Food

Food is one of the most celebrated attributes of Greece. Traditions and customs are, and have always been, heavily based around eating and drinking, but with the food being so delicious you really can’t expect otherwise!

One of the reasons that the food here is so rich in taste is the seasonality of recipes; Dishes are prepared in conjunction with whichever fruits and vegetables are in season. Villages also often have specialty dishes for which they are famous, which differ from place-to-place according to the specific ingredients produced in the region. Regardless of the season, however, tavernas will always have the basic table mezes such as tzatziki, choriatiki (Greek salad) and so on, available. What changes, are the main dishes. Because of this, locals generally don't even look at the menus and, instead, ask for what the cook has prepared that day. Although you might be able to order a normal Greek salad in winter, tomatoes are not in season, so a preferred winter salad might be the marouli, or lettuce, salad consisting of lettuce, parsley, spring onions and dill.

I had an interesting experience the other day when I went to a taverna in my area. It is famous for its incredible quality of food, but what’s most interesting about it is that you don’t actually order anything yourself! The waiters count how many people are sitting at your table and bring out a variety of dishes they’ve cooked that day, according to the number of guests. It was brilliant, and so delicious!

Another wonderful quality about eating in Greece is that most of the time restaurants will offer you a treat at the end of the meal. A common offering is a dessert consisting of yoghurt, honey and caramelised fruits. The caramelised fruits are known as Glyko tou koutaliou, meaning sweet of the spoon (because it’s so sugary you can’t have anymore than a spoonful!). Years ago Glyko tou koutaliou was a way that women demonstrated their capabilities in the kitchen. The more extravagant and creative was their sweet, the better cooks they were. Some villages have been so inventive with their desserts that there exists things such as caramelised zucchinis and olives, if you can believe!

Alternatively, restaurants might offer a digistif, an alcoholic drink served after food. A well-known drink to serve is Masticha, a liqueur taken from the mastic tree. The word mastic actually derives from the Greek word to chew, as it was the mastic tree years ago that provided the resin from which chewing gum was made!

For a bit of fun I’ve included below a recipe for tzatziki, as it’s a very easy and I know so many people outside Greece who love it! You can see what caramelized grapes with yoghurt look like on the last photo :)

Recipe - Tzatziki:

2 pots of Total yoghurt (or a big pot of any Greek yoghurt)
2 garlic cloves
1 cucumber
1 juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper

Put the yoghurt into a bowl. Crush the garlic cloves and squeeze the lemon juice into the yoghurt. Slice your cucumber so you can remove the seeds in the middle, and then grate the cucumber into the yoghurt. Mix everything together well, add salt and pepper to taste, et voilà!