Kaliorexi kai gia mas

By the title you can guess that this post is about Greek food and drinks :)

Kaliorexi = bon appetit!!!

Gia mass = cheers!!!

 Greek cuisine has unique flavour. During your stay in Greece you will be pleasantly surprised by culinary specialties. „Greek Salad“, Souvlaki“, „Mousaka“ is all most people know of Greek cuisine.    However, Greek cuisine comprises of a large variety of dishes fully meat eaters and vegetarians. This is not surprising considering that Greece is the country where symposium originated and the homeland of the Epikaureian philosophers. Archestratos wrote the 1st cookbook in history in 330 BC reminding readers that cuisine is a mark of civilization. Greece has a gastronomic tradition of 4ooo years. However, like most national cuisines, Greek one was also influenced by neighboring countries, from the East and the West.While lunch is main meal in some countries, in Greece is actually dinner. Greek religiously preserved the custom of gathering around the table to enjoy the meal and various appetizers, with ouzo...

     Having a meal with friends at home or at restaurant or taverna is a deeply rooted social habit. The atmosphere in typical Greek restaurants and tavernas is casual, relaxed and informal. Food is prepared according to fundamental rules. Good amateur cooks enjoyed great respect in their social circle, while a good housewife in Greece means a good cook. A good cook sometimes dedicates days to the presentations of a meal for his/her friends.

During 3 months in Greece I eat more lamb meat then in whole my life... yeah, in Croatia, we are eating it only in official and special occasions. Another thing I have been surprised is that despite eating heavy food, big portions, so late, Greeks are not that fat... answer is probable hidden in fact that they are drinking a lot of water, e.g. you will go to restaurant, waiter will bring you water automatically and then ask you, what would you like to order...
btw: tap water in Athens is very nice, but about other cities, specially islands check it twice :D
    One more thing (besides souvlaki, mousaka & greek salad) you can not miss is potato in all shapes and dzadziki :D))))) Talking about salad need to admit how my view changed... in Greece I started to eat salad as main meal...yeah, when you see Greek portions, you will understand why... :D

Continue to portions, if you are female, sometime (in some countries) waiter will warn you that portions are big, so you can change your order ... well in Greece it wont happen, so in case you wont ask for “Doggy-bag”, some dog will get it anyway... (that is why homeless dogs in Athens are fat & lazy )

Koluri & Bugatza is also something unavoidable in Greece, I heard that best one are in Thessaloniki, and there is only one way to find it out.

My favorite cafe that I like to prepare at home is so called „Turkish cafe“, why „so called“ because I have never been in Turkey and haven’t try it there...so I do not know difference between real, original Turkish cafe & Greek cafe... what I do know is that I like Greek cafe, a lot!!!

If you are going to Praha you need to try Absinth, right? If you are going to Chios you need to try mastixa... to be honest I’ve tried it, but not in Chios, so it doesn’t count, but I promise you, that one day I will visit Chios and dedicate whole post, ok?

Above mentioned ouzo, is impossible to avoid in Greece... it is normal that drinks goes together with food, interesting thing is that in Greece always food goes together with drinks.... aham, even If you order just ouzo, oinomelo (wine+honey) or rakomelo (raki+honey) you will get something for snack.

This is random picture form green market in Athens, interesting thing about its randomness is actually beer boxes you can see below ... Heineken & Amstel are the only international beers you can find there.

One of many interesting things about living in another country is that different market has different products, like nonalcoholic drink from producer for you only know as producer of alcohol drinks, or milk for cafe from can, or different flavors from your favorite drinks...

Talking about atmosphere in Greek restaurants, tavernas, cafe bars etc... we mentioned it is relaxed, spontaneous and it is a habit to gather with family and/or friends few times per week.
This habit has roots in ancient Greece, word symposium is greek one (of course, like thousand others.. :P) and it means: „drinking with the company“.
That is connected with my post about Thessaloniki and „Halara“ way of living and I like it. Maybe it is or it is not related but huge % of Greeks are smokers, so the tool from picture below is something like „fashion“...

The last but not the least is orange story, do not worry it is not story about annoying orange :S, it is the fact that in Athens are thousands of orange/tangerine/mandarins trees.
E.g. in 200m long street you can count approximately 80 trees... on every of them is few kilograms of fruits which you can not eat, because it is not healthy, it is like decorations... LOL,
what kind of decorations?!?!? In some point of time, fruits are falling down to floor and becoming garbage, sorry, I mean floor decoration... imagine how many streets like this, trees like this, fruits like this are wasting every, day, week, year... Do not forget how many streets like this you have in Athens, in Greece...
dear Greeks friends, if you make them healthy, and start with export, how knows maybe can decrease international debt of Greece, XaXaXa?!? :P