Food of the Greek Isles

After exploring different summer destinations in recent years, 2017 was the year to head back to Greece. With family originating from the small Saronic island of Poros, I try to go every few years and this time I took K for his induction!

On the island, big family lunches lasted until 4pm and dinners showed no sign of slowing down at midnight, meaning there was lots of opportunity to try the whole the range of local cuisine. At many restaurants, when enquiring about the fish selection we were ushered to the kitchen to pick from their catches of the day. From bream, to brill, red snapper, bass, sardines and plaice, it was always a fantastic selection. Most fish was just simply grilled whole with olive oil and lemon, served with olive oil cooked chips and Greek salad. Delicious!

At the family’s favourite beachside lunch taverna, we’d eat slow cooked feasts of stuffed peppers and tomatoes, aubergine with mince and potato, roasted potatoes, sardines, green beans, gigantes (large baked beans), moussaka and pasticcio. They may not look like much but these potatoes were probably my favourite style of potatoes (even over chips!), cooked in olive oil, chicken stock, lemon, thyme and rosemary. Each day we’d say ‘only a light lunch’ and each day ended up completely stuffed and ready for an afternoon nap!

As well as mountains of Greek salad we tried Cretian salad. It was a big dry rusk with tomatoes, olives, lettuce and lots of feta on top. Within a couple of minutes, the juicy tomatoes had soaked into the bread, leaving it soft and very, very tasty.

One day, we went sailing around the island, so took a packed lunch, Greek style! We stopped off at a souvlaki taverna for gyros kebabs (below) and had it packed up in individual boxes...

Then picked up some cake from the bakery. We had milopita (apple cake), karithopita (walnut cake), baklava and kataifi (shredded wheat baklava). Sticky honey nutty sweet heaven!

The view where we dropped anchor for lunch.

During our time there we ate a lot of ice cream. From midday ice creams to cool down from the heat to after-dinner stops in the early hours of the morning. My favourite shop had over 40 flavours and I made it my mission to try as many as possible!

One of my favourites was bitter chocolate. The most delicious deepest darkest chocolate ice cream I've ever had!

At the end of our time there, I reflected on the food. What the Greek's are best at is no-fuss dishes. Whether slow cooked or simply grilled the fantastic fresh ingredients speak for themselves. With a culture that includes a lot of sitting and talking, time is never a problem and every meal turns into an occasion. I found it very easy to slip into that way of life but not so easy getting back to my day job!!