My Big Fat Greek…meals – enjoying the food and drinks of Greece

Lamb Kebap

Hubby loves Greek food. In and out of food courts, he will almost always gravitate towards the Greek joints. Needless to say, we had countless souvlakia through our entire stay in Greece. Thankfully, we did manage to get to try other dishes.  Here are some of my recommendations:

Souvlakia (plural of souvlaki) – provided us with the most affordable meals. Under Eur10 for the two of us!

Pork Souvlaki

In Athens – Savvas (near Monastiraki Square):  pork gyros souvlaki was very tasty. They also had great baklava

In Santorini – Lucky’s (in Fira, just around the corner from the bus station)

2.Baklava – our dessert practically every dinner. This is what will make us big and fat, for sure! But maybe, the Mediterranean diet we had would nullify the calories?

Kataifi and Baklava

In Athens – we tried the ones in Beneth but we liked the ones they had in Savvas. Not all baklavas are created equal.

In Mykonos -- Koutsothanasis Bakery near Ano Mera had yummy baklavas. Great service as well!

Bougatsa – phyllo dough with custard or other savoury filling.

Bougatsa

 In Athens – the custard bougatsa at Bougatsadiko Thessaloniki (corner of Iroon square in Psyri district) was much more enjoyable than the cheese/spinach one. Try to catch them making the dough inside!

4.Moussaka – like eggplant lasagna :P I especially enjoyed the moussaka at Maiandros Restaurant near the Monastiraki station

Moussaka

5.Giouvetsi - Greek beef stew with orzo.  Loved this hearty dish with tender beef, orzo pasta, and a rich tomato sauce which we tried in Oinomageireio Epirus inside the Varvakeios market.

Giouvetsi

Drinks: As you may have read from my other posts, hubby does not drink very much. I also don’t have a high tolerance for alcohol, but I do enjoy a glass (or two) of wine. We had a few drinks in Greece and here are some you may want to try:

1.       Greek coffee/Ibrik – we got some Ibrik coffee from Mokka where they put the ibrik in hot sand before serving. It is a medium strength coffee. Wait for the coffee ground to settle after you pour before drinking.

Ibrik

2.       Ouzo – thankfully, George, our walking tour guide, implored us to not drink this straight. This clear spirit turns milky when you add water. It is an anise-flavoured apertif. I don’t care much for anise but the water really does make it taste better.

Ouzo

3.       Raki –is actually (supposedly) the national drink of Turkey. Similar to Ouzo, it turns milky white when mixed with water. This went well with meze during one of our meals!

Raki with meze

4.       Metaxa – I managed just to get a taste of this and this is by far my favourite among the spirits! Perfect for after-dinner and taken neat, this Greek brandy has nice sweet notes which I like.

5.       Assyrtico – The most popular indigenous white variety from Santorini. It is mostly dry but goes perfectly with Parmigiano-Reggiano (which our sommelier recommended).

Assyrtico and Vinsanto

6.       Vinsanto – there is much debate on the Italian Vin Santo (from Tuscany) and Vinsanto Greek (short for “wine of Santo (rini)”) which I will not get into. Hubby and I both liked the Vinsanto (we are partial to dessert wine!) paired with Kariki cheese which ages in hollowed out gourds. YUM.