Information about Greek Cuisine

Greek cuisine is the cuisine of Greece and of the Greeks . It is typical of Mediterranean cuisine^[] accompanied by commonalities with the cuisines of Southern France, Italy, the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Middle East.

The most characteristic and ancient element of Greek cooking is olive oil, which is present in almost every dish. It is produced from the trees prominent throughout the region, and adds to the distinctive taste of Greek food. The basic grain in Greece is wheat, though barley is also grown. Important vegetables include tomato, eggplant, potato, green beans, okra, green peppers, and onions. Honey in Greece is mainly flower-honey from the nectar of fruit and citrus trees (lemon, orange, bigarade trees), thyme honey, and pine honey from conifer trees. Mastic is grown on the Aegean island of Chios.

Greek cuisine uses some flavourings more often than do other Mediterranean cuisines: oregano rigani, mint dhiosmo, garlic, onion, dill, salt, and bay laurel leaves. Other common herbs and spices include basil, thyme and fennel seed. Many Greek recipes use "sweet" spices in combination with meat, for example cinnamon and cloves in stews. Greek flavour is often characterised by the use of mint and nutmeg. Other typical ingredients are lamb, pork, kalamata olives, feta cheese, grape leaves, zucchini and yogurt. Dessert items are dominated by nuts and honey.^[0]

The terrain has tended to favour the production of goats and sheep over cattle, and thus beef dishes tend to be a rarity by comparison. Fish dishes are also common, especially in coastal regions and the islands. A great variety of cheese types are used in Greek cuisine, including Feta, Kasseri, Kefalotyri and Mizithra. Some dishes use phyllo pastry.

Too much refinement is generally considered to be against the hearty spirit of the Greek cuisine, though recent trends among Greek culinary circles tend to favour a somewhat more refined approach.

Origins

Contemporary Greek cookery is typical of Mediterranean cuisine, making wide use of olive oil, grains and bread, wine, fish, and various meats, including poultry and rabbit.^[0] Greece has an ancient culinary tradition dating back several millennia, and over the centuries Greek cuisine has evolved and absorbed numerous influences and influenced many cuisines. For example, "a la Greque" in French cuisine refers to the Greek cooking method of lemon juice and olive oil, and more recently any dish that is prepared in the "Greek Style" of cooking technique.

Some dishes can be traced back to ancient Greece: trahanas, skordalia, lentil soup, retsina, pasteli; some to the Hellenistic and Roman periods: loukaniko; and Byzantium: feta cheese, avgotaraho, paximadi. There are also many ancient and Byzantine preparations which are no longer consumed: porridge as the main staple, fish sauce - nước mắm, salt water mixed into wine, etc.

Some popular dishes show particular commonalities with Turkish cuisine.

...despite the disintegration of the Ottoman political empire, we can still see the survival of a large region which could be called the Ottoman culinary empire. The Balkans, Greece, Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent... are common heirs to what was once the Ottoman life-style, and their cuisines offer treacherous circumstantial evidence of this fact. Of course, they represent at the same time a good deal of local or regional culinary traditions. Besides, one should not forget that it is typical of any great cuisine in the world to be based on local varieties and on mutual exchange and enrichment among them, but at the same time to be homogenized and harmonized by a metropolitan tradition of refined taste. Turks and Greeks may seem as hostile as could be imagined,... but nevertheless their culinary traditions show,... that they have much more in common than many of them believe.^[2]

Many dishes come from the Ottoman tradition and their names reveal Arabic, Persian or Turkish roots such as moussakas (Arabic); baklavas, tzatziki, yuvarlakia (Turkish ^[3]); keftedhes (Persian, from the Greek "kofto" meaning cut ). It is difficult to date when these dishes entered Greece. Many probably entered during Ottoman times, but there was earlier contact with the Persians and the Arabs. Some dishes may be pre-Ottoman, only taking Turkish names later; Ash and Dalby, for example, speculate that grape-leaf dolmathes were made by the early Byzantine period.^[4][5]

A few dishes are influenced by Venetian (Italian) cuisine, such as pastitsio, makaronia me kima.

Recently, American food has also become more popular in Greece and Europe, with local fast-food chains such as Goody's springing up. Although fast food is gaining popularity and many major fast food chains have opened all over Greece, Greek people still rely primarily on the rich and extensive dishes of the Greek cuisine. In addition, some traditional Greek, especially souvlaki, gyro, pita/pites, for example tiropita and spanakopita (savory or sweet stuffed phyllo) are often served in fast food style. Eating out has always been common in Greece. The Taverna and Estiatorio are widespread, serving traditional Greek home cooking at affordable prices to both locals and tourists.

Typical Greek food is simple, colorful and packed with robust flavours. Although many dishes show influences from Greek past, they have a distinctive style of their own which has changed little over the years. Greek cuisine has a long tradition of fine cooking and the full range of Greek dishes usually remains undiscovered by the tourist.^[6]

Appetizers

Meze is a collective name for appetizers, typically served with wine or ouzo. Dips are served with loaf bread or pita bread. In some regions, dried bread ('paximadhi') is softened in water.

• Boureki: individually wrapped vegetable and meat fillings in phyllo pastry or dough. Also called by the diminutive -pitaki, e.g. tiropitaki.
• Deep Fried vegetables (courgettes, aubergines, peppers) or mushrooms ("tiganita").
• Dolmades: grapevine leaves stuffed either with rice or vegetables. Meat can also be included.
• Fava: Yellow split pea puree or other bean purees; sometimes made of fava beans (called κουκκιά in Greek)
• Greek Salad: The so-called Greek Salad is known in Greece as Village/Country Salad (Horiatiki).
• Horta: wild or cultivated greens, steamed or blanched and made into salad, simply dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. They can either be eaten as a light meal with potatoes (especially during Lent, in lieu of fish or meat).
• Kolokythoanthoi: zucchini flowers stuffed with rice or cheese and herbs.
• Koukkia: fava beans.
• Lachanosalata Cabbage Salad. Very finely shredded cabbage with salt, olive oil, lemon juice/vinegar dressing.
• Marides tiganites: Deep-fried whitebait, usually served with lemon wedges.
• Melitzanosalata: aubergine salad.
• Pantzarosalata: beetroot salad with olive oil and vinegar.
• Patata salata: Potato salad with olive oil, finely sliced onions, lemon juice or vinegar.
• Saganaki: fried cheese; the word "saganaki" means a small cooking pan, and can be applied to many other foods.
• Skordalia: thick garlic and potato puree, usually accompanies deep fried fish/cod.
• Spanakopita: spinach wrapped in phyllo pastry.
• Taramosalata: fish roe mixed with boiled potatoes or moistened breadcrumbs.
• Tzatziki: yoghurt with cucumber and garlic puree, used as a dip.
• Tyropita: cheese (usually feta) wrapped in phyllo pastry.

Many other things are wrapped in phyllo pastry, either in bite-size triangles or in large sheets: kotopita (chicken), spanakotyropita (spinach and cheese), hortopita (greens), kreatopita (meat pie, using ground meat), etc.

Some appetizers served in Greek restaurants (especially outside Greece) are not Greek at all, for example hummus bi tahini, the famous Lebanese dip.

Soups

• Avgolemono 'egg-lemon' soup: chicken, meat, vegetable, or fish broth thickened with eggs, lemon juice, and rice.
• Bourou-Bourou, a vegetable & pasta soup from the island of Corfu.
• Fakes, is a lentil soup and one of the famous everyday Greek soups, usually served with vinegar and olives.
• Fasolada, a bean soup defined in many cookery books as the traditional Greek dish. It is made of beans, tomatoes, carrot, celery and a lot of olive oil.
• Magiritsa, is the traditional Easter soup made with lamb offal and thickened with avgolemono.
• Patsas, a tripe soup.
• Psarosoupa 'fish soup': can be cooked with a variety of fish types, and several kinds of vegetables (carrots, parsley, celery, potatoes, onion) which are being blended and olive oil.
• Revithia, a chickpea soup.
• Trahana soup.

Vegetarian dishes

• Aginares A La Polita: artichokes with olive oil.
• Arakas Me Aginares: fresh peas with artichokes in the oven.
• Bamies: okra with tomato sauce (sometimes with potatoes and/or chicken/lamb).
• Fasolakia freska: fresh green beans stewed with potatoes, zucchini and tomato sauce.
• Gigantes beans: baked butter beans with tomato sauce and various herbs.
• Lachanodolmades: Cabbage rolls, stuffed with rice and sometimes meat, spiced with various herbs and served with avgolemono sauce.
• Spanakorizo: Spinach and rice stew made with white lemon sauce.
• Yemista: Baked stuffed vegetables. Usually tomatoes, peppers, or other vegetables hollowed out and baked with a rice and herb filling.

Meat dishes

• Baked lamb with potatoes ('arni sto fourno me patates'). One of the most common Greek dishes. There are many variations with additional ingredients.
• Bekri Meze: 'drunkard's snack', diced beef marinated in wine, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, olive oil and cooked slowly.
• Giouvetsi: baked lamb in clay pot with Kritharaki/Orzo.
• Grilled lamb chops (païdakia) with lemon, oregano, salt and pepper.
• Grilled octopus in vinegar, oil and oregano. Accompanied by Ouzo.
• Gyros: meat roasted on a vertically turning spit and served with sauce (often tzatziki) and garnishes (tomato, onions) on pita bread; a popular fast food.
• Kleftiko: literally meaning "of the klepht", this is lamb slow-baked on the bone, first marinated in garlic and lemon juice, originally cooked in a pit oven.
• Keftedes: fried meatballs with oregano and mint.
• Kotopoulo pilafi ('Chicken Pilaf'), mostly popular on the island of Crete.
• Moussaka: eggplant casserole. There are other variations besides eggplant, such as zucchini or rice, but the eggplant version ("melitzanes moussaka") is most popular, so "moussaka" alone is assumed to mean "with eggplant".

• Pastitsio: a baked pasta dish with a filling of ground meat and a Bechamel sauce top.
• Pork with celery ('hoirino me selino').
• Soutzoukakia Smyrneika: 'Smyrna soujouk', large meatballs with cumin, cinnamon and garlic and served in a tomato sauce.
• Souvlaki: Anything grilled on a skewer (chicken, pork, swordfish, shrimp). Most common is pork or chicken, often marinated in oil, salt, pepper, oregano and lemon.
• Spetsofai: a dish with country sausages, peppers, onions and wine. Originates from Mt. Pelion.
• Stifado: beef-onion stew with red wine and cinnamon. Rabbit or game (e.g. venison) are also cooked stifado-style

Desserts and sweets

• Akanes, a delicacy of Serres, is a variation of the Turkish delight.
• Baklava, a popular sweet dessert, of phyllo pastry layers with nuts, sugar, syrup,honey and cloves.
• Galaktoboureko, custard between layers of phyllo. The name derives from the Greek "ghala", meaning milk, and from the Turkish börek, meaning filled, thus meaning "filled with milk."
• Halvadopites A nougat of sesame with almonds in a thin crust.
• Karidopita, a walnut cake.
• Koulourakia, buttered cookies.
• Kourabiedes, buttered (can also include olive oil) cookies with powdered sugar and almonds, mainly made during the Christmas period.
• Loukoumades, similar to donuts, loukoumades are essentially fried balls of dough drenched in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.
• Melomakarona, "honey macaroons", cookies soaked in syrup of honey (meli in Greek thus melomakarona) and sugar, topped with walnuts and almonds, also traditional during Christmas.
• Rizogalo 'rice-milk' is rice pudding
• Loukoumi is a confection made from starch and sugar.
• Milopita me Pandespani, apple pie with powdered sugar.
• Spoon sweets (γλυκά του κουταλιού) of various fruits.
• Tsoureki, a traditional Easter sweet bread, also known as 'Lambropsomo'.
• Vasilopita, Saint Basil's cake or King's cake, traditional for New Year's Day.
• Yogurt with honey

Drinks

• Wine is the most common drink in Greece. Legend claims that wine was invented on the island of Icaria. Until the 1980s, most Greek wines were not of the finest quality, but more recently they have come up to international standards.
• Beer is widely drunk; common brands include Vergina, Heineken, Amstel, Zeos, Mythos, Alfa Hellenic Lager, Fix, Henninger, and Kaiser, all of which are produced locally, some under license.
• Ouzo (an 80-proof clear alcoholic beverage that is flavored with anise; it turns milky white with water or ice; the best said to be produced on the island of Lesbos).
• Tsipouro or (esp. in Crete) tsikoudia/raki (Mostly home-brewed, a clear drink similar to ouzo, often with higher alcohol content, and usually not flavored with herbs. The city of Volos at the centre of Greece is well-known for its Tsipouradika (literally: tsipouro places). In Thessaly tsipouro is always flavored with anise.
• Retsina (a white wine that has some pine tar added, originally as a preservative, but nowadays for the flavor; this is an Athens region specialty. It should not be aged.).
• Mavrodafni Sweet, liquor-style, red wine with higher alcohol percentage than normal.
• Metaxa, a brand of sweet brandy, 40% alcohol content.
• Greek coffee, a derivative of Turkish Coffee, made by boiling finely ground coffee beans, and is served thick and strong, and often sweetened.
• Greek frappé coffee a foam-covered drink derived from spray-dried instant coffee that is consumed cold.

References

• Andrew Dalby, Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece, London, 1996. ISBN 0-415-11620-1. (Mostly about ancient and Byzantine food.)

Notes

See also

• Greek Macedonian cuisine
• Turkish cuisine
• Balkan cuisine
• Middle Eastern cuisine
• Italian cuisine

External links

• Gourmed: Greek food recipes, wine reviews and articles on the Mediterranean diet
• Epikouria Magazine Devoted to the fine foods and drinks of Greece.
• Kerasma, a Greek quango promoting Greek cuisine.