10-21 Athens Foodie Tour

Did a foodie tour today and it was among the best I've had.   Food was fun and different, guide was very knowledgeable, and most of the places we went source regional Greek ingredients.

First up was a Koulouri, kind of a Greek bagel.  Large skinny ring coated in sesame seeds.  Kinda hard and dry without much flavor, but I get that they had to start with it.

Next was Harry's Kitchen for some Greek pies.  Spinach, cheese, and mushroom.  The spinach pie had dill in it, the cheese had spearmint, and the mushroom had peppers.  Very unexpected and fun.  Harry and his wife came out to greet us.

Then it was off to some cold cuts and wine.  One of the meats had cumin in it and another had fenugreek and other spices.

Next stop was a restaurant that our guide's grandfather has been coming to.  We had some very traditional Greek dishes including butter beans with spinach, seasoned meatballs with potatoes, and spicy cauliflower.  With tzatziki sauce to put on whatever you wanted.  Our guide said Greeks typically only eat meat twice a month and have beans and cheese much more often.

Next was olives.  Again, quite a variety...sun dried, lemon soaked, kalamata, and aged are a few I can remember.  Very tasty!

Finally, coffee and dessert.  The Greek coffee (they used to call it Turkish coffee until the Turks invaded Cypress some years ago) came with a spoon of a marshmallow-ish stuff.  Take a little bite of the marshmallow, drink some coffee, and you have sweetened coffee.  Dessert was orange cake and baklava made with pistachios.  Yum!

I just looked up the "Greeks only eat meat one or two times a month" thing.   Our guide is from Crete and apparently that's what she was referring to, not Greece as a whole.