Greece - Popular Greek Foods

GREECE

There is no denying that when it comes to being passionate about food, the Greeks are some of the best. Greek cuisine is renowned for being flavorsome and fresh, incorporating a wide range of spices, meats and vegetables. The food in Greece is about tantalizing your taste buds and wherever you go you cannot help but be surrounded by the amazing smells of food being prepared and cooked and it really adds to your eating experience. In Greece, you certainly come across a whole wealth of spectacular dishes. If you're looking for some delicious Greek food to try, here's a selection of the popular local dishes for you to try next time you are in the country, in addition to Greece national dishes. A trip to Greece is guaranteed to not only have you in awe of the history and culture and people, but also in terms of the exquisite food you will be introduced to.

Gyros

Gyro (photo)

Gyros is the popular traditional Greek fast foods. It is a dish of meat (pork or chicken and rarely beef) roasted on a vertical turning spit and served with sauce (often tzatziki) and garnishes (tomato, onions) on grilled pita bread.

To make gyros, pieces of meat are placed on a tall vertical spit, which turns in front of a source of heat, usually an electric broiler. If the meat is not fatty enough, strips of fat are added so that the roasting meat remains always moist and crisp. The rate of roasting can be adjusted by varying the strength of the heat and the distance between the heat and the meat, allowing the cook to adjust to varying rates of consumption. The outside of the meat is sliced vertically in thin, crisp shavings when done. It is generally served in an oiled, lightly grilled piece of pita, rolled up with various salads and sauces. The pita and gyro meat themselves are the only obligatory ingredients.

Fakes

Fakes - Greek Lentil Soup [photo]

Fake is a lentil soup and one of the famous everyday Greek soups, usually served with vinegar and olives and/or smoked herring. It refers to a variety of vegetarian and meat soups made with lentils. The soup may consist of green, brown, red, yellow or black lentils, with or without the husk. Dehulled yellow and red lentils disintegrate in cooking, making a thick soup. Lentil soup may include vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celery, parsley, and onion. Common flavorings are garlic, bay leaf, cumin, olive oil, and vinegar. It is sometimes garnished with croutons or chopped herbs or butter, olive oil, cream or yogurt.

Souvlaki

Souvlakia

Souvlaki (plural souvlakia) is a popular Greek fast food consisting of small pieces of meat and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer. Most common is pork, sometimes lamb or chicken, often marinated in oil, salt, pepper, oregano and lemon. It may be served on the skewer for eating out of hand, in a pita sandwich with garnishes and sauces, or on a dinner plate, often with fried potatoes. The meat usually used in Greece is pork, although chicken and lamb may also be used. In other countries and for tourists, souvlaki may be made with meats such as lamb, beef, chicken and sometimes shrimp or fish (especially swordfish).

Tzatziki

Tzatziki (photo)

Tzatziki is a Greek and Turkish meze or appetizer, also used as a sauce for souvlaki and gyros. It is made of strained yogurt (usually from sheep or goat milk) mixed with finely chopped cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, and sometimes lemon juice, and dill or mint or parsley. Tzatziki is always served cold and with warm pita bread. While in Greece the dish is usually served as an accompaniment, in other places tzatziki is often served with bread (loaf or pita) as part of the first course of a meal.

Skordhalia

Skordhalia (photo)

Skordhalia or skordhalia/skorthalia is made by combining crushed garlic with a bulky base—which may be a mashed potato, walnuts, almonds, or liquid-soaked stale bread—and then beating in olive oil to make a smooth emulsion. Vinegar is often added. It is a thick garlic mashed potato dip (sauce or spread, etc.) which is usually served with deep fried salted fish/cod (bakaliaros skordalia, i.e. fried battered cod with garlic dip, a very popular dish). Skordhalia is also served with fried vegetables (eggplant, zucchini), poached fish, or boiled vegetables (beets). It is sometimes used as a dip.

Pastitsio

Pastitsio (photo)

Pastitsio, sometimes spelled Pastichio, is a Greek baked pasta dish with a filling of ground beef and béchamel sauce in its best-known form. The typical Greek version has a bottom layer that is bucatini or other tubular pasta, with cheese and egg as a binder; a middle layer of ground beef, veal or lamb with tomato and cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice; another layer of pasta; and a top layer of sauce, varying from an egg-based custard to a flour-based Béchamel or a Béchamel with cheese (known as Mornay sauce in France). Grated cheese is often sprinkled on top. Pastitso is a common dish, and is often served as a main course, with a salad.

Stifado

Lamb Stifado (photo)

Greek Stifado dishes are stews with pearl onions, red wine and cinnamon. They are easy to recognize since they include a lot of onions. The most commonly used are whole small boiler or pearl onions, but larger onions can be used as well, and the quantity is often equal in weight to the main ingredient. Stifatho dishes can be made with meat, poultry, seafood, game (rabbit, venison, etc.), or another vegetable as the central ingredient, with onions, wine or vinegar, tomato, and a selection of spices (often including cinnamon) creating a flavorful base. Generally made on the stovetop, there are a few stifatho variations that can be made in the oven.

Spetzofai

Spetzofai (photo)

Spetzofai (or spetsofai) is one of the most classic dishes in Greece. Spetzofai is a braised sausage with pepper and tomatoes. It is a hearty dish originally from the Mt. Pelion region and, of course, a specialty of the mainland area around Mt. Pelion and Volos.

Grilled octopus

Grilled octopus (photo)

The octopus (octopus vulgaris) will be on the menu of every seafood tavern in Greece and practically every Greek restaurant outside of Greece. Greeks enjoy octopus in a stew, with pasta, made into a salad with olive oil and wine vinegar but the most often ordered octopus is the grilled octopus. You should try Octapodaki tou Yiorgou (grilled octopus with lemon, oregano and olive oil).

Achinosalata

Achinosalata (photo)

Traditionally, in Greece, the sea-urchin is eaten freshly opened with just a squeeze of lemon. Achinosalata is sea-urchin eggs in lemon and olive oil.

Mezedes or meze

Mezédhes (photo)

In Greece, mezé, mezés, or mezédhes (plural) are small dishes, hot or cold, spicy or savory. Seafood dishes such as grilled octopus may be included, along with various salads, sliced hard-boiled eggs, garlic-bread, kalamata olives, fava beans, fried vegetables, melitzanosalata (eggplant salad), taramosalata, fried or grilled cheeses called saganaki, and various fresh Greek sheep, goat or cow cheeses (feta, kasseri, kefalotyri, graviera, anthotyros, manouri, metsovone and mizithra). Other offerings are fried sausages, usually pork and often flavored with orange peel, bekrí-mezé (the "drunkard's mezé", a diced pork stew), and meatballs like keftédes and soutzoukákia smyrnéika.
In Greece, meze is served in restaurants called mezedopoleíon and tsipourádiko or ouzerí, a type of café that serves ouzo or tsipouro.

Tiropita (Tyropita)

Tiropita (photo)

Tiropita is a Greek layered pastry food, made with layers of buttered phyllo and filled with a cheese-egg mixture. Regular tiropita fillings usually consist of feta cheese, egg, butter and yogurt. However, "kasseropita" contains kasseri instead of feta cheese and, unlike regular tiropita, does not contain yogurt. Tiropita can also be made in a large pan and cut into individual portions after baking. The individual form is sold in bakeries throughout Greece, where it is a popular breakfast and snack food. Alternatives to tiropita are spanakopita, a pie with spinach, as well as bougatsa. In Greece, one can find many varieties of Tyropita:

• Kourou: Surrounded by a thick pastry.
• Sfoliata: Surrounded by puff-pastry.
• Xoriatiki: Made in a Tapsi pan.
• Tyropitakia: Bite-sized.
• Skopelitiki: Made in the shape of a twirl.

Tiropita is usually eaten mid-morning by Greeks, who are not accustomed to having "breakfast" in the traditional western-European sense. Specifically, shortly after awakening and before going to work, Greeks typically consume coffee (either Turkish or cold, i.e., frappe) accompanied by cold water and, on occasion, bread with butter and honey. Approximately one to two hours later (mid-morning), tyropita (more commonly) or spanakopita are consumed.

Spanakopita

Spanakopita (photo)

Spanakopita is a Greek savory pastry with a filling of chopped spinach, feta cheese (sometimes in combination with ricotta cheese, as it is less expensive, and adds creaminess), onions or scallions, egg, and seasoning. The filling is wrapped or layered in phyllo (filo) pastry with butter and/or olive oil, either in a large pan from which individual servings are cut, or rolled into individual triangular servings. Spanakopita is mostly eaten as a snack in Greece, and it can be an alternative to tyropita.

Bougatsa

Bougatsa (photo)

Bougatsa is a Greek breakfast pastry consisting of semolina custard, cheese, or minced meat filling between layers of phyllo. Greek bougatsa is prepared from phyllo dough wrapped around a filling. After it is baked, it is cut into serving pieces and served hot. If the filling is semolina custard, then the pastry may be lightly dusted with powdered sugar or cinnamon. All are delicious and popular among Greeks for quick breakfast eats.

Baklava

Baklava (photo)

Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry made of tissue-thin layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and drenched in syrup or honey.

Galaktoboureko

Galaktoboureko (photo)

Galaktoboureko is a Greek dessert of semolina-based custard (sometimes flavored with lemon, orange, or rose) in between layers of phyllo. It may be made in a pan, with phyllo layered on top and underneath, or rolled into individual servings (often approximately 10 cm long). It is served or coated with a clear, sweet syrup.

Greek Yoghurt

Greek Yoghurt with honey (photo)

Greek yoghurt, Strained yoghurt or yoghurt cheese is yoghurt which has been strained in a cloth or paper bag or filter to remove the whey, giving a consistency between that of yoghurt and cheese, while preserving yoghurt's distinctive sour taste. Most strained Greek yogurts have no added fats and are made of real milk.

Strained yoghurt is used in Greek food mostly as the base for tzatziki dip and as a dessert, with honey, sour cherry syrup, or spoon sweets often served on top. A few savoury Greek dishes use strained yoghurt. In Greece, strained yoghurt, like yoghurt in general, is traditionally made from sheep's milk. More recently, cow's milk is often used, especially in industrial production. Another Greece must-try food is definitely a yogurt with honey.


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