Just as I was putting the finishing touches on my post on Food for the Gods last night, a good friend walked into our house bearing gifts from her recent whirlwind trip to Greece. From her bag she carefully extracted a small plastic container wrapped in saran wrap and with the introduction, “you won’t believe 
how much effort and care went into this pasalubong, (in other words, it was a pain in the rear to bring!).†I wondered what it could possibly be. Marketman tends to get a lot of food or food related items as gifts, duh, I wonder why, so I am always grateful and amused when someone, first remembers me, and second, chooses a gift that they think will really please… so when I opened the container I realized she had brought some artisanal Greek honey still in its honeycomb from the mountains of Greece and hand carried to London, Hong Kong and finally, Manila. Outrageous! Talking about Food for the Gods, this was the ultimate Nectar of the Gods…and it comes from the original home of the Gods…
Funny how life deals you these amazing connections, no? Frankly, I don’t know what to do with the honey and I decided to look it up to learn more about this ingredient that is so ancient, so well-thought of and so taken for granted. Some of the best foods in life seem to be regurgitated (that’s vomited, yes) such 
as kopi luwak, those coffee beans eaten by civets, passed through their systems and pooped, dried, collected by hand then roasted to result in some of the most expensive coffee in the world. Or birds nests where the birds use their saliva to build the nests and humans raid their homes and steal the nests for our soup. Well, honey is similar in a way…bees collect nectar mostly from flowers and store it in their special nectar chambers, fly back to their hives and upchuck it. Then it is concentrated further by additional ingestion and upchucking then by flapping their wings to reduce the moisture content. That’s oversimplifying it a lot, but you get the gist of it. In addition, the bees create a natural wax to build the honeycombs that the honey is stored in…seen in these photos… the beeswax can then be used for spectacular candles that burn dripless… At any rate, this honey tastes spectacular…but I’m not sure how to separate the honey from the beeswax, got any ideas? Also, besides using it in my granola recipe, does anyone have a brilliant use for this spectacular Greek honey?? Anyone got a good baklava recipe???
15 Responses
Drizzle over yoghurt and walnuts. Yum.
i once bought honey still in it’s honeycomb, and I was told that the wax is edible….i didn’t buy again coz i can’t get over the feel of the wax in my mouth….
I’ve never seen one. I guess I would just break it up into small pieces and suck on it like candy.
Just a thought…
Do you have a hand-cranked pasta maker? Maybe you could use it as a “honey press”.
whoah, pure stuff! i’d never had it like this but i’d prolly eat it with the comb and spit it out when the sweetness runs out! like sugar cane. lol.
you got great friends, MM, going all the way to bring you pasalubongs like this from the other side of the world. :)
I think I have seen a docu where the honey was removed from the combs by spinning it in a drum so I guess plunking it into a salad spinner would do the trick.
maybe you can put it in a sieve and let it drip…
You could contact Ilog ni Maria to ask about recipes and how to extract the honey.
try eating a piece of honeycomb? i have good memories of eating a piece when i was a kid (after a portion of our porch ceiling was turned into a hive by some bees -and a relative extracted the honey)
Greek honey! Not if only you had some Greek yogurt to go with it that would be the perfect way that I would use it :) My favorite breakfast when I was in Greece. I am on a quest to get Greek yogurt here…
I like fried neurons “honey-press” idea… :)
I once had a chunk of honey with the comb put inside a baked apple, chilled, then served as a side in a cheese course. Beats membrillo anyday.
I’ve seen it pressed before. that should be the best bet.
I agree with Joey though. Thick Greek yoghurt with honey. incredibly delicious way to start the day.
Joey – if you can’t find Greek yoghurt, put some regular yoghurt into a coffee filter-lined colander and let the water drain off. It won’t be the same thing, of course, but pwede na rin.
do call contact me at my cell 9207856967 or call landline in manila 3665027 for instruction of extracting the beeswax…naomi
Enjoy honey while we can. Bees are dying all over the world so that there is now an ecological crisis due to their importance in the food chain. Honey prices have soared in the past couple of years. Scientists are trying to isolate the cause,which is suspected to be a virus.
For those of you who haven’t tried it, Australian leatherwood honey from Tasmania is an experience, and supplies are dwindling.