Cuisine of Hydra Island for gourmets. Places for dinner - best restaurants

You can hardly immerse yourself in the culture of a country without trying its national cuisine. So, if you want to get the most of your holidays on Hydra, you should miss a couple of meals at the hotel and visit a local tavern. The tavern is a name for local catering establishments. There are no cafes and restaurants on the island. Taverns differ with dishes in a menu. Locals have a special ritual. They meet with friends and family in a tavern and spend an evening chatting, drinking local alcohol and eating traditional food under folk music.

Souvladzikos is the most popular places here. Souvlaki and gyro are served here. Souvlaki is a Greek kebab. It was known in ancient times. Souvlaki can be made of lamb, chicken, seafood and even vegetables. It is grilled on a skewer and usually eaten straight off the skewer. Souvlaki is often taken away and eaten on the go. Souvlaki with vegetables, sauce and fries in a pita is called gyro. Gyro, souvlaki, halloumi cheese and kuluri bun are the most popular snacks in Greece.

You should better look for taverns which are visited by the locals. They are usually situated far from touristic spots. Taverns for local visitors are not very client oriented, but you will definitely try original Greek cuisine here. You will never see Greek salad in the menu of a tavern for locals. Greeks call it village salad or horiatiki salad. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

Be sure to try local meat dishes. Moussaka (a layered dish with ground meat, potatoes and eggplant), pastitsio (pasta with ground meat and bechamel sauce), paidakia (Greek lamb chops), stewed beef stifado, loukaniko sausages, dolma (grape leaves stuffed with meat), tefteli and louza (cured pork) are only a small part of meat delicacies on Hydra. If you want to try something exotic, taste kokoretsi, a lamb delicacy. There are also many different soups on the island. Fasolada is a traditional Greek soup, which was known in ancient times. Kakavia is a fish soup. Vegetarians will definitely like chickpea revithia. True gourmets should try creamy chicken avgolemono.

The best fish dishes can be found in psarotaverns. You can find them near the sea. You can try here stewed octopus, taramasalata, stewed sea bass, mussel salad and other seafood dishes. Despite the fact that there are a lot of seafood products on Hydra, some of them are imported. They are marked with «*», «k» or «kat» indications. Moreover, you should be careful about the price. It can be specified for a portion, 100 grams or a kilo.

Fruit and eastern desserts like baklava, lokum and nougat are popular on Hydra in summer. Greeks usually eat heavy desserts such as like keik me giaourti (a honey cake with yoghurt), galaktoboureko (custard baked between layers of phyllo) or Greek rice pudding rizogalo in winter months. Some Greeks prefer to eat yoghurt with honey, fruit and nuts for dessert. Coffee and juice are common soft drinks on Spetses, you can find them in every tavern. But tea is used only as a remedy for a cold. Be sure to try local wine and local chilled retsina, which can be found in refrigerators of supermarkets. The most popular hard drinks are anise vodka ouzo, grape vodka grappa rakia and local metaxa cognac.