It is difficult to start with a route associated with gastronomy in Greece, but I will begin from the event, which is the reason to start dealing with this topic. The exhibition "Agro Quality Festival", which takes place this weekend in Technopolis in Athens for the second year and brought together producers of olives, olive oil, cheeses, jams, pasta, wine and honey who through their products made in a specific way depending on the region, advertised their towns.
Do the Cretan cuisine or the typical for Greece ouzo with seafood and cheese appetizers need advertising? Nevertheless, if we start from Macedonia and get to Crete, from the northernmost point to the south, the cuisine of Greece has its own peculiarities and everywhere you may try something delicious, which is produced only in that specific place. Like the Halwa from the town of Farsala, which is prepared with a lot of oil, starch and pink sugar, and its authentic taste can only be found in the pastries there. Some of the manufacturers, owners of small workshops organize tours around the workshops so that their customers can get to know the procedures for making the products or if they wish to try yourself to make on their own jam or soap, for example.
We start from mainland Greece or the Thessaly region, in which I will include visits to Trikala, the area around Volos and Karditsa, going from Trikala on the road to Meteora. The mayor of Trikala managed to turn the small provincial town into a diamond for the residents. Except for the fact that Trikala is on the way to Meteora is also known for being the first city in Europe, which has free wireless Internet for all residents and visitors, as well as areas on the city streets designated for cyclists. In the town there is a shed for growing parasol mushrooms, which is open for visits by tourists (tel. 0030 2431074447). Also nearby there is the workshop of BioActive which produces sugar free marmalades from apples with cinnamon, pomegranates, plums with honey, small apples with almonds, Pergamon, watermelon. If you make in advance arrangements with the manufacturers, you can visit the workshop and satisfy your curiosity by visiting the site and seeing how how the jams are prepared, but also to take part in the preparation yourselves (www.bio-active.gr or tel: 0030 24 310 25 300).
Volos is located on the sea shore at the foot of the mountain Pilios. Besides being known as the City of "tsipouradika", ie the old style pubs, where you can sit and have a Tsipouro with appetizer, there is also the factory of the famous Greek orangeade "Epsa". It is curious but it is the fact that in the area there are also workshops for the production of aromatic handmade soaps with herbs. 60 km southeast of Volos on the beach in the village of Platanias is located the eco-hotel of Nikos Dovas "Des Roses" with 14 small apartments (www.peliondesroses.com). Interestingly, the guests of the hotel can participate in activities related to rural tourism in the area. "In our eco-hotel we offer various forms of eco-tourism. We organize tours on mountain trails and tours around historic monuments, a lesson in spinning a traditional loom, we have a studio with tutorials for making soap with aromatic plants, herbs and olive oil. We produce nine different soaps made from organic products which have blissful effect on health", said Nikos Dovas.
Interesting marmalades you can also try in Trapsili village in the area around the town of Karditsa. There in the cooperative set up by the village women engaged in agriculture, jams are prepared from carrots, pumpkin, melon, nutmeg, red peppers, rose. If the route takes you there - the women say that there is a nice lake and a small hotel in the village to stay overnight, ask for "Retseli", which is made from pumpkin with molasses and is considered to be the traditional jam in the area.
In the broad area of northwestern Greece, Zagorohoriya, Yanena and Arta it is known that there they prepare delicious pastry with spinach, nettle, cheese, mouths and meat products - goat and lamb, as well as cheeses including the famous cheese Metsovone. If we start our rout from Florina, you can try different kinds of pickles and the famous Florinian red peppers, which are made as pickles and served as an appetizer with olive oil, garlic and a little vinegar. Going down to the south pass through Kastoria, which is located on a large lake and there is an old city on a hill with cobbled streets. The city of fur coats and the Byzantine churches, as Kastoria is known, is also popular when talking about cuisine with its dishes from beans roducts such as lentils, beans and chickpeas, which you can combine with the local wine from the Magel cellar. Southwest from Kastoria on the road to Yanena, go through Zagorohoriya where you can see villages with houses built in the traditional architectural style of Epirus with stones and are considered valuable cultural heritage. In the local pubs you can stop to taste the local pasty, cheeses and Tsipouro. Somewhere there, ask about the road to Mechovo - a popular winter resort for skiing and also known for its wines and its smoked cheese "Metsovone" but also for its delicious sausages.
When you finally arrive in Yanena you should know that this is the city of craftsmen who work with silver and by the time you arrive there on the road you will pass through the incredibly beautiful mountains with steep slopes often covered with a blanket of fog. The city is situated on a lake and there you can try frog legs, home made pasta - macaroni, tagliatelle, ravioli with spinach, carrots, red peppers. In the beautiful Yanena you can find also mature five year old vinegar in barrels made from chestnut and oak trees, produced by the family "Vaymaki" – famous winemakers (www.allvinegar.com). The Oksos vinegar, which is sold in small beautiful bottles is made from the debina and flakiho grapes and has a deep brownish-red color. Its flavor is strawberry, dried fruit and cinnamon, and its taste is spicy and has the aromas of herbs. It is used not only for flavoring salads, but also on ice cream and pastries. South of Yanena you should pass through Arta, where you can talk to fishermen and buy the fish oreochramis which comes all the way from the Nile and goes in the waters around the city. Manufacturers from Arta make oreochramis fillet and sell it to sushi bars and gourmet restaurants in Athens.
Castor, Arta, Yanena, Zagorohorya, Florina, Mechovo.
We skip to the Peloponnese region, which is best known for its olives "kalamon" and the high-quality olive oil. From Corinthia get wine "Nemea", whose agiorgitiko is best known for its quality. In Kalamata try dried figs and black currants, and from Arcadia try honey with wax.
Marina Nikolova
(To be continued)
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