A foodie's delight in Monkland Village. Yassas!
Photo: Chef and owner Fouli at the new Monkland Avenue store Ilion. Do you know that feeling when a store closes down and the space is being refurbished and you hope and pray it might reopen as SOMETHING COOL instead of a real estate company or ANOTHER fast-food place? Well today I got my wish in the form of Ilion, a fabulous gourmet Greek store, on the corner of Monkland and Hampton. (practically the corner of my street). My discovery all started when I got chatting to Vanessa at the picture framing store further up the road. She noticed my name was Greek and we shared stories of our mutual Hellenic heritage. She expressed surprise that I had not discovered Ilion, which opened a month ago, especially as it sells items made from the Greek superfood mastic - only found on my grandfather's island of Chios (he didn't own it - he lived there before emigrating to England as a young man.) George Kostalas, my Greek grandad from Chios. What a delight to step in from the outside tem
