Eating around in Greece for yotties

Some years ago we got a couple with two kids on the boat. They were coming from a Scandinavian country and they were quick to make the point that, they thought breakfast was the most important meal of the day and that dinner was a meal eaten before 18.00 hours. The kids were also extremely used to that and they wouldn't accept anything else. They have heard that Greeks traditionally only drink coffee for breakfast and eat dinner in the middle of the night and this was unacceptable.

I smiled and readily agreed to everything. Guess the rest of the story: the guys and the kids had become totally Greek after a coupe of days! They had less breakfast than me and the dinner was starting every night around 22.00 hours.

It is not some strange greek gene that does all that, it is simply the local climate. Try once to have a good dinner around 17.30 in greek July! Your day is finished. It's too hot and you will not be able to digest it or be able to do anything else that day, except sit at a corner and regret your idea.

I have also seen people arrive from foreign countries, with bags full of the things they are used to eat where they live. They know that it will be difficult to find in Greece and bring it along to not disturb their usual diet. This is understandable, but it's a pity and is also not going to work. A pity because Greece has excellent local food and it's not going to work because eating liver pate on dark pumpernickel in 38 degrees celsius, hmmm.... I don't know!

Daily tactics

My personal routine sailing around the Greek islands is to have breakfast and lunch in the boat and dinner in a restaurant. There are bakeries around Greece, and they are real bakeries, most of them actually produce the bread themselves. The first task is to find the good bakery (fournos in greek). This is accomplished by simply asking around, especially if you have arrived the evening before. Ask a couple of locals and if they agree there you have it.

In a bakery you will find bread of all kinds, but also cheese pies and spinach pies, plus the local specialities in pies or snacks. Ask them, don't be shy, they love to explain even if their english is poor and more than often they will give you a little sample to finish the discussion! They usually also have milk, water, soft drinks and maybe some cheese and yogurt. Buy a variety of things to have for breakfast and lunch at your favourite anchorage. For things that you consume a lot (pasta, water, beer, soft drinks etc) find a good size supermarket in a bigger harbour and provision the boat there, it will certainly be cheaper.

You will also need some fruit and tomatoes and cucumbers for lunch which you will find in the local shop in every harbour. Take your time and choose. Locals really scrutinize the fruit and veggies they buy, so don't be shy. And don't buy too much, they degrade quickly in the heat.

A note about the coffee: drinking coffee is like a local pastime in Greece. People sit around in cafes and have coffee with their friends all the time. But I personally find coffee a bit expensive here. My personal criterion is very simple: I will only have coffee in a cafe if the view or the surroundings are excellent or if I crave a very special kind of coffee. If it's just to have a coffee to start the day, I will have it in the boat.

The restaurants

We eat dinner in restaurants because first of all we are on vacation and it can actually cost exactly the same to buy the ingredients and prepare the dinner in the boat! Greece has many, many restaurants which serve a big variety of food to suit every taste and they are normally very reasonable in price.

Should you take the restaurant on the pier where all the fellow boaters eat and the waiter has a big smile and great PR? I don't know. There are actually some waterfront restaurants that first look like a tourist trap to me and then I have found out that they are very good.

Try though to venture a bit further. Ask some locals, ask at the kiosk, tell them you want a restaurant where the locals eat. You will get many suggestions, sometimes just because they are just relatives, but when you see that lets' say 3 suggestions agree, you're probably on the right track. Many times these local nice restaurants are quite unassuming, but what they serve can be superb.

First move when you come in a restaurant is to ask for a catalogue-price list. Not so much to choose food from the list, more to just check the level of prices. Many of them have the list in a window just next to the entrance, so just take a minute and study it.

Don't waste your time on verbal explanations of what the food exactly is, ask them to come in the kitchen and have a look! In most popular restaurants this is just normal practice. If you're having fish bigger than just sardines, it's more than normal to come in the kitchen where they will open the fridge for you and you will choose the fish by yourself. You will be happy and they will be happy! The only restaurants that don't want people near their kitchen are either expensive posh or not so good restaurants! Another thing: If you see let's say a tray with meat cooked with potatoes and you don't fancy the potatoes but the boiled herbs next to it, ask them to serve it with the herbs instead, they will happily do it, as they will generally alter things to suit someone's specific wish or diet.

Ask what is the local speciality, most islands have one and are very proudly making it. Ask them what they recommend, greeks will readily point to what is the most fresh and well made dish, they can't easily lie to a straight question like that!

Normally one will order a variety of starters and some main dishes. Don't overdo it with the starters, be choosy instead and order more if you really feel like it. It's too easy to over-order in a greek restaurant.

The wine

Well, I am Greek and I will tell you that wine was cultivated in Greece and colonists transported and planted it in France many years BC. I will also tell you though, that I find most cheap wine in Greece not particularly good and most good wine overpriced. Greeks could make fantastic wines and actually few producers do, but generally they should go to France and learn what quality control and consistency means.

Let's start with Retsina: don't do this to yourselves! No, greeks don't drink retsina and you should not drink it too! It's a thing that comes from the past where they would make this white wine in a cask of some sort of pine tree and the wine would naturally take up this “resin” taste. Today it's all chemistry made for tourists for the sake of old times.

You will notice in greek restaurants that locals drink mostly the cooled white wine of the house. You will also hear them order “a kilo” or “half a kilo” instead of litres, its just local lingo it doesn't really matter. Red wine is rarely ordered in the summer regardless of the dish, it's just too hot for that.

I will normally sample the wine of the house and if it's acceptable I will order it, otherwise I will just drink beer or water. I buy some good bottles of wine where I find them in local wine shops or supermarkets and I keep them in the boat's refrigerator, to be consumed in the cockpit during beautiful evenings. There are some wines where you can't go that wrong, like the “Nykteri” variety of Santorini or the Muscat of Limnos. I have a favourite red wine also, the variety is called Xinomavro it's a very dry wine usually from Naoussa in northern Greece. And if you want a great sparkling wine for around 12 Euros ask for “Amalia”, it's great, but hard to find.