Kantyli's Brush with Celebrity
Kantyli had a recent brush with celebrity with writer and star of the upcoming movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Nia Vardalos. In addition to the movie, which will be released on March 25th, 2016, Vardalos wrote the book entitled Instant Mom, a memoir about adopting a preschooler with only fourteen hours’ notice. The book details all aspects of child rearing and adoption with humor and honesty.
Vardalos has been touring the country promoting her book in Greek churches and came across a special gift from Kantyli. A friend of Kantyli’s owner Panos Fiorentinos saw Vardalos speaking and gave her four of Yiayia’s Grandmother wooden spoons. Because at first the spoons were faced down, a confused Vardalos did not register what they were initially. But when the spoons were turned around Vardalos saw the engraved inscriptions written in Greek of popular phrases and she laughed out loud. One of the phrases is the traditional “I’m going to boil you” or ‘Tha se Vraso,’used by Greek grandmothers to signify a threat to behave. The rest include the short and sweet ‘Tha se fao,’ or “I’m going to eat you, ‘Tha fas ksilo,’ or “You are going to eat wood,” and lastly the non-threatening and benign ‘Kali Oreksi,’ meaning “Good appetite.” Later, a fifth spoon, the new ‘Katse kala,’ meaning “Sit still and be quiet” was added to the collection by owner Panos Fiorentinos along with a letter. Additionally, he sent three ODOS road signs where he personalized and wrote each sign to reveal the last names of Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos and the Portokalis family.
Not only does Kantyli hope that Vardalos enjoys these customized gifts, but that these uniquely engraved gifts and/or signs will possibly appear in the background scenery of the movie. You, too can enjoy such gifts – a personalized, engraved sign with your name on it or the humorous wooden spoons containing popular Greek phrases.
UPDATE
Unfortunately, we have not heard from Ms. Vardalos, I thought she might have reached out to me by now. Since then we have added a couple more phrases to our collection of Yiayia koutalas. We have added, "Beware" and "I'm going to break you" wooden spoons.