Greek food

I have visited Athens twice so far – in November 2008 and in February 2017. The city centre is a gigantic historical open-air museum with some monuments dating back more than 2500 years. The food is delicious, people are nice and friendly, the sun is shining most of the time and there is always something new to discover.

I noteced that the locals usually start a day with coffee and sometimes also a piece of pastry for breakfast. There is a lot of small cafeterias with a few chairs and a table inside and outside, but most often the breakfast is on the go (we took it to the rooftop of the apartment building to benefit from a warming sun). Lunch is also light, but dinner is the main meal of the day, often eaten after 8pm or later and often eaten out in restaurants. There are many places with heated outside seating even in the winter. And if you look well, you can also add a view of the Acropolis to your meal. 😉

The traditional dishes are souvlaki, mousaka or other dish made of aubergine, zucchini and cheese. Fish and poultry is also usually well-prepared and tasty, served with a portion of fries or vegetables. Baklava and loukoum are well known sweets, but also tradional greek pastry-type pancakes with honey and feta cheese are worth trying. We were also offered a small glass of either ouzo, tsipouro or masticha – the most famous greek spirits – after the meal at some restaurants. Below are some foodie photos of the dishes we tasted. All were delicious.

S jedlom je to u Grékov zaujímavé. Raňajkujú obvykle kávu, prípadne nejaký kus pečiva. Drobných kaviarničiek s jedným stolom a tromi-štyrmi stoličkami pred obchodíkom je na každom kroku ako maku. My sme sa zariadili tiež po grécky, kúpili si kávu so sebou a k tomu aj nejaké to pečivko a najedli sme na streche apartmánového domu, v ktorom sme bývali. Výhľad bol super. Spočiatku bolo síce trochu zima, ale akonáhle sa slniečko vyšvihlo trošku vyššie, pomohlo pri premene slnečnej energie na tepelnú.

Obed tu býva tiež ľahký a neskoro, ale za to večera je zaujímavejšia. Po celom centre je obrovské množstvo reštaurácií. Nezľaknite sa, mnohé majú aj v zime vykurované sedenie na terase vonku na ulici. Gréci často jedia vonku a ani mrazivé večery ich od toho neodradili. Ak chcete k jedlu aj výhľad na Akropolu, stačí pohľadať. A nech vás ani nenapadne prísť skôr ako o 20h.

Medzi najznámejšie lokálne jedlá patria souvlaki, gyros v pita chlebe, kuracie špízy, ale aj mousakka a čokoľvek z baklažánu a cukiny, najlepšie zmiešané s fetou alebo iným syrom. V prímorských letoviskách sú to morské plody a čerstvé ryby (mrazené sú obvykle označené v menu hviezdičkou). Ako dezert skúste loukoum alebo baklavu a zapite kávou, retsinou (biele víno) alebo niečím ostrejším. V tejto kategórii je najznámejšie ouzo, masticha alebo tsipouro. V lepších reštauráciách vám ponúknu frťana po večeri na účet podniku. Aspoň takto sprostredkovane cez fotky si pozrite ako to obvykle vyzerá. Chutí to vynikajúco. 🙂

Read more about Athens here.