I am still recovering from this trip, so no plans yet for a next trip. My wife and I are not retired yet, so we always need to consider fitting it in when we can. This was supposed to be an April 2020 trip…
Athens
I have access to a wide variety of foods at home that can lead me to a sense of bliss. This is most likely a single item from a whole menu. Every once in a great while, some place can produce two or even three dishes like that.
Annie Fine Cooking did that for us. I learned about it from Culinary Backstreets. Later, on our flight out of Athens, I saw it was featured in an article of the in-flight magazine. So these articles are good for something.
Our main dishes were characterized by having a lot of components. Some of those were distinctive, like the giant beans from Lake Prespa (big, dark beans in the second photo). Most importantly each one provided a unique texture and flavor that made it stand out from the rest of the dish. But they played well with others. I felt that both dishes were very unique and very Greek. The first photo has a tahini base underneath.
For dessert we had a creme brulee that blew us away.
The other dinner we had was only a part success. We went to Mani Mani not far from the Acropolis, based on the suggestion of our Acropolis guide. This is a quiet, elegant restaurant up a flight of stairs.
One of three dishes was an outrageous success, the seafood couscous:
It had a smooth, almost buttery mouthfeel that just kept getting better and better as you ate.
Two other dishes were , quite frankly, losers. There was a concoction salad that was too sweet. It was a huge salad (it could have eaten us), so the remainder of it stared at us throughout the meal. We occasionally picked at it in hopes it might change, but it never did. There’s a lesson in that somewhere.
The other main course was a common Greek dish ‘elevated’. We were already in trouble. Many Greek grills make beef patties (I forget what they are called). They are usually charred and crispy and well seasoned. This beef was almost pureed in texture, only very lightly charred and weakly seasoned. It was meant to be elegant.
We went to Bougatsadiko Psirri for their warm-from-the-oven bougatsa, a cream filled pastry. We ordered one each not realizing there are six to an order. Somehow , they managed to get eaten or otherwise disappeared.
We went to lunch at Karamanlidika, a Greek deli with a full menu, or you could order a large sampler of sliced meats, what we ordered. We were glad to eat this way, though ultimately it’s fairly underwhelming and includes some deli items you could find anywhere. One pile of meat was sliced turkey, no flavor, likewise with the sticks of cheese. I guess the appeal is how thinly they slice, which is indeed impressive. You are free to browse the cases for other items, and I decided to add a couple with great visual appeal: a goat cheese heavily coated in multi-colored peppercorns and a distinctive mortadella. The mortadellla was very satisfying, the best of the lot.
We tried to eat at Diporto, the basement restaurant, but it was unbearably hot inside, and the smell of fish was overpowering. We decided not to go to another basement place, Oinomageireio tis Alexandras, that we otherwise would have liked to try.
Restaurants like Seychelles and Tzoutzouka will have to wait for another trip.
5 Likes
Did you or have you done any of the Culinary Backstreets food tours? They have a few in Tokyo that look pretty cool.
No, I’ve yet to do a food tour anywhere. So far, I figure I could do my own.
1 Like
I’ve done a few, not Culinary Backstreets, Barcelona, Valencia and Lisbon. As a solo traveler it’s a great way to meet people(and ditch them afterwards) and see parts of the city and eating establishments that might not be on my radar. I have an upcoming one in Malaga next month.
4 Likes
For Istanbul, I read the Culinary Backstreets online stuff and made my own ‘tour’. In Hanoi I didn’t really have time to prepare, so we went on a tour (just me and my folks) organised by Handspan Travel and we really enjoyed it - the guide was really engaging and fun.
1 Like
The guides will make or break the whole tour, luckily all the ones I’ve had so far have been great.
2 Likes
One food find that I really got a kick out of was a few slices of dried ‘citron’.
In Kalambaka, I went to a store that features foods from throughout Greece. The dried citron (not exactly sure what this is) was fished out of a large glass jar, like you’d see in an old-fashioned candy shop. Sold by weight.
Maybe this is everywhere, but it was a new one on me. Deeply satisfying. Each piece is about 3.5" long.
3 Likes
Dried (candied?) lime peel?
I just figured it out; it’s pomelo.
No. Probably it is the unripened version of the citron. Citron is one of the 3 original citruses along with tangerine and pomelo. All the others are bred from the 3 original ones, mostly in Persia. Citron is very common in the Southern Mediterranean. Mostly used for it’s smell. Jews know it as etrog.
Wow, I did not know that the pomelo was the Ur-grapefruit. I’d always assumed it was a hybrid.
Thx for that!
On the jar in the store, there was a handwritten sign that said ‘citron’ (in Greek). But when I look at pictures on the internet of dried citron (etrog) it doesn’t look at all like what I have. What I have does look exactly like dried pomelo, as pictured in the link.
It could be pomelo, but pomelo does not grow in Mediterranean climate. While the citron is abundant there and exists in green version. As well citron has notoriously thick pith which is eatable (although not that delicious). The pomelo pith is eaten in Malaysia and Southern China, but, to my ignorance, I have never heard about it eaten in Europe.
Yes…etrog!
I think the finest examples come from the Tyrrhenian Coast of Calabria…every year rabbis from all over the world descend on the area around Diamante (also known for the red peppers grown there) to choose their fruit for Sukkot. That stretch of coast is know as the Riviera dei Cedri. When we go there I always buy liqueur made from the cedro (etrog). Oddly, though, none of the bottles ever make it home. Also saw the same drink in Maratea----just north of there…
Ok, sorry to veer far from Athens!! You sure did a lot of great eating in 7 days!!! So glad the trip was a success! Oh, my, that couscous!!! Is that the type they call “Israeli couscous” in the US???
Probably from Naxos. The leaves of this big citrus fruit are used to make the island’s top liqueur Kitro(n).
1 Like
Sorry you did not try the dishes we recommended at Karamandlika in a recent Athens post - they were excellent involving their own cured meats etc😢
It does sound like Kitron, though it is prepared differently than the liqueurs I am used to on Naxos.
Not sure.
I usually try to stop by Halki/Chalki, the home of Kitron each time I visit Naxos. It is a charming village with a couple rather good cafes and pubs. And the “original” Kitron distillery. Nice walking paths too.
1 Like
Yes, sometimes I’ve heard it call pearl couscous as well as Israeli couscous.
Thanks to you, Ziv, and dostrovs for clarifying about citron. Super interesting about the Italian and Jewish connection.
Those slices were wonderful, so now I am doubly glad that I spotted and tried them.
1 Like
We didn’t plan on going to Karamandlika, so I was not as prepared as I should have been. We went there once I realized that Diporto was not going to work out for us. At that point, it was so hot out it was hard to think of anything except for the cold cut board. My loss.
The board did include the basturma. In fact they gave some as an amuse when we first sat down.
