Greece is worth a trip, even an extensive round trip. Everywhere in the country, which is actually known as a classic destination for a comfortable beach vacation, there are things to discover, cities, landscapes and architectural gems from many, many millennia. What's good about it is that the many discoveries over many hours a day makes the tourist tired - tired, thirsty and hungry. Because that's how the appetite grows to enjoy in the evening what is perhaps the best thing about Greece: Greek cuisine.
After our hike through the Enipeas Gorge (read here) and the climbing of the giants of the Olympus, now follow me on the rest of the path. We ride to the Oracle of Delphi and to Athens. This is the story about the urban art - the unknown side of greece.
A special case
Greek cooking is a very special case, because it is characterized by its geographical position between Europe and the Near East, but also by its location on the Mediterranean Sea. Fish and seafood naturally play a major role in this island- and therefore coastline-rich country.
But at the same time Greece is a very mountainous country with a mountainous content of almost 80 percent, so sheep and goat meat have always been very important on the Greek menu.
Yes, Greeks love their meat; they have by far the highest per capita consumption of meats in the EU. But they don't eat it straight on the grill like the Germans, for example. Instead, thanks to the mountainous landscapes, Greek cuisine makes use of numerous wild herbs and wild vegetables, which have played a major role in Greek cuisine since time immemorial.
This has a long tradition. Already in Ancient Greece you can find elements that still characterize Greek cuisine today: lots of vegetables and fish and, above all, preparation methods in which the basic products are in the foreground and in which particularly opulent preparations or seasonings are rather frowned upon.
A question of mezedes
Olives, wine, pomegranate, fig or quince already determined the menu more than two thousand years ago. Also the mezedes, small, varied dishes, which today are classic accompaniments to ouzo and wine, were already eaten then.
It still tastes good today. Whether you stop in a small village pub or a big-city restaurant, you can eat whatever you want, thanks to the many spices and products from the Balkans, India or the Arab world that play a role in Greek cuisine. With meat there are eggplants, citrus fruits and caviar.
Soaking desserts in copious amounts of sugar syrup - called baklava - is also part of the tradition, the most famous example of which is cooking in vine leaves. The dish is then called dolmades with a vegetarian filling, and under other names it is also found in Turkey, the Balkans and the Arab world.
Here at the edge of the Occident between the western end of Europe and the eastern beginning of the Orient, everything is mixed up. There is British mustard powder, orange marmalade and pudding, Austrian strudels, even Italian cuisine has left traces.
Sweet and minced meat
But interpreted everything is Greek, as well as the many dishes from the Orient, which Greeks today understand as their own: Pita and minced meat, brought in by the Ottomans, are now typical of the cuisine of northeastern Greece. Even from the Arab region, the custom of layering vegetables with meat and cooking it in the oven has come here: You order it as moussaka and you will never be disappointed.
Yet eating in Greece is never about getting full. Mealtime is not an end in itself, it is a pastime, an hour of pleasure and an occasion for socializing, so a meal with Greeks can drag on for hours. Sometimes the restaurant owner sits down at the table, too, because he wants to be praised for his dishes. Typical Greek cuisine favors main dishes that are prepared in the oven and either kept warm there or eaten lukewarm anyway. Bread, usually Greek white bread, is eaten with all dishes. People generally cook with a lot of olive oil and with the general increase in the standard of living in the last decades of the 20th century, meat consumption has increased greatly. The abundance of meat is curious, but one can also order fish without hesitation, which is fresh and plays an important role in the menu.
Greek wine is another chapter of pleasure, often sweet, always tasty, whether red or white. But also with beer. If you think that Greek is a country of heavy vines, you maybe surprised about the fact, that they have a lot of domestic beers. "Mythos" is the famous one, but the story of the Corfu Microbrewery in Arillas in the northwestern corner of Corfu is much more interesting.
Since 2006 they produce a bunch of different beers, including the Corfu Special, a fresh red beer with velvet taste and a fruity aroma, Corfu Bitter, a fresh dark beer with bitter taste and rich aroma and the Ionian Pilsner, a blond pilsner, perfect for on the beach.
All kinds of beer are unpasteurised and unfiltered and hence must be consumed within two months of production, but if you taste the products of the brewery who was founded by Spyros Kaloudis in 2006 you will never have a problem with this. Try the Ionian Pilsner on the beach, it is a fresh aromatic beer with a soft character and pleasant bitterness. The blond refreshing and enjoyable beer is brewed with German hops and lightly roasted barley. Perfect for summer's night.
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