SPECIALITIES
Crete’s gastronomy is a topic of its own. With a booming farming industry that makes the island self-sustainable for most products, Crete has a large variety of superb quality vegetables, meats, and seafood. Traditional recipes handed down between generations take full advantage of these ingredients, creating enchanting flavours that will make anyone fall in love with this corner of the world.
To taste the best Cretan cuisine, there’s no doubt, you have to eat in the small taverns. They have often been run by the same family for generations and offer simple but tasty traditional cuisine. You will always be greeted very warmly and at the end of your meal, you will be offered a small dessert and of course a glass of raki, the traditional Cretan alcohol.
Here are some examples of the culinary specialities that you should definitely try in Crete:
- Pastitsio: pasta and meat gratin, the equivalent of lasagne
- Stifado: rabbit stew with small onions and shallots
- Mezze, the Cretan version of the tapas: tomato/feta bread, tzatziki, stuffed vine leaves, meat or fish croquettes, fried zucchini flowers. Some taverns in Crete offer “Mezze” platters.
- Apaki, pork meat marinated and smoked and flavoured with local herbs
- Fish and seafood like fried squids (kalamari)
- Keftedes: succulent, spicy meatballs
- Antikristo or “ofto” lamb, lamb slow-cooked on a spit – Some taverns also offer pork.
- Souvlakis and gyros: a pita served with chicken, pork or lamb, yoghurt sauce, salad, tomatoes, onions and chips. We tried many of these dishes and each tavern adds its own personal touch, so it never tastes exactly the same.
- Greek salad ((horiatiki): mix of sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, green bell pepper, red onion, olives and feta cheese with Tzatziki
- Kaltsoúnia: cheese-stuffed pastries
- Baklava : a delicious Greek dessert made up of layers of crispy phyllo dough, honey and nuts that's very easy to make.
- Raki, a traditional Cretan alcohol, served as a liqueur after every meal.
- The traditional Greek wine is retsina and the most frequent Greek beers are Mythos and Alpha.
