GREEK CUISINE
FESTIVE FOOD
water, or try the chilled liqueur. Thessaloniki’s famous bougatsa (baked
creamy semolina custard–fi lled pastry sprinkled with icing sugar) can
be found around Greece.Festive Food
In Greece, religious rituals and cultural celebrations inevitably involve a
feast and many have their own culinary treats.
The 40-day Lenten fast has spawned nistisima, foods without meat or
dairy (or oil if you go strictly by the book). Lenten sweets includehalva,
both the Macedonian-style version (sold in delis) made from tahini and
the semolina dessert served in some tavernas after a meal.
Red-dyed boiled Easter eggs decorate the tsoureki, a brioche-style
bread fl avoured withmahlepii (mahaleb cherry kernels) and mastic. Sat-
urday night’s post-Resurrection Mass supper includesmayiritsaa (off al
soup), while on Easter Sunday you will see whole lambs cooking on spits
all over the countryside.
A golden-glazed vasilopitaa cake (with a coin inside) is cut at midnight
on New Year’s Eve, giving good fortune to whoever gets the lucky coin.Vegetarian-friendly
Vegetarians may be an oddity in Greece, but they are well catered for.
Vegetables feature prominently in Greek cooking – a legacy of lean times
and the Orthodox faith’s fasting traditions.
Look for popular vegetable dishes, such fasolakia yiahnii (braised
green beans), bamies (okra), briamm (oven-baked vegetable casserole) and
vine-leaf dolmadhes. Of the nutritious wild greens,vlitaa (amaranth) are
the sweetest, but other common varieties include wild radish, dandelion,
stinging nettle and sorrel.Eating with Kids
Greeks lovechildren and tavernas are very family-friendly, where it
seems no one is too fussed if children run amok between the tables and
outside. You might fi nd a children’s menu in some tourist areas, but local
kids mostly eat what their parents eat. Most tavernas will accommodate
menu variations for children. For more information on travelling with
children, see p 57.GREEK WINEWhile the wine god Dionysos was tramping the vintage before the Bronze Age, it’s only
relatively recently that the Greek wine industry began producing world-class wines.
New-generation, internationally trained winemakers are leading Greece’s wine
renaissance, producing fi ne wines from age-old indigenous varietals with unique fl a-
vours. White wines include moschofilero, assyrtiko, athiri, roditis, robola and savatiano.
Greek reds include xynomavro, agiorgitiko and kotsifali. A rosé agiorgitiko is the perfect
summer wine.
Greek wines are produced in relatively small quantities, making many essentially
boutique wines (and priced accordingly). House or barrel wine can vary dramatically in
quality (white wine is often the safer bet), and is ordered by the kilo/carafe. Few places
serve wine by the glass.
Greek dessert wines include excellent muscats from Samos, Limnos and Rhodes,
Santorini’s Vinsanto, Mavrodafne wine (often used in cooking) and Monemvasia’s Malm-
sey sweet wine.
Retsina, the resin-fl avoured wine that became popular in the 1960s, retains a largely
folkloric signifi cance with foreigners. It does go well with strongly fl avoured food (espe-
cially seafood) and you can still fi nd some fi ne homemade retsina, as well as new-age
bottled retsina.Greece’s excep-
tional tangy,
thick-strained
yoghurt, usually
made from
sheep’s milk, is
rich and flavour-
ful and ideal
for a healthy
breakfast,
topped with
aromatic thyme
honey, walnuts
and fruit.