We have been gone for almost a month and not a post yet on food – which is very unlike this blog. It's not for lack of delicious food or eating, that's for certain.
Israel had the occasional shawarma and falafel, but was comprised largely of incredible hotel breakfast buffets, some dinner ones too – and some very nice lunches and dinners out and about. It's hard to go back through it in detail at this point, but what I can say is that I have never had so much cheese - and so many kinds – for breakfast in my life. And that was just the starter plate each morning. Incredible fresh breads, fruits, halvah, cheesecakes, desserts (warm cheesecake and chocolate fudge cake for breakfast are real), eggs, pancakes, quiches, waffles, bourekas, cereals, yogurts, innumerable salads, hummus…. One lunch in Abu Ghosh, an Arab village near Jerusalem involved so many salads and types of meat, it was a HUGE and memorable feast. We all wished both that it would never stop and that it would stop immediately. No one's waistline was helped in Israel.
You know life has turned upside down when Greece feels like saner eating.
One thing that hasn't changed since our first trip to Patmos – and perhaps since anyone's first trip to Patmos - is the food. There are essentially three types of eateries: cafes, bakeries/gelaterias and tavernas. Sure, there are a few Italian restaurants, pizza shops, one sushi (new this year) and a fancy farm-to-table place – but these are aberrations, edge-cases if you will.
The cafes' primary function is to allow people to sit and if desired, talk for lengthy periods unheard of at an American establishment and even a stretch at a French one. Cafes of course serve coffee, and in the afternoons and evenings alcohol. Many have breakfast fare and do their biggest food business in the morning – although breakfast is not the biggest meal to have out among the Greek population. Sometimes, it's hard to figure out how cafes turn a profit – but I assume they make it in ouzo, beer and wine.
Bakeries and gelaterias are sometimes even combined into super-sweet shops, as we saw more frequently in Athens. Here in Patmos many are more traditional buy-and-go bakeries, but some have outside seating and the gelaterias often also sell cheese, spinach, meat and the desserty cream pie - and have numerous tables where people sit and linger for long stretches. Emily and I have a proclivity for lingering at Stelios Gelato near the town square where the pies, crepes (when intermittently available) and gelato are all fantastic and unbelievably affordable. The very dark "Brownie Chocolate" gelato is a favorite of both Emily and Matheus. Stelios and his employees either really like us or are extremely apathetic because we hang out there for hours using their WiFi and spending ridiculously little to do so and have done it more times than I can count. We also used to feed a 15-month old Sennen their meat pies and he would sit, eat slowly and make a terrible mess. No one ever said a word.
Real meals take place at tavernas which are notable for their mezzes (dips and small bite plates that are essential to any Greek meal) and grilled things – meat, seafood or both. Sometimes tavernas include baked dishes like moussaka and pastitcio. One of the key distinguishing factors to tavernas is their unoriginality – no one is trying to reinvent the wheel. Their menus are about 80% the same. Most will have a specialty or two that isn't so common – like today I had tsiggana – a dish resembling a vegetarian moussaka that used several kinds of cheese instead of béchamel sauce. Some will grill their octopus, others only boil. Others will have steamed zucchini drowned in delicious olive oil, yet many won't despite the ubiquity of zucchini. It's not for us to figure out the logic behind why the spicy feta dip has been crossed off a menu in pencil despite 15 items they are serving that use feta – it's just how tavernas work and it's what keeps what could be completely mundane a little exciting.
Greece isn't the place to pursue a broad palate – but to become a connoisseur. Leonidas above Lampi beach clearly has the best tzaziki on the island and among the top flaming saganakis, but the grilled meats are nothing to write home about. There are the three Grilled Octopus Giants: Osteria, Oyzepi (which we're pretty sure also means Osteria in Greek, but we use it to distinguish) and Trehantiri – the only tavernas worth going to for grilled octopus, according to Emily. All three have the special cages for drying octopus in the sun, but how to decide who is the master octopus griller? The taverna at Vagia beach has an incredible view and so far, the best caviar salad on the island – but nothing else of note to speak of. And Ktima Petra near Petra Beach has the best eggplant and cheese dishes – but I wouldn't really consider them for seafood. These are the things we discuss over dips, drinks and when planning where to find ourselves at the end of the day – and I imagine most Greek families on the island have similar discussions. Because what else is there to discuss when every night is a four-hour dinner often running well past midnight?!
The grilled parts of the menu tend to run more simple and uniform – souvlaki (seasoned skewers) of chicken, lamb, beef or pork), chops, steaks and sometimes liver. Seafoods usually include several choices of whatever the catch of the day is (and it really is caught by local fishermen), shrimp, calamari, octopus, little fish and mackerel.
But the mezzes can have long, and sometimes diverse lists of possibilities including Emily's favorite beetroot and garlic salad, spicy feta dip, tzatziki, eggplant dip, steamed zucchini in olive oil, garlic spread, caviar salad, fried potatoes, fried eggplant, fried zucchini, fried zucchini balls, fried eggplant balls, fried cheese calls, flaming saganaki (cheese), fava bean spread, chickpeas cooked in tomato sauce, lima beans cooked in tomato sauce, meatballs, stuffed grape leaves, cooked vegetable salad and of course Greek salad (another Emily staple) – to name a few. I'm usually happy to live off mezzes and forgo the heavy meat entrees.
What's always puzzling – and it was back in 2010 as well – is how people who eat so much cheese and who are so liberal with the olive oil are generally very trim and attractive. American healthcare and nutritional wisdom would look at a lot of what the Greeks eat as a death sentence. But any Greek to whom you decline more olive oil will tell you, "No, have more – it's good for you!" and it's hard not to believe them. Copious amounts of olive oil do not seem to find their way to the Greek waistline.
"At home, I wouldn't consider what we're eating to be healthy, but somehow here it feels healthy!" Emily said last night. Matheus and I knew exactly what she meant.
Some of it may well be portions – Greeks eat some of a lot of things and the portions are generous, but not crazy. There's also the fact that they eat slowly – often under a star-filled sky. Meals are an event – a major component of the day to be shared with family and friends. People work hard at their cooking and then unlike us whereas hour of preparation leads to 30 minutes of dinner and another 30 minutes of clean up, their hard work buys them hours together. The art of shared space and conversation are an important part of their daily diet.
And it almost goes without saying that the fruits and vegetables in Greece are among the freshest, most flavorful I've had – perhaps of anywhere aside from Bali. The colors in a Greek salad pop and the apricots are extremely appetizing.
So, how to reconcile the mystery of cheese and oil with healthy, good looking people? Providence of the Greek gods? We'll let you know when we weigh-in in August.
