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| feta stuffed phyllo drizzled with honey |
I recently went on a family trip, with my husband and in-laws,
to Greece. The vacation was only for a week but it was a whole lotta fun (and
extremely busy)! We toured the ancient ruins of Delphi, the Acropolis, Olympia,
Mycenae, etc., visited the village that my husband’s grandmother is from, and
ate like there was no tomorrow.
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| rice and herb stuffed tomato and bell pepper with potatoes |
Even though there is a focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients,
Greek cuisine is heavily meat based. We found very few main dishes that
featured solely vegetables (we ordered one dish, stuffed zucchini, which we
were told was vegetarian but contained lamb- whoopsie). The vegetarian mains we
came across usually consisted of either stuffed tomatoes and peppers or pasta
with a tomato-based sauce, with little variation from those dishes (although,
in Athens, we did come across an excellent vegetarian moussaka as well as a
bean dish I ate with rice from some little hole-in-the-wall joint).
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| vegetarian moussaka |
So what’s a vegetarian to do? Why, you eat, of course! Even
though the vegetarian mains we came across were pretty much limited to
variations of the two dishes I just mentioned (i.e. stuffed veggies or pasta),
the hubby and I inhaled them. They were by no means ‘bad,’ everything we ate
was wonderful, plus we supplemented our meals with a variety of small plates
(meze), to keep things interesting, as well as eating a mass quantity of Greek
desserts.
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| spicy feta with bread |
There are a few important tips to know when
eating at restaurants in Greece (and this is for vegetarians and omnivores
alike). Americans have an on-the-go kind of attitude when it comes to eating.
This is not the case in Greece (and actually, in many other European countries),
where dinner is expected to take several hours, and is quite leisurely and very
social. Because of this, wait staff will not bring your check until you ask
them for it. It is considered rude because they don’t want to feel like they’re
rushing you out of their restaurant. Another thing to keep in mind is that,
frequently, you will have to pay extra for water and bread. But don’t sweat
this because eating in Greece is inexpensive. Additionally, items on menus may
not be what they seem. A ‘Greek salad’ is pretty standard- olives, cucumber,
tomato, feta, etc. However, we ordered a ‘red pepper salad’ and it was actually
two roasted red peppers drizzled with olive oil. It was delicious, but not what
we expected. When in doubt, just ask.
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| From Left-Right: Oregano Lays chips, peach tea, and Paprika Lays chips |
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| spanakopita (spinach pie) with stuffed veggies and potatoes |
Keep in mind that many foods are seasonal. For example, my
husband’s favorite Greek dish is dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), but in early July,
when we went to Greece, grape leaves were not in season yet, and thus, dolmades
were not available in most restaurants. Probably the most disconcerting issue
we had was after several minutes of perusing a menu, the waiter would take our
order, but many things on the menu were not available (because they were seasonal items). This can be a problem if you are
a vegetarian and there are only two vegetarian dishes on the entire menu. We
went into a restaurant, in Athens, where the owner told us to order from the
counter display after we had been given menus and were told they didn’t have
anything we requested. Naturally, this made us wonder why we were given menus
to begin with or why there are no seasonal menus. My sister-in-law noted that
one restaurant only penciled in prices next to the items on the menu that they did have. Also, be aware that Greek
cuisine uses a lot of olive oil. And I do mean a lot. Not that it bothered me
one bit- I just love olive oil.
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| kataifi (dessert similar in flavor to baklava, with walnuts and honey) |
