile that seemed to unattended and then leave when he caught me glancing in his direction. I never saw him steal anything but the same suspicious pattern was repeated enough times to leave me with little room for doubt.

This time he saw me looking at him and quickly got up and left.I promptly warned those around me about the incident and made a note to myself to make sure I never leave anything when I use the bathroom. While there has always been petty crime in Greece the amount has risen exponentially over the last few years and is now becoming endemic in some areas. This is no longer a place where you can leave your possessions even for few minutes which is deeply saddening.

Later on while arranging to meet with a friend at another Starbucks near Kamara our conversation was interrupted by a junkie asking for money, when I refused he got nasty and started grabbing at my friend's jacket, only the threat of a phone call to the police seemed to get through to him as he was in such an addled state they I'm not sure he was fully aware of what he was doing. Like crime in general illegal drug use in the centre is on the rise and with the economic crisis hitting hard people are far less likely to give beggars anything making them more insistent in turn as they become more desperate.

Finally, I was covering a protest march by Thessaloniki football fans which turned violent and led to a series of attacks on cafes and other businesses alone the seafront. Amongst those was the White Tower Starbucks which become the target of the fans' fury, however the situation was not helped when some bright spark decided to lock the front doors, leaving customers alone inside. Luckily, a side door remained open and so they found their own way out amidst the chaos inside.

The strangest thing about these riots was the composition and choices of those taking part, in contrast to other such clashes the participants were all ages from kids of no more than ten (who happily covered every surface available in graffiti) to middle aged guys, nor were the targets of their wrath the usual ones such as banks and government buildings but also included a seemingly random assortment of supermarkets, cafes and apartment blocks. The one thing that was sure was that the thousands who took to the street were outraged and their anger once started spiralled out of control, perhaps reflecting deeper frustrations many Greeks feel over how their lives are going. Pummelled by austerity measures and an economy in free fall many people are incensed by what is happening in the country and so looking to lash out.

All of these incidents happened in the space of 12 hours.

Robbed in Starbucks

Just had my bag stolen from Starbucks here in Thessaloniki. Inside was my camera, lens, video camera and a passport. Close to 1000 euros worth of stuff nicked from under my eyes. I was going to visit the farmers' roadblocks and take some more pictures, guess that won't be happening soon.

Neither I nor the people around saw anything strange or untoward. Just disappeared from next to my feet while I was busy doing a translation on laptop.

The worse thing is that I don't know if I'll be able to replace all this stuff. It's certainly not equipment I can afford to buy now, and I'm not sure when I'll have that kind of money. It represents a lot of hardwork and sacrifice which cannot be clawed back easily.

I've just spent the last couple of hours going from police station to consulate to report the loss of the passport but they said that I should check out all the rubbish bins in the area just in case the thief dumped it with the passport inside.

Scenes from a cafe