THE NAXOS GUIDE TO GREEK FOOD

Most people will know most there is to know about Greek food.  Like the wine, food has improved out of all recognition since first we started going to the islands.  On Naxos their are several restaurants doing some form of international cuisine - EastWest (Pacific Rim), Picasso (Mexican), Classico, Suzannas (Italian), Deiter's - this moves round and changes names - (German), and innumerable (well, about eight) pizza places.  Traditional Greek cooking can still be found - usually described as "from the kitchen".  Here you go into the kitchen (by invitation only) and choose the dishes on offer that day.  The main courses will be oven cooked - over cooked - stew type things but very often they belie their looks and are quite tasty in a primitive way.  However, these restaurants, mostly, also do the best in Greek cooking - grilled fish and meat and a variety of salads and starters.  It is in these that Greek cooking is at its best, simple but excellent.  Lamb and chicken grilled to order.  Fresh fish - quite often relatively expensive - flavoured with just olive oil, lemon and salt should be tried.  Look for the traditional restaurants or grills in the list of restaurants - three of our favourites are the Blue House and Galini in town and Fotis at Aghia Anna.

Vegetarians can eat well by just sticking to a number of starters.  Some of the best of these are Horta - wild-growing greenery served cold with lemon and olive oil;  spanakopitta - spinach and feta cheese in puff pastry: melitsanasalata - a smoky, aubergine dip; fava - chickpea and garlic dip; patsariasalata - a bright pink dip made from beetroot, delicious; gigantes - translated on one menu as giant bears but, to our disappointment, in fact, butter beans in a tomato sauce but, nonetheless, jolly nice; briam - a vegetable casserole;

Also, of course, there are all the old favourites: tzatziki, taramasalata, tiropitta, pasticcio, moussaka. 

Click on the light blue items for our take on how to make these or click Recipes.

Naxos produces several varieties of cheese although you may have to search for them:

Anthotyro; Graviera; Kefalotyri; Mizithra; Xinotyro 

and, the one I had in Aperanthos, Male cheese a literal translation of 

Arsenikos.  

Various guesses have been made as to why it is called this - the best being that it comes from male sheep!