Traditional Greek Dining
Traditional Greek dining means eating in tavernas or koutokakia. Its perfectly acceptable to ask local passers by
- Please where do the Greeks eat? ~ Parakalo, oi Elleenees, pou tro-ne?
- I don't want a tourist place ~ Den thelo touristiko magazi
- I want authentic food! ~ Thelo authentiko fa-gee-to!
- Is there a koutoukaki near by? ~ Koutoukaki eparhee edo koda?
The Greek Taverna and Koutoukaki dining experience
Having barrel wine is my way of distinguishing a superior good traditional taverna or koutoukaki. A koutoukaki is a smallish tavern, with barrel wine. The noun 'koutouki' also describes a state of alcoholic stupor. The chefs in these later type of restaurant can be surprisingly excellent while providing welcome twists on your standard fare. Given a choice I would go to a koutoukaki every time for a change. There are different types of tavernas that specialize in fish, meat, soup, etc. Most have a bit of everything so this need not concern you.
The KOUTOUKAKI is my personal favorite. The barrel wine is good, if the chef is imaginative the food excellent, the prices more than reasonable. You'll never, in a real taverna, get the feeling that they want you to leave so they can turn over the table for the next customer. Service may be a bit slow but its usually worth the wait.
I close my eyes and think of a Greek Taverna and what comes to mind: A few square wooden tables, with a table covering consisting of a piece of paper with its corners hanging over the flat sides of the table attached buy a huge elastic or little plastic clamps to keep it blowing off in the wind. Uncomfortable wooden chairs with thatched bottoms and wooden corners that hurt your legs. A straw basket filled with too few paper napkins and eating utensils. A zinc salt & pepper holder with toothpicks and extra napkins usually absent. A bottle of Olive Oil and of Vinegar. A dented ashtray made of tin.The green walls are covered with old framed black and white pictures of grandpa and grandma that may have been taken after their passing and assorted pieces of bric-a-brac hanging here and there. Greek music that come from a transistor radio or no name brand boom box usually chipped somehow. Bare light bulbs, flat lighting and wonderful smells emanating form the kitchen area towards the back. Huge barrels of wine above shoulder height all in a row. A steam table case with the food visible. Lots of Greeks sitting there staring at me or my girlfriend. Maybe you are there too ~ probably not ~ too bad!
Table Manners in Greece
Just as in Muslim countries, where it is impolite not to burp after a meal in order to show appreciation to your host things are a bit different here... not for religious reasons however. Don't worry about sharing your appetizer or salad plate, these are communal plates. Of course, my mother would disagree. Yours would too probably. If you order a main course, you'll get your very own plate. If this bugs you ask the waiter for Pia-tak-yia (small plates). There are no place settings either. Your utensils will be in the bread basket along with too few napkins. Harto Bet-set-tes Sound barbaric? You'll love it.
By American standards, depending on your upbringing, table manners in traditional Greek taverns are of a lower standard. It used to bother me. It doesn't anymore. Of course cultured and refined Greeks have excellent table manners. They generally don't switch hands after cutting the meat etc., but do rise when a lady joins the table and so on. Is there a Greek Emily Post-opoulos? Yes and she is usually a foreign nanny!
Before dinner drinks
The Ouzeri and Tsipouradiko while not tavernas exactly are also traditional Greek restaurants you should be aware of and patronize especially if you feel like drinking STRONG ALCOHOL. In an Ouzeri the emphasis is on Ouzo and appetizers rather than a full meal.
In a Tsipouradiko the emphasis is on Tsipouro (another very strong greek liqueur rather like moonshine) and appetizers rather than a full meal.
In fact tsipouro is the Greek cure for the common cold. One makes tea, very hot, with lemon and puts a jigger or so of tsipouro in it and downs 2 or 3 cups. Then you sleep and wake up feeling on the mend! Different localities in Greece offer many varieties of digestifis/Liqueurs some of which are really exceptional after dinner.
Chios Mastika liqueurs comes to mind, Syros has some good ones too!
Tsipouro can be purchased just about anywhere and is inexpensive. A lot of old timers make their own with stills which can be purchased on Athinas Street in Athens just off Omonia square or on the internet.
These two types of Greek establishments are much like a Tapas Bar but less expensive compared to American ones I have eaten in. Appetizers include most of the same things one would find in a taverna all though things may be spicier than your usual bland Greek palate can stand. In Greece even Mexican mild hot sauce is considered strong.
Mayeirefta (Casserole/Oven-baked dishes)
The Greeks use the word Latin based word 'casserole' (which they pronounce 'katsarola') to mean a pot for stove top cooking, quite the opposite of the English use of the word, which means an earthen ware pot used for oven roasting or baking. Food cooked in the oven is called 'sto fourno' in Greek, (lit., in the oven). In any case, cooked food in general (as opposed to fried or grilled food) is referred to in Greece as mayeirefta (from the very, mayeirevo, 'I cook'). These dishes are often cooked earlier in the day and then left to cool, deepening their flavors. Greeks often eat such dishes lukewarm, having a belief that very hot food and drink are harmful to the stomach.
Moussakas
This famous dish is made with layered eggplant/augergine , potato, and minced lamb with a béchamel topping).
PastitisioAnother favorite baked dish made with long tube-like noodles and ground beef).
Yemista OR GeM-EEsta
The name comes from the Greek verb, 'yemizo'-I stuff or fill) and includes stuffed peppers, tomatoes, eggplant/aubergine,, or zucchini/courgette, the stuffing consisting of rice and herbs. Yemista can be made either in the oven or on top of the stove (in a 'katsarola'). Plain rice or kreetherakia and ground Beef/meat is a common stuffing.
Cooked vegetable dishes
These fall in both the larger category of 'mayeirefta'(cooked food) and of 'ladhera' (foods cooked with a lot of 'ladhi', which is olive oil), and include 'bamyes' (okra), peas and artichoke hearts, briam (similar to ratatouille), the delicious large white beans called 'yigandes' (yigas meaning giant), baked slowly in a tomato sauce, 'koukia' (broad beans, called fava in the west, though 'fava' in Greek means split pea paste, so best ask for 'koukia' if that's what you want). There's a wonderful 'casserole' dish (oven baked) with the Turkish name 'Imam Bieyulduh', an imam being a Muslim priest. This dish is made with sliced aubergine/eggplant baked with onion, garlic, and a lot of olive oil. Then there is the wonderful 'fasolakia', made with green beans, oil, onion, and tomato. These are only a few of the 'casserole' dishes widely found on Greek menus, best view through the 'vitrina' , or glass through which customers to tavernas can view and select the food they want to order, often doing so right on the spot, with foreign visitors needing no Greek to point to the tasty looking dish as the waiter writes down the order. Viewing ones' food before eating it, especially when delectably displayed, is one of the great joys of eating out in Greece, and serves as one of the finest of all appetizers.
Soups
FasoladhaBean soup, usually made with small white haricot beans.
Avgo lemono soup
A soup made broth (often chicken broth) with rice, egg and lemon.
Lentil soup
Lentils are 'fak-ess' in Greek.
Kakavia
Fish soup, made with the fresh catch.
Salads
For Greeks, the word 'salata' includes a lot of dishes known in English as 'spreads' or 'dips', some of which are 'melitzanosalata' (aubergine/eggplant salad, from the Greek word for this vegetable, 'melitzana'), made from a puree of this vegetable, or 'taramosalata', made with fish roe, 'skordhalia', a garlic dip often served with baked fish, made from garlic, olive oil, and bread or potato as a thickener; tzatziki, a yogurt and cucumber dip. By now, menus in most places frequented by tourists, often list these dishes are 'appetizers' or 'starters' on the English part of the menu, having learned that the word has a different meaning in English than in Greek. The salads that more fit the English connotation include the famous 'horiatiki salata' (village, or 'country' salad), made with chunks of tomato, cucumber, red onion, and (more expensive if added), a slab of feta cheese and a few olives, the whole drizzled with olive oil and vinegar (ksidi in Greek) and salted to taste. Whoever thought up the horiatiki salata was definitely a genius, as there is nothing better on a hot summer day as a complement to whatever main dish one is eating, assuming of course that the ingredients are very fresh and ripe. A green salad, made with 'marouli', or lettuce, is also popular in Greece. Though the main lettuce available is green Romaine (with 'butter lettuce' having made its appearance at many markets in recent years), this is quite delicious, cut as it usually is in thin strips, and often mixed with some thinly sliced green onions. Sometimes some fresh dill will be also added, or sometimes 'roka' (roquette, arugula). Oil, vinegar and salt are the usually dressing. During the winter, shedded cabbage and carrot salad are very popular, served with the same dressing, though with the second two salads, some prefer lemon.
Greens
The general word for boiled greens in Greek is 'horta'. Greeks are great lovers of boiled greens, and a lot of greens in the dandelion family (basically, chicory), both sweet and bitter, are grown in Greece, dressed with lemon,oil and salt. These greens have long, thin, tapered leaves of a dark green color. There are also many wild varieties of greens, including those in the dandelion family, which are traditionally gathered by women during the rainy winter months (at least in the parts of Greece where the ground doesn't freeze and isn't blanketed in snow). Tavernas will always have the cultivated chicory-type horta in spring and winter, and in winter will often also have wild greens, which local people gather and sell at the markets. A very popular and mild green for boiling, grown during the summer in Greece, is called 'vlita', a leafy amaranth variety. The flavor of this green is quite unique, and it is very easy to grow, though the leaves must be harvested while still soft and tender. The flower, like other amaranth varieties, are lovely maroon colored tassels, which fill the fall garden with splashes of color. There is also wild vlita growing in open fields everywhere, also quite edible and tasty. One recipe for vlita given orally to this author includes chopped garlic mixed with the boiled greens along with the usual oil and salt, and vinegar rather than lemon. Local Greek vinegar, by the way, can be very tasty, as it retains a lot of the tannins strained out of commercial bottled vinegar. Vlita can be used to make a pita (pie) in lieu of spinach, and is called 'vlitopita' rather than 'spanakopita' (the accent in both cases falling on the 'o'). The greens are first boiled and drained , then chopped and mixed with sautéed onion (and perhaps garlic), feta or other cheese, maybe some parsley, and baked in either pastry dough or filo.
Meat
In Greece, meat used to be eaten less frequently than it is today, and fasting was also practiced more, not only at Paskha (Easter), but at other regular intervals during the year. Locally raised meat in Greece tends to be very delicious. Local sheep and goats tend to have a lot of freedom of movement during their lives, though hobbled in some places (with ropes between front and back feet, on one side or both, to prevent their climbing walls and thus breaking out of pasures) though by no means always and everywhere. Pigs raised for the meat market have more space in smaller, local operations, though cattle are in tethers in some areas.
Gyros and souvlaki
These are the fast foods of Greece, very inexpensive, often delicious , quite a filling snack. The gyros (pronounced more like 'yiros') is meat (pork or chicken usually) which is layered and tightly packed on a vertical spit which ( the name taken from 'yirizo', the Greek verb for turning, which describes the revolutions of the spit. It is usually served in a round toasted pita bread, with chopped tomato, lettuce, onion, etc. Mayonnaise is often added, but you can ask to have it without. Souvlakia (plural of souvlaki) are chunks of meat (usually pork, though they can also be made with lamb or chicken) grilled and stuck on a skewer, sometimes with chunks of grilled pepper, onion, tomato. Souvlaki is the Greek equivalent of the 'kebab' (though the Greeks use the word 'kebab' to mean something that more resembles 'bifteki', which is the same as hamburger). The souvlaki plate served in a restaurant is like to include more of the latter, along with fried potatoes and maybe a little salad.
Grilled chops
The most popular of these are the 'paidakhia' (lamb chops) and the 'brizol-ess' (pork chops), the latter with more meat on them. Chicken can also be found grilled.
Stifadho' (stew)
Greek stews can be made with beef, lamb, rabbit, etc. The rabbit stew is made with tomato and onion, and is often a house specialty. 'Yiouvetsi' (like the Russian, Giuvets) is a baked dish made with meat and a short pasta called 'kritaraki'.
Chicken
A delicious Greek specialty is 'kokoras' (rooster), most often prepared as a stew, and often listed on menus with the word 'kokkinisto' following it, which describes the tomato sauce in which it is cooked ('kokkino' meaning red, in Greek). Soup is also made from the 'kokoras'. In smaller areas , the rooster will be of local origin, and is hence one of the types animals that is never caged or restrained during its life. A rather amusing transliteration of the word 'kokoras' from Greek to English often to be seen on Greek menus (or on placards placed on the streets outside of tavernas and restaurants), is 'Cock', or 'Cock soup', which, though linguistically correct, displays Greek unawareness of English slang, in which this word has another meaning (though obviously chosen by Greeks instead of 'rooster' because of its resemblance to the Greek variant, taken, like the English 'cock', from the French 'coq').
Other meat dishes
Oven roasted pork with potatoes (hirino me pata-tess sto fourno) is a great favorite in Greece, the meat usually very moist and succulent and the potatoes roasted with it also very moist and deliciously flavored with the juices of the meat. Some roasted meats are cooked with lemon and oregano ('rigani' in Greek), especially lamb. Boiled meat ('vrasto', from the Greek verb, 'vrazo'-I boil) is a very popular feast dish, especially in winter, and is often goat or beef. 'Bifteki' (taken from the English word 'beef steak') is the Greek version of the hamburger; keftedhes are little meatballs, often rolled in flour and friend or baked and served as a side dish or appetizer. 'Loukanika' are sausages, which may be grilled, or cooked in a sauce. 'Papoutsakia' (from the Greek word for shoe, 'papoutsi'), are stuffed aubergine/eggplant halves baked with a filling of minced lamb (much resembling moussakas, without the bechamel topping).
Fish and shellfish
There are long lists of the many kinds of fish and seafood available on Greek menus in countless guidebooks, so only a few of the more popular will be mentioned here. Fish can be grilled, baked, fried, served in soups or stews, and are most often local if eaten on islands, though 'bakaliaro' (salted cod) is imported from the North Sea, and is usually served with 'skordhalia', the garlic dip mentioned above (under 'Salads'). On e of the kinds of fish most likely to be locally caught (at least on the islands or in seaside places in on the mainland) are the little fish called 'maridhes', which are fried whole after being dipped in flour, and are often quite tasty, and usually very inexpensive. 'Kalamari' (squid) or 'kalamarakia' (baby squid), are usually deep fried in oil and are quite a favorite. One very large variety of squid is stuffed ('kalamari yemisto') with a filling of rice and herbs, and is very delicious. One of the dishes made with 'Oktapodhi' (octopus-whose Greek name means, literally, 'eight legs), is the stew called 'Oktapodhi krasato' ('krasi' being wine, in which the octopus is braised). It is also fried, grilled, etc. 'Soupia' (with the accent on the end of the word, and which means 'cuttlefish') can be grilled, or cooked in a very fine stew (though the raw item in the fish markets looks quite slimy and unappetizing).
Rice and Pasta
Rice is popular in Greece, often made as a 'pilafi' with other foods (meat, chicken, etc.). Noodles though technically 'zymarika' in Greek ('zimono' meaning, I knead), are collectively referred to in Greece as 'makaronia'. The word 'pasta' in Greek means 'pastry' (though it is a word little used, people usually referring to pastries by their individual names). Many kind of 'makaronia' are available in modern Greek supermarkets, including spaghetti, linguini, tagliatelle, spirals, etc. and are also a very popular food, often made with tomato sauce and minced meat ('kimas'). Tomato sauce for noodles in Greece tends to be much lighter than in the west, often just faintly coloring the food with a touch of red. A traditional Greek noodle is the 'hilopita' (the name taken from the Greek words for helix and for pie dough).
A few miscellaneous appetizers ('Orektika', from the Greek word for appetite, 'orexi').
Dolmadhes
These are the little stuffed vine leaves, the filling made with rice and herbs. Cabbage is sometimes used in winter for this side dish, to be served with lemon juice.
Kolokithokeftedhes
'Kolokithi' is the Greek word for zucchini/courgette, which is grated and mixed with other ingredients, shaped in small balls, rolled in flour, and deep fried or baked.
Mavromatika
'Mavromati' means 'black eye'. This dish of black eyed peas can be either a little appetizer, but can also be a full meal for Greeks in winter.
'Ladhi' and 'el-ies'' (Olive oil and olives)
Although the full name for olive oil is 'eleoladho', the simple word for oil, 'ladhi', is generally assumed to mean olive oil, since it is such a basic and essential ingredient in Greek cuisine. Be aware, however, that fast food joints use cheaper (and lighter) oils, as do many tavernas for fried potatoes and the like, these oils being most corn or sunflower seed oil. Many people use such oils in the home as well for some baked good, or for fried potatoes, finding olive oil too heavy for the latter (though others will tell you that they would never use any other oil!). Greeks eat more olive oil per capita than people anywhere else, and many city people travel to their home villages in the fall (autumn) to harvest the olives from their trees, which are often pressed at the local 'liotrivi' (olive oil press, the word taken from the word for olive and the verb for rubbing, 'trivo'). For those who have relatives still living in the villages, olive oil is often taken back to the city or sent on the boat or train, along with other produce, to the extended family members in the cities. In the villages, harvesting of olives is a collective annual ritual (though some trees produce only every other year, if a family has many trees, there will be some harvest every year). Families spend long, and arduous days harvesting the olives, with huge nets laid on the ground under the trees, the male family members knocking them down from the branches with long poles. The oil pressing at the local 'liotrivi' is not so cheap, and those who have many trees and more oil than they need to supply the extended family for the year, may sell some of their oil either to stores or to individuals. There are many kinds of olives. Some of the best olive oil produced in Greece is sold to Italy, where they mix it with their own and pass the mix off as Italian. Olive oil is low in cholesterol, at least in its fresh form (as dressing for salad or greens), though all of the cooked Greek dishes, and especially the 'ladhera' (dishes cooked with oil), are made with liberal amounts of it. Organically produced olive oil is a recent trend, though most villagers in most places still spray their trees against insects.
Fruit and Nuts
After a Greek meal, a plate of fruit will often be brought out, of whatever is in season, both in homes and in tavernas and restaurants. In the latter, for example, wedges of apple sprinkled with cinnamon, a toothpick in each piece, might be served. In summer, 'karpouzi' (watermelon), is often the fine closure to a good meal. Citrus fruits such as lemons, oranges and bitter oranges (called 'nerandzia), and kitron, are grown in many parts of Greece, including the Peloponnese, Crete and other islands, and Greek food would be vastly altered without the ubiquitous lemon, used in avgolemono soup, on meat (rather than fish), and on boiled greens. Quince, cherry, large and small pears (among the small ones, a variety known as 'krystalia', which ripen way before autumn), apple, kiwi, several kinds of melon (peponi), peach (rhodakino), and nectarine (nektarini), various plums (damaskino, koromilo), figs, grapes, strawberry (fraoulo) in spring, as well as the already mentioned 'karpouzi' (watermelon), are all grown in Greece. Flowering nut trees make stunning displays of color in spring, include most notably, almonds, walnuts, and pistachios ( these last mainly on the island of Aegina). Raisins are also produced from grapes, and prunes from plums.
The spoon sweet (made from fruit)
The traditional Greek 'glikokoutaliou' (spoon sweet) is made from the rinds of various fruits, which are boiled in a sugar syrup and preserved all year in jars, to be served on a tiny dish, along with a 'Greek' coffee and/or a little glass of raki (tsipouro-see drinks, below), and a glass of water. Popular fruits used for this sweet preserve include quince (kidhoni), orange (portokali), bitter orange (nerandzi), cherry (kerasi).
Juices
Many fruit juices are sold commercially in Greece, often in mixes with some tropical fruits included, and most often in a carton, small or large. Traditionally, Greeks made(and make) orange juice from their own oranges, in places where there was/is an abundance of these. Soft drinks are now widely sold in Greece as well, though hardly traditional.
Tea
Some of the well known traditional Greek teas are the sage tea called 'faskomilo', often drunk for colds in winter, and the 'tsai tou vounou' (mountain tea). Greeks harvest both spearmint ('dhiosmos), peppermint ('menda'), and 'khamomili' (chamomile) for herbal teas as well. Black and green teas are now found in most supermarkets, or at tea and coffee sellers.
Coffee
Coffee is immensely popular in Greece, made in various forms. The coffee that comes in tiny cups that sit on top of tiny saucers, has only been called 'Greek coffee' since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in the 1970s, being an Ottoman legacy and previously referred to as 'Turkish coffee. Such coffee was originally made with home roasted and home ground fresh coffee beans, and was stronger (and with better flavor) than the kind ubiquitously sold and served in Greece these days (a couple of widely sold package brands that come in a sealed bag, or ground fresh in some markets, though of mediocre quality). The advent of the modern 'kafekopteio' (coffee stores that offer a wide variety of coffees, some of them of good quality, and grind them fresh for customers), has made better quality 'Greek' coffee available, as well as fresh beans for those who want to roast their own. 'Greek coffee' is traditionally boiled (along with the requested amount of sugar, or with none) in the long handled pot known as the briki (made traditionally of copper), and poured immediately into the tiny cups ('flitjania'-a Turkish word), while it still has its foam , the patterns in the residue left at the bottom of the cup sometimes read by fortune tellers. This coffee, when served black (no sugar) is called 'sketo' (plain), 'metrio' (medium sweet), or 'gliko' ( very sweet), all of these terms given here in the accusative, as this is the form in which they are usually requested (ie. Thelo ena elliniko café, sketo. I want a black Greek coffee).
Non traditional coffees
Frappes and 'Nes' (Nescafe)
An immensely popular coffee drink in Greece these days is the 'frappe', made with instant coffee (ubiquitously called 'Nes' (after Nescafe), which has become a generic term since this company predominates in the instant coffee market in Greece). This author has been told that the quality of the instant coffee sold in Greece is better, and stronger, than that sold in the USA, though this has not been substantiated. The frappe is made with ice, 'Nes', usually sugar, and sometimes milk, either by machine or in a simple plastic shaker sold for home use, with a characteristic dense froth on the top, is served in tall glasses and drunk through straws. On any summer day, one can see hordes of people in all the sidewalk cafes in Greece drinking frappes, smoking cigarettes, and socializing loudly.
'Nes' is also drunk hot, and is available in all Greek places frequented by tourists (and in all of the cities), as well as 'filtro', espresso and cappuccino (the latter in various forms in the more touristic places, including the chilled 'cappucino freddo'). Such types of coffee are increasingly popular, with good quality coffee now available, for both commercial and home use, from some of the coffee sellers (though there are some vastly overpriced inferior coffees sold by large chains, to customers who aren't really savvy about something so recently 'arrived' in Greece, so best buy a very small amount at first to check out the quality).ANCIENT GREEK DINING
Here
are two representations of the ancients dining. Generally ladies of
the house ate separately so these ladies are Heteras. Heteras were
generally beautiful and accomplished musicians who could serenade diners while
they ate and were willing to perform other functions as well.
There are two restaurants in Athens who claim to have all ancient dishes on the menu. They are a chain really with the same owner. I ate there and the food was good but there were no heteras and the waitresses didn't smile much or at all and they wouldn't give you a fork because forks were sacred to Poseidon or someone.