Tzatziki yogurt, cucumber and garlic dip

• 500 grams (1/2 quart) of Greek yoghurt (or natural full, dairy yoghurt)
• Three pressed garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 thinly sliced cucumber
• Salt & pepper
• Few olives on the top

Dolmades stuffed vine leaves with rice and meat
Tiropitakia small cheese pie
Saganaki fried cheese
Melitsanosalata eggplant puree
Taramosalata fish roe salad
Yemista stuffed vegetables, usually with on meat content
(eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes)

Fava – smashed fava (yellow bean) salad, topped with onion, lemon and olive oil 
Gigantes – Lima beans in the oven with tomato sauce

   Gyro Pitta or Souvlaki?

It’s the most popular street-snack in Greece. It’s beef, lamb, pork or chicken meat roasted on a big vertical rotisserie (gyros), sliced off and put in a round pitta bread along with tomatoes, onions and tzatziki sauce (made of yoghurt, cucumber and garlic).
The essential part to denote the wrap is the pitta bread which keeps it all together, folded in was paper and you eat it like you are peeling a banana. Getting messy eating it, is another fun part about it.

There is no way you are going to find peace in the restaurants as Greeks never go to dinner for the actual food but for the chance to see, to be seen, to gossip, to celebrate, to get really loud. Make your plans. All dine at the same time 10:30pm. And when we are saying that a restaurant stays open late, we mean that the kitchen might be accepting orders till 1:30am. So if you are used to eating like a normal person at 8pm, you are very lucky, you will be eating alone with no one around to bother you. It’s just that there is a good chance not even the waiters have arrived yet.

   Salads

Horiatiki Salata the famous Greek salad with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, topped with feta cheese and olives

   Sea Food & Fish

Garides Saganaki shrimps baked with cheese, tomato and peppers
Kalamarakia deep fried squid 
Barbounia grilled red mullet
Tsipoura sea beam (grilled or baked)

   Meat

Pastitsio similar to mousaka with macaroni instead of eggplant
Papoutsakia "little shoes", eggplant topped with minced meat, cheese and baked
Paidakia charcoal grilled baby lamb chops
Souvlaki small pieces of meat on a spit, served with tzatziki, chopped onion and pita
Biftekia – baked or grilled large meatballs.
Giouvetsi – pork, beef or lamb chunks in the oven with Rossini pasta and tomato sauce
Kokinisto – beef casserole in tomato sauce and spices
Soutzoukakia – meatballs with cumin cooked in tomato sauce

   Ingredients

• 1 kg aubergines (large or/and elongated variety)
• 160 ml vegetable oil (about 1 teacup)
• 1 large onion finely sliced
• 450 gr. minced beef
• 1 glass white wine (not retsina, but aretsinoto)
• 350 gr. fresh tornatoes drained of some of their juice and chopped
• teaspoon ground cinnamon
• teaspoon ground allspice
• salt and black pepper
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 25 gr. grated parmesan, kefalotiri cheese
• some chopped parsley      
  
  Bechamel Sauce
• 80 gr. butter
• 80 gr. flour
• 600 ml warm milk
• salt and white pepper
• 30 gr. grated cheese
• 2 egg yolks
  
  Topping
• 60 gr. grated kefalotiri cheese
• 4 tablespoons toasted breadcrumbs

   Desserts

Baklava thin pastry layers and chopped nuts steeped in honey
Galaktoboureko pastry layers with milk pudding
Yiaourti me meli yogurt with honey & nuts
Loukoumades – fried dough balls drenched in honey syrup with cinnamon

   Coffee and a cigarette. This is breakfast for most Greeks. Maybe add a “koulouri” (the little sesame seed crunchy fresh bread that is sold on the street by vendors).

Greek coffee: Served hot in tiny cups. You have to wait for the dust to settle and you can only drink it to a certain point. There is a long tradition in Greece of reading coffee cups and foretelling the future – a highly prized skill.

Frappe Society: Everywhere you go, folks are sitting outside drinking frothy coffee drinks in tall glasses. Frappe coffee is the lifeblood of Greek society. Made with instant Nescafe mixed with water, ice, milk and lots of sugar, a frappe will provide you with the right amount of coffee for your coffee break and the right buzz to sip while gossiping and people watching. It’s a way of life.

   Greek Wines

“Wine is the most beneficial of beverages, provided there is a happy combination of it with the occasion as well as with water” said Plutarch.

Contemporary Greek wine following its glorious past and heritage can prove today that the Greek contribution in the top European “wine gallery” is not only essential but also tasty!