The meatballs in egg lemon sauce are called yiouvarlakia/ giouvarlakia me avgolemono.
There’s also a version with rice pressed into the meatball, like porcupine meatballs in the States.
Lahanodolmades me avgolemono are the cabbage rolls in egg lemon sauce.
Avgo = egg
Lemono
The word is for the sauce and the soup. Some places call the soup avgolemono soupa, but most people call it avgolemono for short, knowing the context. The ‘me’ meaning with (pronounced meh) gives away that it’s a sauce, not soup.
The avgolemono sauce should be thicker than the soup, less broth is used.
I usually get the loukamades (freshly fried, still warm) as a snack, or a sweet brunch, in place of a meal, rather than as a dessert.
Greek locals tend to have a little sweet by itself around 4 pm, like many Germans and Central Europeans do, then have fruit after supper, rather than having a dessert lunch or supper.
Oh my God! The cabbage rolls! I had forgotten them!
Thank you for the names of these dishes, now i have a much better chance of finding them.
Cool. I am moving to an AirBNB tmrw and i have a game plan for finding more great food.
Thank you, Phoenikia!
Another Naxos Chora scene…
Your glorious photos are making me want to visit the Greek isles. I have previously been dissuaded because I hate both crowds and heat. But you are making me think that a January visit is the answer.
It’s also nice in May and October. Everything shuts down on the touristic islands around Oct 14th. Pretty cheap the first 2 weeks of Oct. The last 2 weeks of September usually have really beautiful weather, and some figs are still in season.
It was a little chilly at the end of the second week of Oct on my last visit , cold for locals.
The crowds are mostly there from June 25th to Labour Day.
When you say everything shuts down, what exactly do you mean? I live in an area with a distinct tourist season and off-season means that some retail businesses and lots more restaurants are closed. Is that the case in the Greek isles off-season?
In Santorini, as far as I understood on my last visit, the only town that has restaurants and hotels open from around Oct 15th to Easter is the main town. Restaurants, shops, hotels in Oia ard other villages are not open. The seasonal workers return to the mainland or home countries.
I happened to be in Lesvos around October 15th. We were the only guests at the 3 star hotel in the 2nd largest town on the island where we were staying. While we were having breakfast, the staff was defrosting their freezer that had contained their ice cream all summer.
Larger islands with more of a permanent population like Crete, Corfu and Lesvos have more hotels open year-round, and would have some business travelers.
Islands like Santorini and Mykonos mostly make their money from June to September. Our hotels in Santorini and Mykonos were less than half full the first week of October.
I would think islands with active and important monasteries would get more local year-round visitors than the islands without.
Phoenikia has summarized the situation really well. Santorini and Naxos are basically closed or under construction from mid-October/early November until March. I have been checking the dates on the newspapers covering the windows of some of the cafes here in Thira and they have been late October or early November dates. Not exactly a fool proof method, admittedly. On the sunrise side of the island last trip I walked all around Kamari and almost nothing was open except for a few small markets and a pair of cafes on the South side of the bus station. I booked a cool little “condo” in Halki (a town of many names on Naxos) last week on AirBNB and the owner emailed me in a panic because it was not supposed to be shown as available. He had winterized the entire building a little over a month before and I was the first person to try to make a reservation since he had done so.
Syros was more of a bureaucratic/Political (?) center and it was mostly open for business in late February. Around half of the cafes were open, especially near the water in Ermoupoli. But Syros is not as much fun or as scenic as Naxos or Santorini. Upside is that Syros has fewer tourists and a lot of the locals are really chuffed to meet one.
I was here in Santorini in 2019 for the last week of February and the first couple days of March and it was like a flower blooming. Slowly but surely cafes and shops were opening. And the weather was shifting too. January and February are the coldest months, while March averages 7 or 8 degrees warmer. Jan/Feb has day time temps that frequently drop into the 40’s but March is usually just a touch more comfortable. But the Jan/Feb temps mean the locals are wearing fur lined parkas! And it does get downright chilly here at night in Jan/Feb, with a cold, damp breeze blowing many nights.
It is not just shops that are frequently closed. Fishermen seem (this is a guess) to stay home more. I got much less variety and not quite so fresh seafood on this trip and the early February part of my trip in 2019. I almost want to prolong my Greek leg of the trip until March again to see how the seafood situation will seem in early March. My seafood meals the past few days have been kind of hit or miss with the squid being a hit yesterday, though the shrimp and mussels were a miss the day before. I have to wonder why the waiter was so quick to recommend a dish other than the octopus yesterday. He said they had octopus but did not recommend it at all so it might not have been that fresh, or so it seemed to me.
I think the Greek islands would have the perfect combination of cool weather, fewer tourists and more open businesses from early March to early May. I have never been here in the fall so that is terra incognita for me. And another thing to keep in mind is that each island gets a different type of tourist. Santorini gets bus tours starting in March and even now the people visiting here are more of the various tourist types rather than traveler types, if that makes sense. Naxos gets food and wine travelers (not so many beach tourists in the Spring!) with some tourists and Syros did not get many visitors at all in the Spring.
I am going to check on the ferry times to Crete and may end up there for a week or so before I head up to Kefalonia or Corfu, maybe. It will be interesting to see what the situation is for cafes and hotels there.
Make sure you ask if the squid is fresh (freska). It will generally be frozen Asian squid, which is much cheaper, for both you and the restaurant, unless it specifically says fresh or local. Sometimes both are listed on the menu, sometimes you will need to ask.
We last visited Greece in 2008 over Orthodox Easter and it was amazing - no tourists (except for us, of course lol) and many of the local places were open (from what I remember off the top of my head — Athens, Paros, Syros, Santorini, Hydra; Crete ferry got canceled so we had to fly by the seat of our pants, which was possible in 2008). Lovely t-shirt weather.
I am enjoying the food and the vistas here in Santorini! I have been enjoying three cafes the most. The Pelican Kipos has been a solid choice, nothing great but everything is rather good amd the wait staff are friendly. I had the Gemista/stuffed tomatoes with mushrooms on the side yesterday and the Strapatsada and loukamades for brunch today!
I think those are out of order but you get the drift.
I walked from Fira to Oia and the walk was amazing! One beautiful vista after another. And the cats were mad at the donkeys, not sure what was going on there.
Gorgeous! While you’re on Santorini, fava (yellow split bean dip/spread) and tomato keftedes (vegetarian) are local specialties. The tomatoes are renowned.
Gretchen, yes, i am on Santorini now and it is a beautiful place! Naxos is greener and more verdant but Santorini is a volcanic exclamation mark!
Phoenikia, yes, i encountered the fava puree. I thought it would be a regular bean starter so when the waitress asked if i wanted bread with it, i said no. Then she showed up with a plate of Gerbers baby food! LOL! Being a guy, i could not change my mind so i ate my baby food w a spoon instead of with pita bread.
I just went to a newly re-opened cafe, Triana, and had the wrong type of meatballs, again, and a nice sea bass.
And since a shot of ouzo and a 200ml bottle were both 7 Euros, i went with the bottle.
And toddled home like a tipsy tourist.
γιουβαρλάκια is the Greek spelling for yiouvarlakia, in case you end up a restaurant without an English menu. Maybe, next time you want them, ask if they’ll make them, or ask if they can give you a side dish of avgolemono sauce.
The stuffed grape leaves that are served warm, that are filled with rice and meat, usually come with avgolemono sauce.
The cold stuffed grape leaves that are filled with rice , usually in the appetizer or cria section, come with lemon or yogurt.
Gretchen, the meatballs were really good with tiny flecks of oregano (?) but they are even better with Avgolemono sauce! It is a cream if chicken soup made w lemons and it is outstanding!
Phoenikia, i will ask the waiter if is possible to reduce the size of the Pikilia, i would hate to waste seafood.
The shrimp here must be out of season? Because they have all been mushy, frozen types. The Yiouvarlakia is what i have been trying to find!
I’ve only had local shrimp in Rhodes and a few other places. They had more flavour than I’m used to. They will let you know if they’re local, and the local shrimp would usually cost more, I think.
I’d think most shrimp served are frozen farmed Asian tiger shrimp.
I think the Pikilia by its nature is meant to be a share platter, but go ahead and ask for a mikro (small / meekro) Pikilia.
I’m gauche. I have ziploc baggies or a plastic bento box with me and I take my leftovers home with me, to snack on later. No food ends up wasted.
That does not sound gauche, that sounds like prior planning!
I hit Lotza in Ioa today, for pork in a clay pot with beer and honey (but served over rice in a bowl) that was fork tender, slightly fatty, and delicious. (giuvetsi?)
I had a cheese spread as a starter that was mildly spicy and good on the bread and even better as an accompaniment to the pork. I think the pork dish is usually served with seared pork chunks served over new potatoes or quartered regular potatoes or so i think i remember from last time. But it was good this way too, just sweeter and less meaty.
I am going to try the pikilia or shrimp saganaki tomorrow.
I enjoyed my stay in Santorini 4 years ago. This year it has been even better, despite the rainy weather today. Just ebough cafes are open to be interesting and not so many tourists.
And it does get downright chilly here at night in Jan/Feb, with a cold, damp breeze blowing many nights.
