While I enjoyed my summer holidays on one of the Greek island, I couldn’t go without eating delicious traditional Greek food and beverage. Going to Greece is a special culinary experience: you can find Greek food on every corner, from gyros, moussaka, to the sea food, etc.
Greek food and your diet
Gyros is probably most known typical Greek food. It’s made of meat (pork, chicken, or other meat) usually served wrapped in a flatbread together with tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce.
Greece is probably not a perfect place for vegans although every good restaurant will offer you more than just “traditional” French fries 😉 I really liked Dolmades, which is a typical Greek dish made of rice and Greek herb, rolled into grape leaves. Also, everyone who is on a low-fat diet, forget it. Greeks make every food/dish with lots of olive oil and pretty salty, at least this is what they have done every time when I tried their food. Don’t be scared of the Greek cuisine: it is very delicious, and I would definitely recommend trying their traditional Greek yogurt with honey, mousaka, gyros, Greek salad with feta cheese, … You will go on a diet after you get home. 🙂
When going to Greece you will notice that they serve French fries with everything, seriously. And there is a story I heard about how Greeks adopted potato for its one:
In 1828 when Greece finally become independent (Liberated from Turkish supremacy) Ioannis Kapodistrias the “Governor of Greece” asked the Greek people to plant potatoes. But the Greeks weren’t so enthusiastic about it. So, as he knows the contemporary Greek attitudes, he ordered to plant the field full of potatoes and placed the guards around the field to guard the crop. And as the crop has to be of great importance, since is so well guarded, some people started stealing the potatoes. However, the guards have been ordered to turn a blind eye to such behavior. Soon, all of the crop was stolen.
…. and that’s how Greeks started to plant potatoes. And since they have a lot of oil and salt, their most famous form of potato dish is French fries. A little bit of joke 🙂 but Greeks make really delicious potatoes, they cooked it and then open roasted with olive oil, oregano, and lemon juice, yummy.
Greek beverage
There are two traditional Greek alcohol drinks you should know about, most famous is Ouzo (of course), and Metaxa. Ouzo is an anise-flavoured alcoholic beverage. Which you can drink alone or mix it with water or ice cubes, in this case, it will turn white (looks like milk). Metaxa is a Greek distilled alcohol spirit, it’s blend of brandy and wine made from sun-dried Savatiano, Sultana, and Black Corinth grape varieties. And then blended with an aged Muscat wine from the Aegean islands of Samos and Lemnos. You can drink it as it is, mixed it with tonic, or add it to cocktails.
All coffee lovers have to try their cold coffee, no that’s not an iced coffee, it’s a special Greek cold coffee. Basically, it’s a foam-covered iced coffee drink made from instant coffee. While it’s prepared, they mix it to get natural cream and then they add ice cubes – and that’s it. It’s called “Frappé” and you can get yours with sugar, milk, both or none. I had one with none and it was very good and especially refreshing, something you don’t expect for a coffee.
Another drink is something like a coffee liqueur, it’s basically ouzo with coffee and anise, very sweet and very delicious, but it has to be served cold. Greeks drink it as a liqueur, add it to coffee or when baking biscuits.
Have you ever been to Greece and/or try their delicious traditional food and beverage?
Author: Urska
Urška is working in AgTech startup and love to spend time outside in nature. She like to do outdoor sport such as hiking, running, and swimming in the sea. Her biggest wish is to travel the world to explore new cultures and try out all the delicious fruits mother nature has to offer.
Tasty foods! I love dolmades 🙂
hehe, yeah me too 🙂
Would love to have an authentic gyro one day and not one from when I lived in Montana haha #feetdotravel
Lolo I think there is only one option. Book a plane ticket to Greece 😉 🙂 hihihihi
I have been to Greece and we have Greeks friends who come to the US every year. Therefore, I have tried a good variety of dishes from the country. The other good thing is that we have a yearly Greek festival very close to where we live. That is another great opportunity to indulge in as many dishes and sweets as possible. #feetdotravel
wauu Ruth, awesome! then you’re an expert on Greek food. Wish we would also have Greek festival every year 🙂
Yummy!! The anise coffee sounds interesting!
Yeah, the anise coffee liqueur is super delicious 😉 definitely worth trying.
Greek food is my favourite in the whole world! I spent three months in Greece eating away! I had a frappe or two every day, and loved gyros! I also love suflaki and the eggplant lasagne type of thing. Forgot what it was called haha!
I’ve never found a Tzatziki Sauce as tasty as in Greece itself. Such delicious food! Only the Ouzo is not quite my thing 😉
I love Greek food, but you are so right about the diet. It’s all that delicious warm bread I can’t resist. Greeek food definitely tastes better in Greece! 😉
We love Greek food, they seem to also do the most succulent meats and your right about the olive oil and the salt, absolutely scrummy! Our mouths are watering! #feetdotravel
A nice selection of things here to try. I visited Greece a few weeks back and had a great time and thought the food was spot on. Would love to return one day and try some more.
Indeed! Greeks really have a great variety of traditional dishes, plus they are all very delicious.
Being vegetarians, I think these are some dishes that we would try out. French fries have been our saviour in many places in Europe on our hunt for vegetarian food.
Sorry to hear that, but have to say “been there done that”. I also find myself in a difficult situation from time to time when looking for a good and healthy vegan food when traveling around the world. But I see things are moving in the right direction. Restaurants are noticing an increase in demand for vegetarian and vegan foods and includes them in their menus. To be honest I was surprised and excited when looking at the menu in one restaurant (in the old city center of Rhodes) and they had a variety of vegan dishes to choose from.
I love Greek and Turkish food – there are many similarities and sometimes the difference is only in the name! The food is healthy and delicious – absolutely love it! Thanks for sharing
Me too 🙂
We would like to try them all! Especially the Anise coffee. We might be visiting Greece next year. Bookmarking this post. Thanks for sharing.
We love Greek food! Thanks for sharing a wonderful post with us that made us very hungry and thirsty. We didn’t know about the Anise coffee liquor so we will make to try it out one day! Keep up the great work