The historic Plaka district might be one of Athens’ most popular tourist destinations, but there’s another side to the area that visitors rarely see – one where the city’s ancient heart beats a little louder. Under the shadow of the Acropolis, this is the place that saw the birth of classical Greek and Western civilization and also the turbulent arrival of Christianity. There are traces here of the ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans, found in the ruins, churches, local houses and – most importantly – in the food. On this tour we will explore the Plaka’s culinary diamonds in the touristy rough while at the same time getting a sense of how this ancient district shaped the growth of modern Athens. Our first stop will be in one of Athens’ finest bakeries, where we will try handmade goods that have been part of the Athenian diet since ancient Greek and Ottoman times. From there we will make our way into the backstreets of the Plaka, beyond the throngs of tourists and into an area that is one of Orthodox Christianity’s biggest religious centers. We’ll walk through a cluster of church-supply and priest-vestment shops, some offering tailor-made ceremonial garments, and stop at a small deli specializing in Greek olive oil. Here, we taste several olive oils side by side, learning how freshness, variety, and region shape flavor and quality in one of Greece’s most essential ingredients. Crossing the outcrop of the Acropolis, we will visit the scenic neighborhood of Anafiotika – a jumble of whitewashed homes built in the 19th century by refugees from the Greek islands – where we will stop by a family-run store that stocks hard-to-find seasonal products from across Greece and drop into a local institution famous for its meatballs bathed in a cumin-scented tomato sauce. Moving on to nearby Syntagma, a market area since Roman times, we will get a taste of Greek kebab, made with tender loving care by the same family for three generations, and will then go behind-the-scenes at an old-fashioned tradesmen’s canteen, where the local workers choose their food directly from the many pots in the kitchen. We will finish our tour on a sweet note: at one of Athens’ oldest patisseries, where we will try classic desserts based on recipes from the island of Hydra. Like everything else tasted on this food tour in Plaka, these are dishes with ancient roots, yet they are still alive as ever in today’s Athens.
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