In general, Greek food is delicious, fresh and well prepared. Traditionally, a restaurant (estiatório) does not have entertainment; it is a place for straightforward eating. These often provide magireftá, oven-cooked dishes that you choose by entering the kitchen and indicating what you want. Tavernas, traditionally open only at night and are more social establishments where customers may spend an entire evening drinking and eating; psarotavérnes specialise in fish and seafood. A psistariá has rotary and flat grills for cooking meats and poultry.
Some like it hot
Greek food is served lukewarm and with lots of olive oil, thought of as good for the digestion. For hot food, ask for it zestó; food without oil is horís ládi. However, both these requests will be considered eccentric.
Mezédes and Salads
Mezédes are small plates of food, akin to starters. They can be used in combination to make up whole meals. Common mezédes include: olives; tzatzíki (yoghurt dip flavoured with garlic, cucumber and mint); taramosaláta (fish-roe paste blended with breadcrumbs); melitzanosaláta (aubergine salad); gígandes (broad beans in tomato sauce); and dolmádes (vine leaves stuffed with rice and spices). Kalamarákia tiganitá are pieces of deep-fried squid (this is usually frozen, not fresh); tyropitákia are small pastry parcels filled with cheese; keftédes are small, fried meatballs flavoured with coriander and spices; and saganáki is a slice of cheese coated in flour and fried. The standard Greek salad of tomato, cucumber, pepper, olives and feta cheese (horiátiki saláta) is a fine staple. Maroúli is lettuce, at its best as a finely shredded salad with spring onions and dill. Also popular, are various cold or lukewarm salads of boiled wild greens (hórta).
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Zákynthos beach bar
Main Courses
Common dishes include mousakás (minced meat, aubergine and tomato with béchamel sauce and a cheese topping), brought to Greece by refugees from Asia Minor, and pastítsio (macaroni and minced meat with béchamel sauce). Kléftiko is lamb, slowly baked until it is very tender, and stifádo is braised beef or rabbit with pearl onions. Briám (potatoes, tomatoes and courgettes) and fasolákia laderá (green beans and tomato sauce) are two other popular casserole dishes, while fasoláda (bean soup) is a winter favourite. A treat, if you can find them, are angináres (artichokes); bámies (okra) are also particularly good.
Meats grilled on a small skewer are known as souvláki, while gýros are thin slices of meat cut from a spit and served with salad on pitta bread. Biftéki, fried minced meat mixed with bread and spices, is ubiquitous. Giouvétsi is beef or lamb, pasta and tomato cooked in a pot. Soutzoukákia are rolls of minced meat cooked in tomato sauce. Giouvarlákia are rolls of minced meat covered in egg-and-lemon sauce (avgolémono). For more unusual foods you may encounter kokorétsi (lamb’s offal wrapped in intestines and grilled over a spit), myaló (fried sheep brains), or sheep testicles, known as ‘unmentionables’ (amelétita). Pátsas is tripe, served up in a spicy soup, much vaunted as a hangover cure. If you are in Greece at Easter, try the tasty magirítsa, a soup made from finely chopped lamb’s offal.
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Souvláki, a Greek classic
Desserts are not usually on the menu but often offered on the house with the bill: those you are most likely to encounter include yoghurt with honey, often with walnuts, and two kinds of halvá. Halvá tis rínas is a semolina cake and the compact halvá tou bakáli, the grocer’s halvá, is made of flour, tahini, oil, honey and nuts. Sometimes you will find galaktoboúreko, filo pastry filled with custard and soaked in syrup, and baklavás, made of crushed nuts in filo pastry with syrup. In the summer, particularly late summer, don’t miss the abundant grapes, figs, melon and watermelon.
Local Dishes
There are a number of specialities that come from the two islands, some of which bear testimony to their history of invasion and occupation. On Zákynthos there is a strong tradition of home jam-making (known as marmeláda, from the English marmalade), although you will be lucky to find any outside of private houses. There is much influence from Italy across the Ionians, and this is seen in dishes such as sofríto, lightly fried veal with garlic and vinegar; bourthíto, a peppered fish stew; biánco, white fish stew with garlic; and pastitsáda, a spicy meat, macaroni and cheese dish. Pantséta, found on Zákynthos, is very similar to the Italian cured pork pancetta.
Psarotavérnes
These can be very expensive but will have some fresh fish unless winds have kept the boats in harbour. Fresh fish is sold by weight (before it is cleaned) and you might want to keep an eye on the scales, also look out for fish marked katapsygméno (frozen), sometimes just ‘kat’ or ‘k’. Fish sizes vary from the tiny whitebait (marídes) and smelt (atherína), to the larger dentex (synagrída), swordfish (xifías) or grouper (rofís). In between are the smaller red mullet (barboúni or koutsomoúra) and several breams (tsipoúra, fangrí, sargós and lithríni). Cod (bakaliáros), salted or fresh, as well as galéos, a kind of shark, is common. Grilled octopus (htapódi) and cuttlefish (soupiá) are delicious, and deep fried squid (kalamarákia), usually frozen, is often available. You may also find lobster (astakós), usually boiled, but sometimes cooked with spaghetti.
Kefaloniá has its kreatópita, a pie consisting of meat and rice flavoured with cinnamon and topped with a thick pastry. This is available almost everywhere, while rather more unusual is the octopus pie traditionally eaten during Lent. You may also come across boiled goats’ meat on Kefaloniá.
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Thyme honey from Kefaloniá
An Ionian quirk is aliáda, essentially the same as the garlic purée found elsewhere in Greece (where it is known as skordaliá) but made with potatoes rather than bread. Also look out for delicious, local kolokythákia (courgettes) boiled whole and served with vinegar. Local cheeses are worth trying anywhere, and those made from sheep’s milk are often excellent, though many of the harder ones can be very strong and salty.
Both islands have excellent thyme honey, sold by the wayside in large jars, but this is not the only sweet speciality. Zákynthos produces a very sweet nougat called mandoláto, made from almonds and honey. Amygdalópita (almond pie) is a speciality of Kefaloniá, where you will also find kydonópasto, a quince paste similar to the Spanish membrillo.
What to Drink
In the summer you will need to drink a lot of water, but do try to steer clear of bottled ‘spring’ water, as Greece’s mountain of plastic bottles is growing ever higher. Tap water is perfectly safe on both Zákynthos and Kefaloniá, though it is extremely hard. If you carry your own water bottle, cafés and restaurants you visit will be happy to fill it for you. Better still, find one of the islands’ well-regarded springs, from which locals often take their own drinking water.
Greece has delicious bottled fizzy lemonade (lemonáda), which, unlike some other ‘lemon drinks’, does actually contain lemon juice; the best brands are Loux and IVI (HBH). Another drink worth looking out for is soumáda, a diluted orgeat syrup made from barley and almonds. Beer is widely available, the most likely offerings being Amstel and the more palatable Heineken; however, the local brand, Mythos, produced by the Boutari company, is one of the best.
Greece has been making wine for millennia and, although in the past some of its wines have been particularly esteemed, few are now well known outside the country. Kefaloniá is one of the best wine-producing islands and is particularly noted for whites made from the Robola grape, given an Apellation of Superior Quality. The vines grow well in the dry, stony soils common on the island, and it is possible to visit a number of the best wineries. Other major grape varieties include Muscat, used for a very fine sweet wine, and Mavrodaphne, which produces a strong red. Zákynthos also has a few good wines, and its own cultivar, Zakynthino.
Local barrelled wines can be surprisingly good and are always worth a try. Resinated wine (retsína) can also be good, particularly when served very cold. Oúzo, a grape distillate with added aniseed oil, is drunk as an aperitif with water. Tsípouro is a clear, fiery grape distillate similar to the Italian grappa.
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Wine from the Robola grape
Sylvaine Poitau
Horiátiki, the classic Greek salad