“Bread, cheese, and a sweet life.”
The Greek love affair with bread is one of the reasons there are so many delicious, traditional dips in the cuisine. Nothing is quite as comforting (at least to me) as that moment, say, in a favorite Greek restaurant, when the taramosalata arrives accompanied by a basket of warm pita wedges swaddled in a dinner napkin, then the first taste of the two together. It is one of my favorite combinations in the world. The Greeks’ love of bread was tempered by a reverence for it as well; it is sacred in this culture; hence, wasting it is anathema. It isn’t by chance that many of the classic dips are made with a base of dried or stale bread, a custom found throughout the Mediterranean.
Dips are part of the larger landscape of mezedes, small plates meant to be shared in a convivial atmosphere, on the Greek table. Traditionally, some are meant to be served with specific accompaniments: skordalia, the garlicky dip, with fried fish or boiled beets; tzatziki, the Greek yogurt classic with cucumbers and garlic, is often served with crispy fried vegetable rounds or fritters.
Mostly, though, the range of traditional Greek dips is both a celebration of regional distinctions in the cuisine and an opportunity to experiment. In the recipes that follow, the old and the new are whipped up together. Serve them forth with your own pita chips, bread sticks, vegetable chips, or fresh vegetable sticks.