Greek Dishes

Many Greek dishes need no introduction -tarama, moussaka, gyros, retsina, vine leaves, Greek salads with feta, Greek yoghurt, and baklava have achieved the universality of lasagne and chicken tikka. Even though some of the food maybe familiar, if you have not visited Greece before you decide to may find eating about the islands not the same as what you're accustomed to, with a big focus on informality. Meals start with bread (usually excellent- it's something they do much better than their Italian cousins) and starters (mezedes) to become communally shared: olives, tzatziki (a delicious dip made from cucumbers, yoghurt, essential olive oil and garlic), prawns, tirosalata (feta cheese dip), koponista (pungent smoked or salted fish), roasted sweet peppers, cheese or spinach pies, meatballs, or saganaki (fried cheese sprinkled with lemon). They are followed by a shared salad and potatoes, as well as your own main course. This may be a gorgeously fresh omelette, or a cooker dish or stew (called `Ready dishes', as they're already prepared). Typically choices are moussaka, pastitsio (baked macaroni, layered with ground meat, cheese, cream and topped with bechamel), roast lamb or chicken, makaronia (basically spaghetti bolognese), yemista (stuffed tomatoes or peppers), stifado (spiced beef stew with baby onions), lagostifado (rabbit stew, is comparable, but flavoured with orange), kokinisto (beef cooked with tomatoes along with a hint of cinnamon), lamb or veal youvetsi (baked with tomatoes with tear-drop pasta), chirino me selino (pork with wild celery, in egg lemon sauce), or kreas stin stamna (lamb or beef baked inside a clay dish). Meats grilled to order are categorized as the heading tis oras ('the On Times') - pork chops (brizoles), lamb cutlets (paidakia), souvlaki, minced steak (bifteki), meatballs (keftedes or souzoukakia), sausage (loukaniko), or chicken. Greeks usually do not eat duck.

Seafood is fresh and delicious, but ironically relatively expensive (blame over-fishing, and also the fact that a lot of the catch would go to mainland markets) however, you can usually find cheapies like fresh whitebait (marides), fresh sardines (sardeles), cuttlefish stew (soupia), and squid rings (kalamari). Baked or fried bakaliaros (fresh Mediterranean cod) is definitely a treat. Certain areas serve soups for example delicious fish soup, psarosoupa (with potatoes and carrots) or spicy tomato-based kakavia (made from various fish), meals in themselves with hunks of fresh bread along with a bottle of wine. Prawns (garides) are lightly fried or baked with garlic tomatoes and feta as garides saganaki, a well known dish invented within the 1960s; spaghetti with lobster (astakomakaronada) is yet another delicious dish contained in the Greek menus. Observe that each type of fish features its own price, and portions cost by weight; often you will be asked to choose the one you would like cooked and also the owner puts it about the scale prior to you.

Desserts are not rare after your meal although many places offer complementary watermelon or sliced apples sprinkled with cinnamon or nutmeg too; Greeks make lovely sweets, puddings, cakes, and ice creams.

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