Greek Food and Drink

Now we come to the pleasant task of checking out where to go for good food and drink. Greek food is simple and straightforward. It needs to be as, unfortunately, Greece is not renowned for its cuisine. However, the Greeks do eat out a lot, possibly because of the climate, but also because they are such a wonderfully sociable nation. You can choose to eat at many types of establishment.

Taverna

The best strategy is to go where the Greeks go. Eat late, 2 pm to 3 pm for lunch, 9 pm to 11pm for dinner. Tavernas are the traditional eating houses and will serve mostly baked, grilled or roast meat and fish. You will soon get used to the idea that Greeks do not bother about courses as such. All your food is likely to arrive at once, which is fine if you intend to share all the plates together. Hors d'oeuvres (mezedhes) can quite often be the best way of sampling what's on offer.

Look out for specialist tavernas. Psarotavernes will concentrate mainly on fish dishes whilst psistaries offer mostly spit roasted meats such as lamb, liver and goat.

Zuharoplastia

Most Greeks will eat their savoury food at a taverna, then after having a brief walk around to aid digestion, they will settle at a zaharoplastia to partake of some coffee and sweetmeats, such as baklavas (honey and nut pastry), galaktomboureko (custard pie) and kataifi (shredded wheat covered in honey).

Galaktopolio

If your sweet tooth is more inclined towards dairy products then don't miss out on the excellent rizogalo (rice puddings), krema (a custardy semolina), yiaourti (yoghurt) or pagoto (ice cream). These delicacies can be found at a galaktopolio where quite often all produce will be home made.

Watch those calories though! Check out pagoto me meli (ice cream with honey) - the ultimate temptation.

Estiatorio

Here you will normally find on offer a variety of oven baked casseroles. Choosing these dishes is commonly done by going to the kitchen and pointing at the desired trays. In many instances the food is cooked in the morning and then left to stand which is why it is quite often coldish. Greeks don't mind this as some of them believe that hot food is bad for you. Furthermore, certain dishes improve as they are left to marinate in their juices, but you will have to get used to receiving reheated chips, rice, etc.

Kafenio

Traditionally a place where men gather to play cards or backgammon (tavli), these are the street cafes or coffee shops popular for the lunchtime beer and toast/sandwich. You may sometimes find that they will serve you the time honoured (horiaiki) Greek salad - feta cheese, tomato, cucumber and olives in olive oil garnished with herbs. On a hot day the iced coffee (kafes frappe) can be really refreshing, especially with a scoop of ice-cream (pagoto) in it.