In Greece, the very first thing individuals ask on the telephone isn’t “How are you?” however moderately “The place are you?” The belief is that you simply’re out—sipping espresso as cube clatter throughout a backgammon board, refilling your glass with home wine straight from a barrel, or maybe snacking on meze underneath the timber of a scenic sq.. On the Athenian desk, nobody’s in a rush—mates drift in, neighbors cease by, and even the server would possibly pause for a smoke. Lingering is constructed into the eating expertise.
I’ve lived in Athens for eight years, however I generally surprise how a lot actually “Athenian” meals I eat. Two dishes synonymous with the town are moussaka and pastitsio, but the variations common right now entered the repertoire only a century in the past, when Greece’s first meals author, Nikolaos Tselementes, printed his landmark Odigos Mageirikis (Cooking Information).
Defining Athenian delicacies is hard: Town has lengthy been a melting pot, and in contrast to different areas or islands, it by no means developed a tightly codified meals tradition of its personal. Few dishes are irrefutably Athenian—aside, maybe, from the curious Athinaïki salata, a mayonnaise-and-fish concoction devised to disguise leftovers. Nonetheless, a vibrant, distinctive native meals tradition exists in its waste-not philosophy from instances when meat was scarce, its reliance on seasonal produce from neighborhood markets, and its components and strategies that hark again to the Ottoman period.
So as a substitute of chasing one thing that isn’t there, I’ve thought of what truly attracts me to the desk right here—and has me going again for seconds. Once I’m away, I miss the best way a squeeze of lemon cuts the fats on a plate of slender lamb chops. I crave greens ready with virtually no fuss, and the playful audacity that leads Greeks to fry lamb testicles. And I at all times look ahead to clinking little glasses of raki throughout a protracted Sunday lunch, ready for the following spherical of small plates to reach.
This information strikes from the guts of Athens to its fringes (and even out towards the ocean), stopping at hole-in-the-wall road meals stands, underground tavernas, a wine bar tucked inside a ship restore warehouse, and establishments which have fed Athenians and guests for generations. The great thing about consuming right here is that, just like the desk itself, the tradition virtually calls for you pattern somewhat of every thing.
Diporto has no menu—dishes are learn out by the curmudgeonly however beloved proprietor Dimitris Koliolios. But one dish graces virtually each desk: chickpeas stewed with onion, garlic, thyme, and rosemary. To Greeks, it tastes like dwelling—particularly when paired with a wedge of feta nonetheless dripping with brine. There’s no signal pointing the best way to this cellar tavern that’s largely unchanged for 130 years, so that you’ll must observe your nostril and the sound of reside music to search out it.
Athenians have been legume lovers since antiquity, and beans and pulses stay a fixture on meze menus the town over as a more healthy, extra reasonably priced various to meat. Mavromatika, or black-eyed peas, are particularly frequent, usually tucked into small aspect salads. My favourite place to get pleasure from them is Louis Cafe, the place they’re tossed with parsley, onion, and crimson peppers—preferrred for nibbling whereas people-watching and absorbing the reside jazz that provides this new-school kafeneio, or café, its appeal.
One other well-known pulse turns into one other well-known Greek starter: fava—which, regardless of the title, isn’t created from fava beans however from yellow break up peas. The peas are puréed right into a thick, earthy unfold, often drizzled with loads of olive oil and topped with capers and thinly sliced uncooked onion. The onion’s chunk and the capers’ briny sharpness steadiness the richness of the purée. Fava is discovered everywhere in the Cycladic islands, nevertheless it’s most carefully related to Santorini. For an ideal rendition, head to this taverna, which plates the fava with one other Santorini basic: home made tomato paste. To finish the island expertise, seize a desk within the backyard, or sit inside to admire their tackle conventional décor, with wine barrels and a mural of a Greek village alongside the again wall.
That is one in every of many Greek dishes referred to as a “salad” that’s truly a dip. At its base is tarama—cod roe with a deep, salty sea taste—which will get blended with bread or potatoes. A Lenten staple, taramosalata seems on menus throughout Athens, however the model at Fita stands out for its gentle, fluffy texture and robust (however not overwhelming) fishy taste. I like that it comes with housemade potato chips—the right automobile for this creamy deal with. Fita was one in every of Athens’ first new-style tavernas, housed in a warehouse and furnished with old-school tables and chairs. When you’ve mopped up the final of the taramosalata, spring for grilled seafood, like langoustines or octopus, from their always-changing record of major dishes.
Spring in Athens is all about artichokes, and Xoxlidaki’s stand out for his or her simplicity: marinated in vinegar, drizzled with lemon, and completed with a sprig or two of dill. At basic meze joints, they’re usually displayed on a tray among the many day’s specials, lowered gracefully to your desk by the server. At Xoxlidaki, the transfer is to pair them with one of many 250 bottles of ouzo lining the partitions. In addition to the usual bottles from Lesvos, that are mentioned to be the very best, they’ve bottles from Thrace and different northern Greek cities, together with Serres, Thessaloniki, the Ionian islands, the Cyclades, and past.
Kakavia, or fish soup, as soon as fueled Greece’s fishermen, who would prepare dinner no matter they didn’t promote proper on their boats. Like many conventional dishes, it varies by area, however almost any fish or seafood can type its base, with seasonal greens tossed in together with loads of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Considered one of my favorites is at Pezoulas, a fish tavern as soon as common with performers and musicians that opened within the Fifties, with a tranquil outside patio harking back to a plateia on a Greek island. They serve a kakavia that’s nonetheless made the best way the primary era made it, that includes significantly bony fish that impart probably the most taste when cooked. The fish are boiled entire with herbs and greens like potatoes, celery, and carrots, and as soon as it’s gentle sufficient, you are taking the fish out of the water to wash it and take away the bones. The inventory turns into the bottom of the soup, together with puréed greens and chunks of meaty fish.
Marathonitis is technically in downtown Athens, nevertheless it feels worlds away. It’s a koutouki, a style of restaurant with a restricted menu, reside music, and partitions lined with barrels of home made wine. Right here, as in lots of koutoukia, the dish to order is the Athenian lamb chops, grilled on a wooden or charcoal hearth. They at all times come served with a lemon wedge or two, and whereas I get pleasure from them merely with a drizzle of lemon juice, it’s common to dollop them with tzatziki or yogurt. They’re lengthy and slender, with only a chunk or two of juicy meat on the base, and also you organize them by the kilo. To get pleasure from lamb chops like a neighborhood, get your fingers somewhat soiled (no utensils, please) and ensure to chunk off the skinny strip of meat that attaches to the bone from prime to backside—one in every of my favourite bits.
The custom of consuming ameletita—actually “unmentionable,” although generally referred to as “white caviar”—goes again to Byzantium, when the lower was prized for its aphrodisiac powers. Although few Athenians eat lamb testicles right now, you possibly can nonetheless discover them at a handful of tavernas, the place they’re usually fried and frivolously seasoned with oregano. They’ve a light-weight style no funkier than liver, and so they’re crispy on the skin and tender on the within. One such place is O Mitos, a Cretan spot the place you’re handed a paper menu and pencil. Flip to the again pages for the offal cuts, then bask within the workers’s admiration if you bravely place your order.
Patsas is arguably one in every of Greece’s most polarizing dishes. It has a powerful umami style and an excellent stronger aroma, but many Greeks maintain a nostalgic fondness for it, remembering household meals round Easter or Christmas. The soup is full of beef, pork, or lamb tripe—so don’t skip the lemon to chop the pungent flavors, particularly if it’s your first time. Patsas is a neighborhood hangover treatment; most magereia—tavernas the place the philosophy of sharing meals was extra necessary than any fancy strategies or components—serve it late, catering each to nighttime owls and early-shift employees. Probably the most well-known spot to strive it’s Epirus, one of many final remaining magereia within the huge Varvakeios Agora market. This soup is admittedly an acquired style, however Epirus offers vinegar and chile flakes (a rarity in spice-averse Athens!) to up the enchantment and produce out the deep, meaty flavors.
Souvlaki—meat grilled on a skewer—is Greece’s quintessential road meals, with roots way back to 1700 B.C.E., when archaeologists at Santorini’s Akrotiri settlement uncovered proof of an identical preparation. Even then, it was an affordable, moveable meal—and that spirit endures right now. One of many metropolis’s most memorable variations comes from an establishment close to Omonia Sq. that’s been serving skewers since 1951. Whereas most souvlaki stands persist with pork or hen, Lefteris does issues in a different way: beef, hand-shaped across the skewer into a protracted tube, served solely with onions, tomato, and parsley. (Don’t even take into consideration asking for fries or tzatziki.) The workers is brisk, used to locals ordering with a shorthand as exact as Philly cheesesteak lingo, and the souvlaki itself is not like anyplace else in Athens—easy, spicy, smoky, and nearer to kebab than the usual model. The meat is rarely dry, and although there’s no sauce, the tomatoes present sufficient juice to drip by way of the folds of the paper-wrapped pita.
Syrupy sweets gleam within the home windows of dessert outlets round Athens, however skip the tourist-magnet shows and go to Feyrouz. There, you’ll get a style of the culinary traditions that got here to Greece with the Ottomans—and a number of the metropolis’s greatest sweets. Andreas Kiltsiksis is the chef, however the true power behind the place is his mom, Eleni, who introduced her household recipes from Antakya, Turkey, to Athens. Her kunefe options recent kadaif, made by frivolously frying a skinny batter in skinny noodle-like strands. It’s piled like a crunchy cloud atop recent Cretan mizithra cheese and a mixture of sheep and goat graviera, a tough yellow cheese from the Peloponnese, and drizzled with native honey syrup. The kadaif crunches into the underside layers when you dig your spoon in, and the honey highlights the candy, buttery flavors of the cheeses.
Greek cheeses are as various because the islands themselves. Every area has its personal methodology of growing older, and the animals’ grazing habits lend distinctive flavors and textures. At Paleo Wine Bar in Piraeus, on the town’s southern edge, you would possibly discover graviera from Paros, thyme-scented graviera from Crete, tangy cow’s milk tyraki from Tinos, smoky PDO Metsovone from Metsovo, or the standard volaki of Andros—good with a glass of raki or tsipouro. The choice shifts with availability however at all times attracts from throughout the nation. Housed in a former fisherman’s warehouse, its hovering ceilings as soon as designed for boat restore, Paleo is the spot to linger over a easy cheese plate and a bottle from its intensive Greek wine cellar.
Kalivia, about an hour outdoors Athens, is close to a few of my favourite seashores alongside the Attica shoreline, like Chamolia and Vravrona. Once I come right here, I skip the post-beach fish and go straight for a meaty dinner. Many locals flock to The Triangle for the steaks—one of many few locations in Attica that nails a correct medium-rare—however I head for the kokoretsi: lengthy skewers of organ meats wrapped in intestines, seasoned with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. The outside crisps over the fireplace whereas the within stays gentle and flavorful. Proprietor Konstantinos Karakasilis, who as soon as ran his personal butcher store, hand-selects each lower, counting on relationships constructed over 30 years. The origins of this dish, like many in Greece, are debated—an identical preparation seems in Homer’s epics, although in recent times, Turkey has claimed it as their very own, calling it kokoreç.
