Greek cuisine

tips on Greek
food & beverages

 

Why
Greek Cuisine
is special

Greek food becomes captivating when the meal is leisurely eaten and shared with family or friends in a convivial restaurant or taverna, or at home in a shaded outdoor patio. Those environments enhance the victuals because they are embedded in the Greek dining tradition. Without them, the pleasure of eating Greek food can drop a notch or two.

Ten famous
Greek preparations

Try these on your next trip to a Greek restaurant.

Avgolemono

A soup (also a sauce) enriched with eggs and lemon juice.

Baklava

Dessert. Layers of phyllo pastry and nuts are drenched with honey syrup.

Dolmades

Rice (plain or mixed with lamb) wrapped in grapevine leaves.

Greek salad

Lettuce mixed with feta cheese, tomatoes, olives, scallions, and green peppers, then tossed with a lemony olive oil dressing.

Moussaka

A casserole composed of layers of eggplant and minced lamb crowned with a white sauce.

Pastitsio

A pasta and lamb casserole bound by a cheese-infused white sauce.

Souvlaki

Lamb grilled on a skewer. Typically served inside a rolled pita bread.

Spanakopita

Spinach in a triangular flaky phyllo pastry jacket.

Taramosalata

A spread made with fish roe, bread crumbs and olive oil.

Whole roasted lamb

Cooked on a spit. Immensely popular for Easter.

Famous
beverages

Greek coffee

Black, strong and (typically) sweet.

Metaxa

A brandy. Widely drunk in Greece.

Ouzo

Anise-flavored liqueur. Turns milky white when water is added.

Retsina

White wine flavored with pine resin.

Tips & insights
on Greek cuisine

Early influences

Greek cooking is a fusion of early Greek cuisine blended with foreign influences dating back to Roman times.

Ottoman Empire

The greatest influence was the cooking style of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Greece in the 14th to 18th centuries.

Greek & Turkish cuisines

The Ottoman impact explains why Greece and Turkey share many dishes. However, the two styles differ in, for instance, seasoning. The Turkish tend to use herbs and spices more intricately, the Greeks, more simply.

Seafood

Fish was one of the popular mainstays of the Greek diet during my first visit in the 1960s. Today, fresh seafood is scarce and expensive due to severe overfishing. Much of the supply is now frozen and imported.

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