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

Skopelos is a small island but there are many catering establishments on it. They are called «taverns» in Greece. Taverns are places which are mostly visited by the locals. They have a tradition to gather around the table with family and friends in a favourite tavern. You can visit a tavern, have a meal and enjoy local alcohol. Moreover, some of them offer an entertaining program for visitors. Dancers and singers perform in national costumes here. The program is made not only to attract tourists but for locals too.

If you want to find a tavern with traditional Greek dishes, look for a place where the majority of the visitors is locals. These taverns are usually held by one family for several generations. You won't find European service in taverns, but the dishes are delicious here. Moreover, you can find «speciality menu» in some of the taverns. It means that there are dishes made according to the recipes which were known in ancient times. There is no « Greek salad» in taverns for locals, they call it «village» or horiatiki salad. Horiatiki doesn’t have a particular recipe but some of the common ingredients are cheese, onions, olives, pepper, tomatoes. The salad isn’t seasoned with oil, you can find a bottle of it on the table and add it to your taste.

If you want to have a fast snack, look for souvladzikos. They are local kebab houses where you can try souvlaki and gyro. Souvlaki is a kebab made of meat, seafood or vegetables. The dish is considered to be ancient food because people cooked it in times of the Trojan War. Gyro is souvlaki with vegetables, fries and sauce in pita, round flatbread. Locals prefer to eat Gyro and souvlaki on the go. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

However, there are many various meat dishes on Skopelos. Stewed beef stifado can be found in many taverns. Dolma is a delicious dish made of ground meat, stuffed with grape leaves. Pastitsio is a pasta dish with ground meat and bechamel sauce. Don’t pass by moussaka, a layered dish with potatoes, eggplants and ground meat. Paidakia is grilled lamb chops. It is usually served with tzatziki, yoghurt sauce with garlic and cucumbers. Tefteli, lounza and loukanika sausages also deserve your attention. If you love soups, be sure to try fasolada. It is the most famous and oldest Greek soup. Odysseus could eat this dish because it was known in the first millennium BC. Vegetarians may enjoy revithia, made of chickpea. If you love fish dishes, be sure to try kakavia. The best chicken soup is avgolemono.

The best fish and seafood dishes can be found in psarotaverns near the shore. Moreover, you can bring your catch and ask to cook it for a reasonable price. There is a wide choice of fish dishes on Skopelos: from fried gilt-head bream to grilled sea bass, stewed octopus and taramasalata. Be careful when ordering a dish. There can be «*», «k» or «kat» indications in front of the name of the dish. These indications show that the dish was made of frozen imported fish.

Greeks usually eat yoghurt with nuts and honey for dessert. Eastern sweets such as lokum, baklava and kozinaki are also popular here. Keik me giaourti is a honey cake with yoghurt. Galaktoboureko is a traditional Greek pie. These two desserts are considered to be heavy food and Greeks usually eat it in winter. Qurabiya and vasilopita are usually eaten on holidays. You can find coffee and juice everywhere on the island. Most of the coffee houses are opened early in the morning, Greek usually start a day with this drink. Be sure to try local retsina and local wine, including homemade which you can find in every tavern. Metaxa cognac, grape vodka grappa and anise vodka ouzo are very popular hard drinks too. The last one can be found in ouzeri. Patsas soup will help you to restore your health after a long night.