Greek Foods (October 2018)

The only Greek food that I knew before I went to Greece was Gyro sandwich on Pita bread. Obviously, there are a lot more than Gyro.

The following are some of the foods we explored while traveling in Greece.

Foods  

In Corinth, we ate Moussaka and Pita Bread after we shared a Greek Salad. Moussaka is one of the signature dishes in Greece. It is made of beef, tomatoes, eggplants plus some more ingredients.  I had another occasion to eat Moussaka and that was it for me.

I did not know I like grilled calamari that much until I went to Greece. I think I ate it four times. Yikes! But, it was so good!!!

In Thessaloniki, we felt we saved almost $190 because the prearranged tour guide cancelled on me. So we ended up exploring the city ourselves and we decided to dine at one of the fine restaurants. We chose Extravaganza. It was in the airplane magazine. We dined and wined with great pleasure. They served a free desert. It was extravaganza!

 

In Nafplio, we ate the grilled calamari and chicken souvlaki, one of famous Greek foods. Of course, Greek Salad is a common appetizer with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, olive oil.

At this port town, many restaurants displayed the fish in a refrigerated cabinet.

In Athens, I am sure we ate more than the photos we took, but we ate again chickn souvlaki with a slight twist.

One of the famous Greek snacks is Koulouri. It is like fretzel but with sesame put all over. It was bland but good.

In Mykonos, we ate seafood pasta and chicken wrap. On another meal, we tried a pizza.

In Santorini, we ate Pita bread with Tzitzaki sauce, one of Greek signature foods, along with zuchini appetizer. Of course, we ate the grilled calamari again and pasta. With a sunset view, the foods were fabulous!

Drinks

Greek coffee is famous, but it is very very very strong. I had the first hand experience of Greek coffee in Boston in 1982 when I was traveling solo around the world. I entered a Greek restaurant and ordered Greek coffee without any knowledge about how strong it is. Yikes!

Greece is proud of its own beer. Alpha stands out. There are others, but due to foreign ownership, many Greeks adore Alpha beer.

Also, Greeks are proud of Ouzo, a transparent liquor drink.

Deserts

Greeks must have sweet teeth. They have a variety of sweets. Two of the most famous Greek sweets are Kataifi and Baklava. Kataifi looks like it is wrapped with thin threads. It could be messy if you want to eat it only with a fork. Baklava was my favorite, particularly with ice cream. Hmmmm. We tried them for the first time in Meteora, but we ate them whenever possible.

Before we were crossing the longest suspension bridge in the world, we made a comfort stop and the bakery over there was filled with sweets. Oh my goodness! They looked so good, but I had to refrain.

One of the pleasant findings about Greek foods is Greek yogurt. Its soft taste was good enough not only for breakfast but also for desert to any meal.

In addition, there are many other sweets, such as Halvas (really sweet jelly-type desert), Bougatsa (sweet pie), assorted peanuts. A few places we went to served free desert, saying that it is the Greek hospitality. Overall, our food experience in Greece was quite good! - Jeffrey