Travel opens you to new experiences and new foods. It also lets you enjoy some old favorites. At least once a trip I try to try a new to me food.
Travel schedules don’t always align with meal times, so when I landed in Athens at 6am I was glad I’d had something on the plane. And it was pretty good in Turkish Air Business Class.
My hotel had complimentary juice and bread rings in the lobby and said I could have breakfast for a fee, but I opted to head out to take advantage of what was supposed to be the best weather of my stay in Athens.
I arrived at the Acropolis a bit early for my noon entry time. NOTE: If you don’t pre-book your time you may wait in line for a long time. So I went to the kiosk for a snack. Cider and crisps is a go to snack for me, when I can find cider. I’ve never been a fan of beer or radlers or hard seltzers.
Brunch
I’d done a search for brunch places before I arrived and my first stop was Little Kook. I’d argue it’s more BIG, GINORMOUS Kook, but the Irish coffee and caramel pancakes were delish and well worth the over the top decorations.
It turned out to be the first of several delightful pancake meals in Greece. I had no idea they were so into pancakes. Only one had maple syrup, and as a native Vermonter, I’d rather have nutella and chantilly cream than fake maple syrup. And red velvet was yummy too.
Traditional
I had to have gyros. It works as take-away (to go) street food or sit down cafe food. I prefer chicken over lamb or beef, but had them all. And I learned a new word calque, Gyros is a calque or loan translation of a word from a another language. In this case from Turkish doner.
TIP: Try dipping your french fries (chips) in tzatziki or hummus. Trust me dips are not just for bread.
I also had to have meze. Whether you call it tapas, pintxos, mezza, or meze, I love the small plates to try multiple things. Most meals include a tiny dish of assorted olives. My fav mezes are calamari, hummus, tzatziki, grilled haloumi, spanakopita, tiropita (cheese pie), piroski (feta/kasseri cheese and meat pie), tirokafteri (dip of feta, yogurt and hot pepper), olive tapenade, and calamari.
Happily you can find many meze on breakfast buffets for a savory start after too many pancakes. (If it is possible to eat too many pancakes.)
NOTE: Most hotel breakfasts will have a range of options to accommodate any dietary requirements.
Yogurt
Not all yogurt is “greek” yogurt even in Greece. Strained yogurt has been drained of most of the whey and is what most Americans think of as Greek yogurt. It’s thicker, creamier and in my opinion yummier. In the US we have lots of Frozen yogurt restaurants. In Greece they have strained yogurt restaurants. And I vastly prefer the Greek ones. No added sugar, healthier base product and loads of options to stir in.
I love a muesli-style yogurt bowl for breakfast. Strained yogurt, some dry, uncooked rolled oats, fresh fruit, maybe some nuts, maybe some seeds, maybe some honey or honeycomb or jam. Tons of variations depending on what is available.
Travel during the off-season can mean some restaurants are closed. I was happy to find a place on the Gulf of Corinth that was open and had the BEST calamari I’ve had in years. I had the place all to myself for about 30 min before some friends of the owners arrived.
My new food try for this trip was ancient cow. In Meteora, my host recommended a restaurant and one of their specialties was a local breed of ancient cow, Greek Steppe cow. FYI, tastes a lot like beef with a bit more flavor. And the view was worth the splurge. It was by far the most expensive meal I had in Greece at 70E.
TIP: In Greece you don’t have to tip! And in most of Europe they bring a portable credit card machine to your table where you can tap your credit card, smart phone or smart watch to pay.
Next up Greek wine!
CJ
