Greece Food and Wine is famous for its good quality products and the amazing taste of its food and wines.
Some dishes are the same everywhere in Greece and the Greek Islands, whereas some others are local culinary specialties or same dishes cooked in different manners (in islands, Crete, Thessaloniki, etc).
Here is a basic list of some of the most famous food of Greece:
Mezedes
The mezedes (one meze) are appetizers, served before or with the main dishes, usually accompanied with ouzo or tsipouro. They come in small plates and are one of the basic
elements of the Mediterranean culture of sharing food and wine
with friends, in a joyful and unhurried environment.
Horiatiki Salata: Also know as "Greek salad", the horiatiki is a mix of fresh tomatoes, olives, cucumber, onions, green pepper, feta cheese, olive oil and oregano.
Tzatziki: Greek yogurt with finely chopped cucumber, garlic and olive oil. Ideal to eat with fresh Greek bread, fried potatoes or fried meatballs.
Melitzanosalata: An eggplant puree with finely chopped garlic and olive oil. It is succulent with fresh bread.
Taramosalata: Crushed fish's eggs.
Saganaki: Fried cheese. Different sorts of cheese can be found in saganaki. Excellent with a zest of lemon.
Keftedakia: Fried meatballs: beef, garlic and bread. Excellent with a lot of lemon on.
Spanakopitakia: Little spinach pies with crushed feta cheese.
Tiropitakia: Little cheese pies, usually made of feta or kasseri.
Horta: Boiled wild greens with olive oil, salt and lemon.
Briam: Mix of roast potatoes, eggplants, onions, garlic, tomato sauce and olive oil.
Dolmadakia: Grape leaves filled with rice and onions and sometimes minced beef.
Kalamarakia: Small pieces of fried squid with lemon juice.
Xtapodi: Small pieces of octopus served either fried with lemon juice or boiled, with olive oil, vinegar and oregano.
Feta cheese: The famous Greek cheese can also be eaten alone, as a meze, with olive oil and oregano.
MAIN DISHES
Greeks have a lot of excellent main dishes containing, almost always, meat.
Moussaka: This famous Greek dish has a base made of potatoes topped with eggplants onions, minced beef and bechamel.
Pastitsio: This is another well-known Greek dish reminding of the Italian Lasagnas. It consists of a base made of a kind of noodles topped with minced beef, onions, tomato sauce and bechamel.
Paidakia: Grilled lamb's ribs served with lemon.
Kokoretsi: This is one of the favorite dishes of Greeks; they mostly eat it during Easter. It consists of wrapped and roasted entrails of lamb, served with a lot of lemon.
SOUPS
Greek soups are succulent and Greeks favorite dish during winter.
Kotossoupa: Chicken soup usually with avgolemono (sauce made with eggs and lemon).
Psarossoupa: Fish soup with parsley, potatoes and carrots.
Fassolada: White bean soup with parsley and, sometimes, tomato sauce.
Fakies: Lentil soup with tomato sauce.
Mayiritsa: Easter soup made of the inside of lamb, dill and the avgolemono sauce (egg and lemon).
Patsa: Tripe soup, considered by Greeks as a very good remedy to hangovers.
Kafeneion
The kafeneion or café is the place to drink coffee. It is traditionally a place men gather to play cards or tavli (backgammon), read newspapers and chat with their friends about local politics and you will often see them sitting with their komboloi (worry beads) and a cup of Greek coffee which can last for hours. Greek coffee is very black and strong, served in very small cups and the Greeks tend to drink it very sweet. There are three different ways of ordering Greek coffee - sketo (without sugar), metrio (with a medium amount of sugar) and glyko (very sweet).
Another national favourite drink is ouzo. which is the Greek aperitif distilled from grape skins, tasting of aniseed which is also known as tsipouro or raki. It is drunk either neat, or with water or ice when it turns a milky colour and is usually taken with a meze. This could be a slice of cheese, tomato or cucumber and a couple of olives. Greeks rarely drink alcohol without at least a little food to do with it.
The Greek white retsina wine is famous although home-made varieties can be red or rose. In the days before bottling, the Greeks kept their wine in goat skins and poured pitch-pine or resin on top to preserve it which is where they acquired the taste for resinated wine.
Wines of Kefalonia
The famous Robolla wine is native to Kefalonia and recent archaeological excavations have shown that grape cultivation was known in Greece as far back as Neolithic times, and that early Greek colonisation throughout the Mediterranean laid the foundations for subsequent developments in viticulture. Through the ages, the various conquerors of Kefalonia learned to appreciate Robola and they imposed exorbitant taxes on its export.
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