<p><strong>Nostalgia, with Cream on Top: </strong>A visit to Varsos, a culinary landmark in Athens that looks much the same as it did 60 years ago, is like traveling back in time to one of the city’s grand patisseries of the 1950s. The venue, which is still in the hands of the Varsos family who originally opened it, is one of the most famous of Athens’ old-style coffeehouses and is the only one that has kept its traditional charm over the last several decades.</p><p>Varsos was established in 1892 in central Athens, but it is the wonderfully old-fashioned Kifisia location, to which the patisserie moved in 1932, that has made the venue famous. At the beginning of the 20th century, Kifisia was a holiday destination for rich Athenians, and their stately summer mansions still dot this beautiful yet ever-expanding northern suburb, which is now popular with professionals, families and expats. Thanks to the pedestrianization of the area, Kifisia is also one of the few parts of Athens where you can comfortably stroll around.</p><p>Despite the changes in the surrounding area, Varsos seems to be stuck in a comforting time bubble. With its decorative high ceilings and beautiful mosaic floors framed with pink marble, the interior feels nothing less than grand. The huge main room, which buzzes with activity at all times, is home to a bunch of ancient, industrial-size fridges trademarked with brand names that haven’t been produced for over 50 years. The employees, old-timers themselves who have been working here for ages, are each assigned to a specific section, whether whipped cream, meringues, pastries, tsoureki or cakes. The purchasing system is equally old-fashioned: You tell the person behind the counter what you want, they note the price on a slip of paper, you pay at the cash register and then you are handed your goodies.</p><p>Varsos, photo by Manteau Stam Select an Image</p><p>The sit-down area at the back seems to be dedicated to a different era, the ’70s. The furniture – mustard-leather seats and round, wooden tables against a background of avocado walls – is so retro that hipsters will weep with joy. There is also an outdoor patio garden, where customers can sit by a beautiful statue during the summer months. If you do want to sit down for a cup of coffee with your sweets, though, opt for Greek coffee – despite all of Varsos’s charms, the venue has still not mastered the art of a good cappuccino.</p><p>Varsos serves all the old-style Greek desserts anyone could wish for, but it is best known for three specialties. The first is its plain whipped cream. The store has a whole fridge dedicated to pure, fresh whipped cream, which is sold in plastic jars bearing Varsos’s blue and red logo. The whipped cream is rich and pleasantly fatty but not sweet and, as any good housewife from Athens’ northern suburbs can testify, it is never, ever runny. The second specialty is the meringues, which are probably the best in Athens. Sold in a dizzying variety of shapes and sizes, these foamy beauties simply melt in your mouth.</p><p>But our personal favorite – and quite possibly the preference of the entire generation of Athenians who grew up on this recipe – is the tsoureki, a type of sweet bread that is popular in Middle Eastern countries. Heavy on eggs and with an almost yellowish hue, the Varsos version is very similar to French brioche. They use the same bread to make their own version of croissants, resulting in a puffy, croissant-shaped brioche. There is one more thing that almost brings tears to the eyes of those who were raised on Varsos products: the “gemisto croissant” (“filled croissant”), a sort of rectangular tsoureki with chocolate, walnuts and brown sugar. Varsos also makes traditional syrupy sweets like galaktoboureko (milk pie) and kataifi, which resemble similar desserts found in the Middle East.</p><p>The patisserie’s marathon operating hours – it opens at 7 a.m. and closes after midnight – are a testament to its ability to pull in a steady stream of customers. For Athenians, it seems, any time is the right time for a little culinary time travel.</p><p>This article was originally published on November 22, 2012.</p>

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<p><strong>Post-Industrial Cooking: </strong>The neighborhood of Metaxourgeio in central Athens gets its name from the historic Athanasios Douroutis silk factory (metaxi means “silk”), which closed down in 1875. The former factory, which now houses the Municipal Art Gallery, was designed in 1833 by the Danish architect Hans Christian Hansen and is among the city's most important surviving neoclassical structures.</p><p>The building was originally intended to be a shopping center, but because the area became an industrial zone, it inevitably attracted mostly working-class residents who were employed in the nearby factories, smaller industries or workshops.</p><p>The area was in decline for years, and a significant number of beautiful old buildings were abandoned for decades or leased at ridiculously low prices to be used as brothels or by low-paid economic migrants. However, the theaters and bohemian kafenia and bars here also attracted intellectuals and artists.</p><p>In the early 2000s, the neighborhood began to show signs of revitalization. Investors put money into building luxurious lofts and renovated beautiful neoclassical buildings, and well-known contemporary art galleries moved there. A number of high-end restaurants, simple tavernas, creative mezedopolia and little bars began popping up – and continue to do so – all respecting and preserving the neighborhood’s low-key, freewheeling vibes.</p><p>Seychelles sits at the corner of Keramikou and Academou facing Avdi square. It may bear the same name as the tropical island, but it’s in fact the best mezedopoleio in Athens. The restaurant opened in early 2014 and immediately became the talk of the town. Housed in a cute, early-19th-century building, in a former life, it was a traditional kafenio known as Bahamas – naturally – serving house wine and tsipouro along with meze and patsa, a soup made from pork trotters and tripe and a popular remedy for hangovers.</p><p>Anna and Fotis, the two young owners, clearly love what they do and work hard to keep standards high. Before opening Seychelles, Fotis, who is originally from Thessaloniki, traveled for over six months around Greece, visiting small producers and hunting for exceptional local products, in order to learn as much as possible, all the while dreaming about opening his own deli. Things didn’t turn out exactly as he expected, but we think the outcome is even better.</p><p>During the warm months Seychelles puts tables out on Academou, on the sidewalk of Keramikou and across the street in the square, and yet, there are never enough – the place is jam-packed every single night. The interior is very simple – high ceilings, large windows, great bar – and combines the authentic air of old Athens with a touch of modernity. The highlight is undoubtedly the open kitchen, where the graceful precision and focus of the cooks rival the spectacles in the theaters on Academou.</p><p>Seychelles, photo by Carolina Doriti Select an Image</p><p>Mornings at Seychelles are for enjoying a cup of coffee or the famous ginger juice at the bar. Lunch starts at 1pm, and the kitchen serves food continuously until late. The creative, seasonal, ever-changing menu blends the traditional and modern and focuses on using ingredients made by small producers from around Greece. The atmosphere is always friendly and casual, and the waitstaff maintains its efficiency and good humor even when the place gets extremely busy. Weekday lunch is quieter, while dinner is joyously raucous.</p><p>The daily specials are full of surprises, all worth trying. We like the chickpea salad with fresh mint and feta cheese, octopus cooked in red wine and served on creamed peas, beef tongue grilled to perfection and vegetable-stuffed beets served with yogurt. For a very traditional option, there’s sougania, a Lesbos recipe for onions stuffed with cracked wheat, fresh herbs and oxtail and sprinkled with chili flakes. The sweet and spicy pork cutlets are also popular, and we would be hard-pressed to not order the braised beef cheeks served on crispy hand-cut fried potatoes when they’re available.</p><p>Langoustines at Seychelles, photo by Carolina Doriti Select an Image</p><p>The cheese list benefits from Fotis’s unimpeachable sourcing. Besides excellent traditional cheeses from all over the country, there’s a selection of cured fish, such as smoked swordfish and tuna from Kalymnos island, smoked sardines and salt cod.</p><p>The wide range of tsipouro, raki, Greek beer and wines complements the thoughtfully composed and well-executed menu. Most dishes are priced between €6 and €12 – an excellent value, particularly because these are dishes meant for sharing, but also because Seychelles is one of the best places in town to experience a real Athenian night out.</p>

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<p><strong>Athens’ New-School Wine Bars: </strong>The economic crisis that has plagued Greece for the past five years has led to changes on the Athenian culinary scene, including the opening of three new types of venues that seem to be reflective of the times. The first two – cupcake places and frozen yogurt shops – are imports from abroad, perhaps indicative of a population in need of something sweet, comforting and affordable. On the other hand, the third trend, wine bars, digs deep into Greece’s roots, representing a fascinating phenomenon in a country that is one of the world’s oldest wine-producing regions.</p><p>In antiquity Greek wine was exported across the Mediterranean, and the winemaking tradition has remained strong through the millennia. Yet although there are numerous wineries around the country, in the modern era Greek wine has never achieved the place it deserves on the international market. Production levels are low and vintners have long been unsure of how to market abroad. Outside Greece, one might at best find retsina, a sweet wine infused with pine resin that’s reminiscent of the wine used at Communion, or mavrodafni, a red varietal with an almost industrial flavor. But with Greeks themselves increasingly consuming wine these days, a new crop of wine bars have opened in Athens that give both locals and visitors the chance to taste some great domestic varieties.</p><p>Oinoscent (which we previously mentioned in our Athens Best Bites of 2012) was the first wine bar downtown when it opened a few years ago and is still very popular with young professionals. The atmosphere – which, unlike most bars in Athens, is strictly nonsmoking – is smart yet casual, with aluminum chairs and warm décor. (Don’t forget to check out the uber sleek wine cellar downstairs.) Oinoscent’s owners, two lovely brothers in their late twenties, are happy to offer informed advice in English about what to choose from the wine list. The snacks are also excellent: in addition to the barley rusks (think big, fat rustic croutons soaking in olive oil) and olives and the truly fantastic cheese platter, there is an excellent mozzarella di bufala with baby tomatoes.</p><p>The short, carefully selected wine list at Oinoscent is balanced between domestic and foreign wines, but the real adventure lies on the list’s Greek side. We particularly like the Mikri Kivotos, a blend of agiorgitiko from the Nemea region of the Peloponnese and xinomavro from Amyntaio in Northern Greece. Often characterized as Greece’s merlot, xinomavro is one of the most promising Greek varieties, at once dark (mavro means “black”), dry and rich in flavor. If you are aiming for white, another interesting option is Magiko Vouno (“Magic Mountain”), made by Lazaridi Winery in Drama in Northern Greece. This is a popular sauvignon blanc in Greece and is an elegant, exuberant wine with fruity notes.</p><p>Fabrica Di Vino opened in August 2011 in a spot formerly home to a legendary 1990s Athens club, Factory. Tucked in a quiet street in Omonia, this is a gritty urban bar with décor that’s a mixture of rustic and urban. The front room is like a hallway, with a long, sleek bar, while the back room is a decorator’s mishmash of vintage furniture, including an old bed and an assortment of wooden tables of varying sizes. The wine list is long and detailed – this is the place to come if you like variety. The venue is popular with a younger, more alternative crowd who nibble away at the mezes, including a “rustic” spicy sausage and a tasty cheese platter. But the main reason to come here is the wine; ask the waiters to help you make a selection, since they know their stuff pretty well. (Editor's note: Sadly, based on our experience during a recent visit here, we can no longer recommend this venue.)</p><p>Located just off Ermou, Athens’ biggest commercial street, Heteroclito (which means “heterogenous”) opened its doors in late summer 2012. The place is our favorite in terms of décor: the downstairs area is like a nonsmoking French bistro, while the smoking area upstairs is an ode to the ’60s and ’70s in Athens, with mosaic floors and Danish furniture. The emphasis here is on Greek wine and Greek grape varieties, something that the owners, Madeleine and Chrysoula, are always keen to point out. Indeed, all of the wines served by the glass are Greek.</p><p>We loved the malagousia – one of Greece’s best-known aromatic varieties, grown in both the Peloponnese and Northern Greece – from Arvanitidis Winery outside Thessaloniki. This delicate, aromatic white grape had become virtually extinct by the 1980s, when Gerovassiliou Winery resuscitated it and turned it into a leading Greek wine, especially in the foreign market. Greece’s dessert wine tradition is also worthy of note. Some of the country’s best dessert wines are produced by a cooperative on the island of Samos. The award-winning Samos Nectar, which has a rich, sweet taste with an almost raisin-like aftertaste, is considered one of the best in its category – and, at €4 per glass, it’s also a great deal.</p><p>There are two even newer entries to the roster of downtown Athens wine bars. By the Glass took over one of the Syntagma area’s most beautiful arcades, opposite the city’s Russian Orthodox church, to open a clean (no smoking allowed) bar with an interesting twist. Customers can pick and choose what they want to try and in what quantity, with glasses offered in 25 ml, 75 and 150 ml. There are about 90 labels available, of which 19 are offered by the glass, making the venue a great place to taste different varieties. By the Glass attracts a somewhat older and more mature clientele.</p><p>Also brand-new, Harvest is located at one of our favorite street corners, where the pedestrianized Aiolou meets Evripidou, a traditional downtown trade street famous for its spices and pastirma shops. Run by the young and enthusiastic Evangelia Kontopoulou, Harvest is a place we have grown to love. The décor – funky ceramic tiles on the walls, large communal tables – is gorgeous. Thanks to both the menu and the wine list, Harvest attracts a mixed crowd, from young couples and singles to folks in their sixties. The food selection is reason enough to come here, though the tapas are on the pricey side. In our opinion, the best value-for-money items are the tostas, open grilled sandwiches served with salad on the side, of which our favorite is the one with jamón (Spanish ham) and tomato. We’re also fond of the (very Spanish) fabada, a delicious mixture of white baby beans and chorizo in red sauce.</p><p>We imagine that in a few years from now, Athens will most likely have far fewer cupcake bakeries and frozen yogurt stands. This new crop of wine bars, on the other hand, seems like it’s here to stay. We’ll drink to that.</p><p>Note: Opening and closing times are to be taken with a grain of salt, as Athens bars close when people go home.</p>

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<p><strong>Cretan Comforts: </strong>It all started about six years ago, when Cretan cuisine – food from Crete, one of Greece’s largest and most famous islands – became fashionable in Athens. Suddenly, Cretan restaurants started popping up all around the city. Traditional Cretan dishes such as the rustic dakos (barley rusk in extra-virgin olive oil topped with finely chopped tomato and&nbsp;mizithra, a light, crumbly white cheese with a slightly sour aftertaste) became popular in Greek tavernas.</p><p>Unlike those fashionable restaurants, though, Kriti (“Crete”) predates the Cretan fad and – more importantly – serves the real thing. Hidden in one of Athens’ many arcades and in a rather unappealing location, drab and hectic Kanigos Square in downtown Athens, Kriti is a shrine to everything Cretan. Cast-iron figures of famous Cretans hang on the walls, while the music that sometimes blares through the speakers is usually that of Nikos Xylouris, the island’s most famous singer. Be warned, however, that this is not your average restaurant. It does not even have a menu; the owner and his daughter or his wife will come over to your table and list the dishes on offer.</p><p>Kriti is not a place to go for a quick bite; prepare to spend a minimum of three hours here. The service is quite slow as there are simply not enough people working at the restaurant to meet demand, but that’s really part of the charm. Every time you remind Takis, the owner, that you need the bill, he’ll serve you another round of raki. Try finding authentic hospitality like that in some of the other “Cretan” joints in town.</p>

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<p><strong>Talking Dough: </strong>Since its name derives from the Turkish word <em>peynir</em> (cheese), it’s no surprise that Athens’ best <em>peinirli</em> (πεϊνιρλί, “with cheese”), a boat-shaped flatbread similar to <em>pide</em> in Turkey and <em>khachapuri</em> in Georgia, is usually found at old, specialized shops or eateries owned by families who originally came from Asia Minor or Pontus, the Greek name for the southern coast of the Black Sea, in the early 20th century.</p><p>So when Spyros, the owner of Peinirli Ionias in Ambelokipoi, one of the most popular peinirli takeaways in downtown Athens, casually mentions that he originally hails from the Ionian island of Corfu –&nbsp;nowhere near Asia Minor, another name for Turkey’s Anatolia region –&nbsp;we are left scratching our heads. Sensing our confusion, he quickly adds that he learned the art of peinirli-making directly from the source, so to speak: his late father- and mother-in-law, who both emigrated to Athens as part of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#781e2a] underline" href="https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/athens/2012/peinirli/"><u>Peinirli</u></a> may be one of many cultural and culinary traditions that accompanied these Greeks from Asia Minor and the Black Sea, but we would argue that it’s certainly one of the tastiest. The elastic dough is shaped like a boat and various toppings are placed inside before being baked in a wood-burning oven. Although peinirli can contain just about anything, traditional recipes call for <em>kasseri</em> cheese, spicy cured meats like <em>pastourma</em> and <em>soutzouki, </em>a sunny-side-up egg and, most importantly, high-quality full-fat butter, which is melted and then brushed on the warm dough as soon as it comes out of the oven.</p><p>All this buttery goodness is one of the reasons peinirli is adored by pretty much everyone (people joke that it’s one of the few Greek dishes that doesn’t get shared). When we duck into Spyros’ shop on busy Panormou Street, the first thing we notice –&nbsp;besides the aroma of freshly baked dough – is a queue of people of all ages and from all walks of life. To feed this hungry crowd, Spyros and a few other workers constantly have their hands in dough and Alexandros, Spyros’ son, mans the wood-burning oven, putting in and taking out peinirlis as quickly as he can.</p><p>The peinirli shop of his father-in-law, Giorgos Mavromatis, was equally popular, if not more so. Opened in the 1950s in Nea Ionia, a neighborhood primarily inhabited by Greeks from Asia Minor, the shop didn’t even have a name. But Mr. and Mrs. Mavromatis had a secret family dough recipe, a wood-burning oven and a passion for good food, and soon the crowds flocked to their unassuming spot.</p><p>Spyros recalls neighborhood women queuing with a container in their hands: they had prepared their own fillings at home and could be quite competitive, each claiming that hers was the best. A standard homemade filling consisted of feta, <em>anthotiro</em> (a mild white cheese similar to ricotta), chopped dill and a beaten egg, which was then topped with grated <em>kefalotyri</em>, a hard salty cheese made with sheep and goat’s milk. This happened on a daily basis up until the 1980s, according to Spyros.</p><p>Spyros’ philosophy is simple: love what you do, don’t use machines, never freeze anything and always close by 5:30 p.m.</p><p>Inheriting Giorgos’ passion for baking and wishing to continue his in-laws’ legacy, Spyros decided to quit his career as a graphic designer and open his own peinirli shop in 2001. This time it had a name: Peinirli Ionias, which translates as “Peinirli from Ionia,” Ionia being the Greek name for central coastal Anatolia.</p><p>The most important thing Giorgos passed down was his reverence for the dough, which will make or break a peinirli. A loving person outside of the kitchen, his father-in-law was a strict perfectionist when it came to making his signature dish. “He never moved away from his dough, always keeping an eye on it, truly caring for it,” says Spyros. And when he trained Spyros and other members of the family in the art of peinirli-making, he was always watching their movements and correcting them, admonishing them to do it perfectly because “making it well” was not good enough.</p><p>So it’s no surprise that Spyros also places a huge emphasis on the dough. “It talks to you!” he exclaims. Like many old-school bakers and housewives in Greece, he believes that the dough is much better when kneaded by hand rather than a soulless machine. (Some people don’t even allow anyone else to touch their dough before it’s baked, adhering to the superstition that another’s touch will negatively affect the final result.)</p><p>Overall, his philosophy is simple and uncompromising: love what you do, don’t use machines, never freeze anything and always close by 5:30 p.m. The latter is especially important, according to Spyros, because it allows everyone to return to the shop full of energy the next morning, ready to start fresh. “Happy employees do better work,” he points out with a kind smile on his face. “You can tell they are all happy, they’ve been working by my side for years, everyone in here is like family to me.”</p><p>Apart from peinirlis, the shop also offers cheese and spinach pies, open-faced sandwiches and five to six different types of bread.&nbsp;You will find the day’s offerings written on a backboard menu hanging on the wall. Most people take their order to go, as there are no tables or seats in the small but pleasant space. And even though the shop is in an area with lots of offices, it doesn’t offer delivery service. According to Spyros, food delivery is impersonal and unbefitting homemade food –&nbsp;you need to see where your food is being prepared and by whom.</p><p>Plus, if his customers didn’t come into the shop, he wouldn’t be able to get to know them. “We have a personal relationship with our regulars and that makes a huge difference,” says Spyros. “They don’t stop by only for the tasty food but also to say a <em>kalimera</em>, and that’s the highlight of my job.” We have to agree: while the best peinirli in town is certainly a big draw, a warm “kalimera” from Spyros is enough to keep us coming back.</p>

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<p><strong>Time Travel Taverna: </strong>In business since 1887, Diporto – a defiantly traditional spot in downtown Athens – has no sign and no menu. The staff doesn’t speak a word of English, and you might have to share a table with eccentric old men who look like they stepped out of a folk ballad. You will probably have to mime your order or draw it on the paper tablecloth. But if you ever wondered what it would be like to eat in a working-class Greek taverna circa 1950, read on.</p><p>Diporto is located smack in the middle of what is – at least by day – one of the Athens’ most fascinating areas, home to a variety of specialized marketplaces. Varvakeios, one of the few of its kind in Europe, is the city’s largest fish and meat market, in operation since 1886. Around this enormous, chaotic market, where vendors try to outdo each other in shouting, lies Athens’ traditional center of trade, with streets devoted to specific merchandise: hardware stores and bric-a-brac on Athinas Street; spices, cheeses, kitchen equipment and plants on Evripidou and Sofokleous; doorknobs on Vissis (yes, there is a street dedicated solely to doorknobs).</p><p>The basement-level taverna – whose name means “having two doors,” for the very simple reason that there are two doors leading inside – is easy to miss, given the lack of a sign and fact that the place is literally underground. Once you walk down the well-worn steps, a cavernous world of wonders awaits you. The place is dark, with a faded concrete-block mosaic floor and one wall covered in wine barrels, which, unlike at most Athenian taverns, are not meant purely for décor but are actually used to store wine. From the vintage marble sinks and old-fashioned aluminum wine jugs to the garlic wreaths next to a 1950s fridge and the strong smell of food and smoke that sticks to your clothes, the atmosphere is so reminiscent of the Greece of another era as to be almost eerie, as if through stepping through those two doors you have somehow traveled back in time.</p><p>This is the kind of place where you can see pretty much anyone fromthe mayor of Athens to elderly men working in the market who like yelling about politics and their love lives (“I had a Bulgarian girlfriend for five years and then she died,” one man confided to another the last time we were there). There are just eight wooden tables and chairs, meaning that when it’s crowded you might have to sit with total strangers in front of the open kitchen, which is overflowing with pots and pans. The rustic peasant bread is placed directly on the paper tablecloth, without a basket or napkins – all the better for you to tear it with your hands.</p><p>Diners don’t come to Diporto looking for the latest in culinary experimentation; choices are limited to only five or six dishes each day, based on what’s in season and available in the nearby markets. The white-haired owner, Mitsos, a rather brusque athletic figure, lets you know what’s on offer. The venue’s wintertime specialty – and, to our minds, the highlight of a meal at Diporto – is an excellent chickpea soup that comes in a large, shallow bowl filled to the brim and doused with olive oil; it’s enough to feed two people. This is simple home cooking, the chickpeas so soft they almost melt in your mouth. Other dishes, such as Greek salad, a plate of small fried fish, fried sausage or bean soup, are also consistently good.</p><p>The house white is a good, cloudy retsina and – as is typical in tavernas – it is ordered by the kilo (a quarter, a half kilo or a kilo) and brought to your table in aluminum wine jugs. Retsina, which has been produced in Greece for more than 2000 years, is essentially white wine infused with pine resin, originally added by the ancient Greeks as a preservative. Often this is the simplest, cheapest wine available, but when it’s good there is something deeply comforting about it, making it the ideal accompaniment to Diporto’s home-style cooking.</p><p>As one might expect, this is not the kind of place that will necessarily bring you an itemized bill – you’ll have to mime or draw on your tablecloth if you want one. A salad, a chickpea soup, some fish and a quarter-kilo of wine should not cost more than €20. Prices, alas, are the one thing that has kept up with the times here.</p><p>This review was originally published on January 10, 2013.</p>

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<p><strong>Cretan Hut: </strong>On Crete, endowed with fertile soil and an enviable climate, devotion to the island’s culinary traditions runs deep. This is even the case for people who have family ties to Crete but did not live there themselves, like Dimitris Katakis, who runs To Mitato tou Psiloriti, a small Cretan deli in Athens.</p><p>In 1950 his grandparents left Crete, despite their great love for their native island, to go to Athens for better job opportunities – the postwar era saw many Greeks move to cities or even abroad in search of a better life. Yet the flavors and traditions of Crete, one of the southernmost points in Europe and the largest island in Greece, stayed with them and were lovingly passed on to their children and grandchildren.</p><p>In 1992, Dimitris’ parents, in an effort spearheaded by his mother, Clio Bali, opened a Cretan deli in Ambelokipi, the neighborhood where Clio grew up and which is known for its large Cretan population. She named it To Mitato tou Psiloriti – mitato is the term used on the Cyclades, mostly on Crete, for a small mountain hut used by shepherds (and that sometimes functioned as an informal cheesemaking workshop, at least in olden times). There are plenty of them on Mount Psiloritis, the highest peak in Crete and the place where, according to mythology, Zeus grew up.</p><p>Dimitris Katakis in front of To Mitato tou Psiloriti, the small Cretan deli he runs in Athens, photo by Manteau Stam Select an Image</p><p>Now in his early 30s, Dimitris grew up in the shop, helping his mom and becoming closely acquainted with the flavors and culinary secrets of Crete from an early age. Clio alone chose the products for the first 15 years; after that, she did it with the help of Dimitris, who had become a bona fide expert. “He always knew more than me,” she tells us with pride (you can still find her hanging around the shop). Around this time, Dimitris discovered a passion for cooking. He got a butcher’s training diploma and later graduated from the Merchant Navy school, which allowed him to travel around the world and taste different foods. Yet he couldn’t stay away from Greece. After returning back to base, he decided take over the shop that he loved so much.</p><p>Considered by some as the original Mediterranean diet, Cretan cuisine is simple, seasonal and relies largely on three star ingredients: grains, olive oil and wine. Fruit and vegetables, legumes, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy also play an important role, while red meat and sugars are consumed in smaller amounts. This philosophy around food and diet has remarkably survived over the centuries, likely because it is passed down with a strong sense of tradition and pride.</p><p>This small, simple shop in a densely built area in central Athens is imbued with that sense of tradition and pride – it also offers a form of travel, bringing you as close to Crete and its culinary culture as you can get without leaving the city.</p><p>This small, simple shop in a densely built area in central Athens is imbued with that sense of tradition and pride – it also offers a form of travel, bringing you as close to Crete and its culinary culture as you can get without leaving the city. The products are carefully selected, and occasionally Dimitris will go to Crete to find new items. Currently they offer a great selection of traditional types of pasta and grains like striftaria, trahana and xinohontro, Cretan couscous and cracked wheat, rusks, snails, pulses, olives and olive oil, vine leaves, vinegars and other staples of the Cretan diet.</p><p>We’re particularly enamored with the many culinary herbs and botanical teas that they stock. Around 2,000 edible plants and herbs grow wild in Crete, 160 of which are native to the island. An important part of the Cretan diet is the wide use of herbs, both in food and also as remedies. Here, among many herbs and spices, you will find malotira (“mountain tea”) and dictamo (Origanum dictamnus, or the dittany of Crete), a highly medicinal herb. Upon request they will ship over rare wild greens like stamnagathi, and wild artichokes, when in season.</p><p>Cretan meat and cheese products at To Mitato tou Psiloriti, a small Cretan deli in Athens, photo by Manteau Stam Select an Image</p><p>Among the reasons why people come to this little shop from all corners of Athens is the glass case fridge that greets you as you enter the shop. It’s packed with cured meats and, of course, amazing dairy products. You’ll find different kinds of Cretan sausages and salami – all artisanal – like the spicy beef salami and the goat salami, both made by the same producer in Chania. There’s the Cretan delicacy apaki, vinegar-cured pork tenderloin that is then smoked with local herbs like rosemary, thyme and oregano; here you can also find it made of chicken. Xidato loukaniko is another specialty of Crete, and the version they stock is fantastic. It’s a pork sausage made with whole chunks of meat rather than mince and has a slightly tangy flavor from the vinegar in which the meat is cured for a couple of days before being made into a sausage. The smoked pork steaks, which are vacuum-packed individually, are also popular.</p><p>Given Dimitris’ expertise, it’s no surprise that the cheeses are all fabulous. Some are fresh and creamy like galotyri and xynomyzithra while others are hard and aged in different ways like the famous Cretan graviera and kefalotyri. Among our favorites are the two-year aged sheep and goat milk graviera with thyme from Heraklion, the smoked graviera, and the 18-month aged kefalograviera, which is great for grating over pasta dishes. The shop is also where we source our fresh sweet myzithra and dried athotyro (similar to ricotta salata).</p><p>Every Friday, Dimitris gets in an order of fresh chickens, roosters, eggs and organic beef shipped straight from a traditional farm in Rethymno. They are usually sold out on the same day, so it’s best to order ahead. We also love their variety of natural sea salt, especially the fleur de sel from Gavdos, a tiny island just south of Crete, and the one from Kissamos, in western Crete, that comes unpackaged and is sold by the kilo. Their freezer is full of rare goodies – handmade Cretan savory pies like fennel pie, zucchini blossoms stuffed with rice and herbs, cheese pie from Sfakia (a village near Chania) and Chaniotiki tourta, a lamb (or goat) pie from Chania that is traditionally eaten during Easter. As for desserts, the freezer also contains lychnarakia from the town of Ierapetra, a delicious sweet treat that is the size of a cupcake and made with fresh cheese.</p><p>To Mitato tou Psiloriti, photo by Manteau Stam Select an Image</p><p>Last but certainly not least, the shop also carries Cretan wines like marouvas (red) and vidiano (white) and, of course, the most beloved drink of Crete, tsikoudia (Cretan-style grappa).</p><p>Most importantly, a visit to the shop means that you’ll get to meet Dimitris and discover his passion for the products he sells and his love for this little shop that his mother set up. He’ll not only greet you with kindness but also happily explain each product in the store and how to use it. In the near future, he plans to renovate the physical building and get an online shop up and running so that he can spread the gospel of Cretan cuisine to an even wider audience.</p><p>This article was originally published on October 14, 2020.</p>

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<p><strong>Grecian (Gelato) Formula: </strong>Evi Papadopoulou is no stranger to the culinary arts. A well-regarded food journalist who has written articles on pastries and desserts in the top Greek gastronomy publications, she is also a classically trained chef. She studied at the culinary school of renowned Italian pastry chef Iginio Massari and followed that up with specialized training in making artisanal gelato at Francesco Palmieri’s prestigious laboratory in Puglia, Italy.</p><p>In July of 2014, Papadopoulou opened Le Greche, a gelato parlor tucked away on Mitropoleos Street, right off Syntagma Square. The parlor itself is straight out of an Alphonse Mucha painting and has an Art Nouveau feel, with its airy, muted color palette. Since it opened, the shop has accumulated quite a cult following – and for good reason.</p><p>These days, most "artisanal gelato" is generally prepared using ready-made industrial powder mixes that contain artificial coloring, flavors, margarine, preservatives and other additives to enhance flavor, improve structure and prolong shelf life. However, at Le Greche the philosophy is quite the opposite: Papadopoulou is committed to using quality, fresh, all-natural products and impeccably sourced ingredients from Greece and Italy. Only the best products make it through the doors of her laboratory, and then they are put through a series of blind taste tests to determine the best flavor combinations and uses. She makes her gelato from scratch according to classic Italian recipes. The rest of their process is top secret and uniquely Le Greche’s own. The proof is in the final product, which is a velvety-textured, well-balanced and flavorful gelato.</p><p>Those carefully sourced ingredients, of course, play a starring role. The ricotta comes from Crete, dried figs from Kalamata, raisins from Corinth, honey from the Cyclades, fresh milk and strained Greek yogurt from local farms, eggs from Megara, sour cherries from Macedonia, lemons and melons from Argos, oranges from Laconia and sweet wines from the islands of Lemnos and Santorini.</p><p>We recently stopped by and indulged in several of Le Greche’s quintessential Greek gelato flavors. For a more minimal and simplistic touch, the Greek yogurt with raisins from Corinth is an ideal option, with its delicate, refreshing tang. Corinth is a region that is famous for its intensely flavored petite raisins, and it has been producing this specialty dried fruit since the 4th century B.C. The fig and mascarpone gelato is one of the most popular among locals; the dried, caramelized figs come from Kalamata, a region known (to Greeks at least) for having the most delicious figs in the world.</p><p>For cocktail lovers, the lemon-mint sorbet is a revitalizing and zesty palate-cleanser that tastes exactly like a mojito. The fruity sorbet selection is also a great option for those looking to avoid dairy.</p><p>For those with a sweet tooth or a soft spot for pastries, the baklava and cream is a no-brainer. It’s essentially a creamy deconstructed baklava in a cup comprised of crunchy morsels of phyllo and dabs of gooey filling, finished off with a hint of syrup and spices from Asia Minor, making it perhaps the ultimate expression of this shop’s Greek take on gelato.</p>

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<p><strong>Pillar of Piraeus: </strong>Piraeus – located about 10 kilometers south of downtown Athens – is not just the largest port of Greece, but it is also among the top five most important ports in Europe. Aside from the port, Piraeus covers a large area, some of which is residential and other parts which are more industrial. Though it may seem chaotic at first glance – especially for the many visitors who arrive at the port by ferry from a lovely little island and are shocked to suddenly find themselves in a grey city – the truth is that Piraeus hides a nostalgic flair and charm that is rare to come across in cities these days.</p><p>Due to the fact that Piraeus is the main link between Athens and many of the nearby islands, it has historically been inhabited by islanders, sailors and seamen. Margaro, short for Margarita, was one of the islanders that moved from Mykonos to Piraeus in the early 20th century. In 1917, young Margaro opened her first oinopoleion, an old-school term used for an eatery that sells wine. It was located right in the heart of Piraeus, on Kountouriotou street.</p><p>In the early 1940s, right after Greece was liberated from Nazi occupation, Margaro moved her restaurant to another address in Piraiki, the southwest coastal area of Piraeus. The place was hidden in a corner right by the Greek Naval Academy, and Margaro worked for years serving food – daily casseroles and baked dishes – to the sailors and dockworkers. Margaro kept wine in large barrels stored in the eatery’s basement; back then, almost every household in the neighborhood used to get its wine from her.</p><p>During the 1970s, her son, Lazaros, took over the taverna. Lazaros, who was in his early thirties at the time, started altering the menu, gradually adding more fish; fresh, simple, mostly small and affordable fish, such as anchovies and fried smelt. The eatery’s identity and menu was soon shaped anew, turning it into one of the most historic places to eat in the whole of Attica – a true cult favorite.</p><p>Margaro’s location is unique. When the weather is good, the restaurant scatters tables out in the street. You may end up eating right by the gate of the Naval Academy, watching the young cadets dressed in their sparkling white uniforms entering and exiting their school premises. The menu is small (in fact, there's no written version) and that’s its main charm: specials include fried red mullet or koutsomoura (a local type of red mullet), fried shrimp and scampi (when in season) and, occasionally, fried pandora (a white fish in the sea bream family) if they come across it fresh at the fish market. The fish, all fried on a two-burner stove, are served with fresh bread and Margaro’s famous tomato salad. And that’s about it – all of Margaro’s regulars already know their order!</p><p>The fish and seafood at Margaro is served extremely fresh and always perfectly fried and seasoned: crispy on the outside, juicy and full of flavor inside. The salad, which lands first on the table along with the bread, is always made with flavorful tomatoes and thinly cut sweet onions, topped with a lovely creamy feta from Argos (in the Peloponnese), drizzled with a generous amount of olive oil and sprinkled with wild oregano. Make sure you dunk the bread into the salad to enjoy every bit of the olive oil blended with the tomato juices. To be able to enjoy such quality, in such an environment and on such a budget is simply precious, and is why this restaurant has reached legendary status.</p><p>Today, Margaro is run by the founder’s four grandchildren; Yiannis, Constantinos, Margarita, and Spyros. All four of them literally grew up in the restaurant, and – taking after their grandmother – they are some of Greece’s frying masters! Lazaros is still around, now in his late eighties, but still there to make sure things roll out just fine, as they have for the past several decades.</p><p>Margaro is a can’t-miss spot where visitors can enjoy a true Greek experience. For years, they’ve operated with the same schedule: open every day from noon to midnight, except Sundays when they close at 5:30 p.m. in order to do the general cleaning. If you go on a weekend, make sure you go early as the tables fill up in no time.</p><p>Try to go while it’s still light out; grab a small table, ideally in the middle of the street and close to the Naval Academy gate. Order a bottle of ouzo or the house wine, relax, and take your time. Place your order: salad, mullet and either the scampi or prawns. The fish and seafood is served whole, as is common in Greece. Enjoy it slowly, using your hands to pull the mullet from the bones and peel off the shells from the shrimp or scampi. Observe how the Greeks eat their fish – they are truly masters leaving behind only tiny bones, including the fish heads. Breath in the moment here, smell the sea breeze and enjoy your drinks. When you are finally ready to bring the afternoon to a close, don’t forget the dessert: a meal at Margaro meal usually ends with a complimentary handmade treat, usually a semolina halva or a luscious portokalopita, a syrupy orange cake – yet another of grandma Margaro’s legacies.</p>

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