If you love not only the sea and the sun, but also archeology, history and architecture, and in addition are not indifferent to food — you urgently need to go to Athens! And to enjoy the local beauty, choose the right thing for lunch or dinner, listen to the advice of Alexander Tarasov!
In modern Greek cuisine, there is very little Greek left and the influence of Turkish cuisine is very strong, which, however, does not detract from the merits of the dishes served here. The good cuisine of Greece is that there is no uniformity in it and in each region you can try something different, so it is customary to distinguish North Greek, south Greek (Peloponnesian), as well as the cuisine of the islands.
If we talk about the cuisine of Athens, then this is a kind of Middle Greek cuisine, and it is here that the dishes that have made Greek cuisine famous all over the world are prepared. Perhaps the most famous of them is the lamb liver in Athens, and in addition to the traditional recipe, there are various variations of it, such as lamb liver with cheese. No less famous is the Athenian salad. Of course, now it is made all over the world — it is a popular restaurant dish, but only in Athens you can find numerous versions of this salad — almost every cafe and restaurant has its own: somewhere they add marjoram, and somewhere they do not; somewhere they season only with olive oil, and somewhere with milk sauce; somewhere they put basil, and somewhere they do without it. Remember: for a proper Athenian salad, only greenish tomatoes are used! And it should not contain pieces of turkey meat — this is a purely tourist option, which is made specifically for visitors from the United States. Seafood lovers will celebrate orzo with prawns in the Athenianstyle . This dish is prepared both with basil and without it — you can try both options for comparison.
And, of course, arriving in Athens, it is absolutely impossible to ignore the local sweets. In general, it is believed that the best sweets in Greece are made in the north of the country, but Athens has its own specialties-choose what you like, but be sure to try profiterolessoaked in liqueur and syrup , they are significantly different from the original French ones. You will be served a glass of ice water with profiteroles — do not refuse: the Greeks know what they are doing!
And finally, coffee. In Greece, they drink hellenikos cafe (that is, Greek coffee), in fact, this is a well-known Turkish coffee, but less strong. Be careful: almost everywhere now ellinikos cafes are prepared using an espresso machine. However, the real hellenikos must be cooked in front of your eyes on an open fire in a special brika mug!