What is Greek Food - Bellmore Greek Food

An Introduction to Greek Food

While Greece is widely known for its fascinating history, enchanting islands, and luxurious weather, it’s also known to possess a number of the tastiest food within the world! With age-old recipes, Greek cuisine has been influenced by Middle Eastern , Italian, and Ottoman cultures. Fresh vegetables, fish, olive oil, wine, meat, and grains play a big role in these dishes, also as cheese, bread, olives, herbs, and yogurt.

Greek cooking offers an incredibly rich and diverse array of foods and beverages that are the culmination of literally thousands of years of living, cooking, and eating. While each Greek meal is fresh and alluring , it’s also a visit back through Greece’s history.

The names of foods, cooking methods, and basic ingredients have changed little over time. Bread, olives (and olive oil), and wine constituted the triptych of the Greek diet for several centuries, even as they are doing today.

Greece may be a nation of small farmers who produce a fantastic array of mainly organically produced cheeses, oils, fruits, nuts, grains, legumes, and vegetables, supplemented by an array of greens and herbs that grow within the wild. These are the foods that form the bottom of the normal Greek regimen, to which they add both variety and nutrition. Greece’s climate is ideal growing for olive and lemon trees, producing two of the foremost important elements of Greek cooking. Spices, garlic and other herbs like oregano, basil, mint, and thyme are widely used, as are vegetables like eggplant and zucchini, and legumes of all kinds .

With 20 percent of Greece made from islands – and no a part of “> a part of the Greek mainland quite 90 miles from the ocean – fish and seafood are a well-liked and customary part of the Greek diet. Lamb and goat (kid) are the normal meats of holidays and festivals, and poultry, beef, and pork also are in plentiful supply.

Vineyards cover much of Greece’s hilly terrain and therefore the country has become known for its array of fine wines and spirits, most notably ouzo, an anise-flavored liqueur that’s the national spirit.

Don’t leave Greece without trying…

1. Taramasalata

A mainstay of any Greek meal are classic dips like tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber and garlic),melitzanosalata (aubergine), and fava (creamy split pea purée). But the delectable taramasalata (fish roe dip) may be a must. This creamy blend of pink or white fish roe, with either a potato or bread base, is best with a drizzle of virgin vegetable oil or a squeeze of lemon.

2. Olives and vegetable oil

Greeks are cultivating olives for millennia – some even say that Athena gave an fruit tree to the town of Athens, thus winning its favour. Greek meals are amid local olives, some cured during a hearty sea salt brine, others like wrinkly throubes, eaten uncured from the tree. Similarly, olive oil, the elixir of Greece, is employed liberally in cooking and salads, and drizzled over most dips and dishes. Many tavernas use their own oil.

3. Dolmades

Each region in Greece – actually , each household – has its variation on dolmades, whether it is the classic vine leaf parcel, or hollowed out vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and courgettes, stuffed and baked within the oven. The stuffing often consists of minced meat with long-grain rice, or vegetarian versions boast rice flavoured with heady combinations of herbs like thyme, dill, fennel and oregano. Pine nuts also can be used.

4. Moussaka

Greek style moussaka with eggplants, ground beef and potatoes. Horizontal shot

5. Grilled meat

Assorted delicious grilled meat with vegetable over the coals on a barbecue

Greeks are master of charcoal-grilled and spit-roasted meats. Souvlaki, chunks of skewered pork, remains Greece’s favourite nutriment , served on chopped tomatoes and onions in pitta bread with lashings of tzatziki. Gyros, too, is popular served within the same way. At the taverna, local free-range lamb and pork dominate, though kid goat is additionally a favorite .

6. Fresh Fish

Settle down at a seaside taverna and eat as locals have since past . Fish and calamari fresh from the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas are incredibly tasty and cooked with minimum fuss – grilled whole and drizzled with ladholemono (a lemon and oil dressing). Flavoursome smaller fish like barbouni (red mullet) and marida (whitebait) are ideal lightly fried.

7. Courgette balls (kolokythokeftedes)

Sometimes a patty, sometimes a lightly fried ball, make certain to undertake these starters any chance you get. The fritter is typically made up of grated or puréed courgette blended with dill, mint, or other top-secret spice combinations. Paired with tzatziki, for its cooling freshness, you only can’t lose.

8. Octopus

Along harbours, octopuses are spent time to dry like washing – one among the long-lasting images of Greece. Grilled or marinated, they create a fine meze (appetiser), or main course stewed in wine.

9. Feta & cheeses

When in Greece, fresh cheese may be a joy. Ask behind market counters for creamy and delicious feta kept in big barrels of brine (nothing just like the type that comes in plastic tubs in markets outside of Greece). Or, sample graviera, a tough golden-white cheese, perfect eaten cubed, or fried as saganaki. At bakeries you’ll find tyropita (cheese pie) while at tavernas, try salads like Cretan dakos, topped with a crumbling of mizithra, a soft, white cheese.

10. Honey & baklava

Baklava, traditional Greek sweet with honey syrup. Close Up

Greeks love their sweets, which are often supported vegetable oil and honey combinations encased in flaky filo pastry. The classic baklava involves honey, filo and ground nuts. Or try galatoboureko, a sinful custard-filled pastry. A more simple sweet is local thyme honey drizzled over fresh, thick Greek yogurt.

11. Papoutsakia (Stuffed Eggplants)

Greek stuffed eggplants with ground beef, tomatoes, topped with bechamel sauce with cheese, served on a plate with parsley on dark concrete background, top view, close-up

Papoutsakia is stuffed eggplants that are first baked until soft then crammed with a tomato-based meat sauce, topped with white sauce and cheese, and baked till they get a gorgeous golden color! The dish is named papoutsakia (little shoes) because its shape resembles little shoes. thanks to its ingredients, the dish tastes tons like Moussaka.

12. Souvlaki (Gyros)

Souvlaki is taken into account one among the foremost popular dishes in Greece! a really important thing to stay in mind with this dish is that it’s all about the place you purchase it from. Almost every restaurant has its own unique recipe, and, because the quality of the meat and sauce really matters, they certainly don’t all taste an equivalent .