Kunefe @ Serbetia stou Psyrri

Recently I visited with a friend Serbetia stou Psyrri, rare Greek patisserie + cafeteria in central Athens.

In Athens, most patisseries just sell sweets and do not serve them on the spot. So, I admire the person who decided to open such a place in the heart of Athens.

We had a very specific objective for this visit; to try their Kunefe. We love kunefe, but of course it is not something we can eat everywhere in Athens and the places I know that serve kunefes are mostly restaurants, meaning that we need to eat kebabs to arrive at kunefe stage. Consider kebab as a hurdle and kunefe as the goal; not very tempting.


At Serbetia, there is a wide range of Greek-oriental sweets, mostly for 5 Euro, and there are some specialities like kunefe for 8 Euro. A cup of tea costs 3.50 Euro, so expect to pay about 9 Euro for a piece of cake, a humble cup of tea and tip, which is not exactly cheap; I think they should offer some discount for those who order both sweets and drink.

Whatever. Here is their Kunefe that I shared with the friend (there was no way that I eat one on my own; it was huge and VERY sweet).




Basically it was warm kantaifi pastry with cheesy custard filling and kaimaki ice cream (not totally cold, strange ice cream) on top. The pasty wasn't freshly baked and filling wasn't cheesey enough. The ice cream I thought was overwhelming.

It was definitely not the right kunefe that I had in mind. Disappointed.

This friend of mine who was with me loved kunefe so much that she went to Istanbul to try it (OK, that was not the only purpose of the trip) and even tried to bake it at home. She was not impressed by this one either.

Another friend who joined later asked a waitress how was their kazan dipi was like and was informed that it wasn't authentic Turkish sort that contains chicken breast. So he ordered a kadaifi with cream. I tried it, too, but was again below average.

I did not regret to have tried this place, but do not have any intention to go back. Hatzis Cafeteria in Syntagma does better Oriental sweets. Of course it is slightly pricier, but, in comparison to Serbetia, I believe it is worth paying.

Sorry.

Serbetia stou Psyrri
Eshilou 3, near the Central Square of Psyrri
Athens
Τηλ. 210 3245862

Σερμπέτια στου Ψυρρή
Αισχύλου 3,
Πλατεία Ψυρρή
Αθήνα
Τηλ. 210 3245862
On Foursquare

Cheese Cake @ Gazi College

Today we had a lunch at Dioskouroi on Adrianou Street. I knew that the food was mediocre, but it was a friend of GH who chose it. It wasn't my fault.

After that GH and I went to Gazi College for a coffee and to try their well-publicized sweets.

We ordered a cheese cake. The Greek cheese cakes are always raw and often combined with sour cherry. This one wasn't exception.

What impressed us above all was its size. We first thought they brought two pieces by mistake. It was that big.

Now the taste. Unfortunately it was not my type of cheese cake. It did not have much of cheese taste and was rathe boring. Not that I am saying it was bad, but it was not something I want to eat again. 5 Euro.

On the other hand coffees were fine. Cold espresso for 3.50 euro and cold cappuccino for 3.70 euro.

We liked that they brought us water and ice cubes in a separate bucket.

Next time we will try some food.

Gazi College
Persefonis 53,
Gazi, Athens
Tel. 210 3422112
www.gazicollege.gr

By the way, today it is very hot. I am not really feeling well now. I have to get used to the temperature.

Loukoumades @ Kypseli in Nea Smyrni

[Update 5 March 2014: this shop does not exist any more]

Had a coffee at a new cafeteria called Kypseli in Nea Smyrni. It is one of many shops in Plateia 25 Martiou.

It sells Loukoumades, yogurt, and frozen yogurt. We ordered one portion of loukoumades with honey. They gave us 5 pieces for 4 euros. I did not like orange peel in the honey (it killed the taste of honey), but the loukoumades were light and not too oily.

We regretted not having ordered a dish called Pyrgos (tower) which is composed of loukoumades, frozen yogurt, and various berries. We will do at next time.

New York Cheese Cake @ Cake

Last Saturday we stopped at a new cake shop called Cake in central Piraeus. As it is a small chain/franchise, you might have seen it somewhere else.

Many of the cakes are sold by kilo and not by piece. Although there were some other interesting ones, my ever conservative husband chose a cheese cake. And, as always, we shared one cake between two.



It was called New York Cheese Cake with Sour-Cherry Sauce. I do not know what is this "New York" about, although I see this qualificative often before cheese cake. Anyway, it was a non-baked type cheese cake.



It was very cream-cheesy and fatty. The cream part was nice, but personally I did not like the biscuit part as it had a strange aroma (from a spice?).



It was so fatty that, although we were sharing it, we started to feel "oh, that is enough" at the end.

The price for the cake was whipping 6.50 Euro. Restaurant dessert price.



But to compensate it, the cappuccino was only 2.50 Euro. By consequence, the total bill was reasonable 11.50 Euro.

I find often disappointing these "Western" cakes in Greece, but this cheese cake gave me a hope. I would return to try other offers.

Cake
Karaiskou 98, Piraeus
Tel. 210 4225 707

And other places like...
Kolonaki: Irodotou 15
Ermou: Fokionos 2-4
Halandri: Likourgou 2 & L. Kifisias
Nea Smyrni: 2as Maiou 22, Pl. Smyrnis
Glyfada: Lazaraki 20
Voula: Vas. Pavlou 67
http://www.cake.gr/

Portokalopita @ Izmirli Aile, Piraeus

The Athenians' life has been much disturbed by intermittent strikes of public transports and I had to walk many kilometers to walk home from work (not that walked all along, but about 6 km a time).

During one of these walks, I found this Turkish named place in Piraeus. It is called Izmirli Aile.



According to Google Translate Aile means family, so it is probably Izmir's family.



It says it has been since 1922, i.e. a year before the official Population Exchange, but already many of the Orthodox residents in Asia Minor were leaving their home. I am guessing the first owner of this shop was one of them. But the use of Turkish is actually unusual.

This shop was supposed to be patisserie (zaharoplasteio), but it seemed to be functioning more as a cafeteria and when we visited Saturday morning, they did not have many home-made sweets (they did have more pastries they bought in).

One of the few their produce was this orange pie (portokalopita).



It was made with fyllo pastry and served with real (i.e. not vegetable) whipped cream.



It was a very nice Oriental cake.

Coffee was average, but very cheap by Piraeus standard - 2.80 Euro for a cappuccino.



I would surely come back to see if they have some other Oriental sweets, when I happen to be there.



Izmirli Aile
Tzamadou & Zosimadon 48, Piraeus
Tel. 210 411 8541

Galaktoboureko @ Megalopoli

This happened two weekends ago.

On the way to Bassae (Vassai) we stopped at Megalopoli for a rest. We looked for a good place for pies and I saw this at the central square of Megalopoli.



"Traditional Galaktoboureko of Megalopoli".

And I send to Hubby, "Honey, I think I should try this". He agreed only reluctantly, because he was looking for cheese pie and this was a sign of zacharoplasteio (patisserie).



When we went inside and he was even more disappointed to see a stale-looking cheese pies, but the savior appeared from behind the counter and told him that there are fresher ones in the oven.

Here is the traditional galaktoboureko of Megalopoli!



The Megalopolitan galaktoboureko had a very soft custard filling, almost like custard pudding. Had a nice eggy flavour and no unpleasant taste of undercooked semolina.



We loved it.

The cheese pie (tyropita koulou) also was "super" with a good quality feta cheese.



We left happy and content.

Kafe-Zacharoplasteio Astoria
Π. ΚΕΦΑΛΑ 6, ΜΕΓ/ΛΗ

Gustoso @ Rafina

Happy New Year!

Did you have a happy and gay holidays? Not like me?

I caught a bad cold on 30 December and slept from 31st December late afternoon and the whole 1st of January. Now the fever has past, but I cannot still eat solid food.

So, I don't have any photos of 2011 and the below were from 2010.

When we went to Rafina on 26 December, we bought some cakes from a zacharoplasteio (patisserie) called Gustoso.

There are all sorts of sweets, from biscuits and chocolates to baklavas and creamy fresh cakes.

Hubby bought rather boring slices of cakes called "pastes" here in Greece. Instead I bought fancier stuff.

This is cheese cake.



In my country, when one says "cheese cake" it is baked cheese cake, but here in Greece, it is non-baked type (I don't see baked cheese cake - if not Cretan mitzithra cheese pastries).

The cream was good, but I was not impressed by the buiscuit crambs in the bottom section.

The other one was excellent.



It was a hybrid between oriental sweets and European sweets. The shell is made of phyllo pastry, but inside there is custard cream, almond and sour cherries on the top.



I ate about 1/3 and Hubby divoured the rest.

If you have chance to go to Rafina, do try.

Zacharoplasteio "Gustoso"
http://www.gustoso.gr

Halvas Farsalon and Kazan Dipi

Recently I am pretty busy and tired (tiredness partly because of the heat) and could not bring myself to blog. But after a week or so, I started to feel sorry and here I am.

Oh, and a warning. Another major strike is announced for the comming Thursday (8 July). It includes almost for sure the Port of Piraeus. We won't know the detail until a day or two before the strike, but if you can avoid travelling on the 8 July, please do.

*****************************

Do you know halvas?

If you are some kind of philehellene (should't I used this word in this context? :p), you must have at least heard about it.

The most common halvas (halvades?) are two: sesame halvas, which is sometimes called Macedonian halvas, and semolina halvas, which you might have eaten at Greek tavernas as a free treat.

I don't quite like either of these, but I do like Halvas Farsalon, i.e. Halvas of Farsala.



According to the confectioner, it is made from corn starch, sugar, oil and almond. As it needs very high temperature to cook, it is not normally made at home. I found a video of Farsalon Halvas making: take a look if you are interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35c8w4HrFAk



It is brown and opaque. Tastes very caramely because of the caramelised sugar. Texture is sticky. It is like oily "mochi" or "uiro" if you are familiar to Japanese sweets.

As you can suppose from the name, it is common in Farsala area and I bought this one in Lamia. If you're interested in Greek sweets and happen to visit these parts of Greece, it is something of a must to try.

In Athens, I only see in stalls at church yorti (yorti is festival), but I have never tried ones from stalls and I don't know if I can recommend it to you.


Another of my favourite sweets, Kasan Dipi.



It is a Turkish sweets made from buffalo milk, sugar and chicken breast (actually it is a caramelised version of Turkish chicken breast sweet pudding). But, if you eat so-called Kazan Dipi in Greece, it is a sort of Pannacotta which I don't fancy particularly (I don't even like Italian pannacotta so much).

I thought I could buy it in Athens only from Turkish confectionery Gulluoglu, but recently I saw something similar in Piraeus and decided to try.

The owner of the shop surprised that I knew Kazan Dipi and we started to chat. He said that Gulluoglu actually buy the stuff from his factory and pass it as their own. It tastes very similar indeed (I say 'similar' just because I don't remember exactly how Gulluoglu's Kazan Dipi was).

He was born in Constantinople, but later forced out by Turkey and that is why he is in Greece making true "politiki" sweets.

Next time, I will buy baklavas from his shop.

Greek Wafer Pies

When you get ferryboat stopping at Chios island, you always - however late in the night or however early in the morning - see sweets sellers. I don't know why they are allowed to come into the boat, but they are, and they leave before the boat leaves the port.

On our way home from Lesvos, we decided to buy one to see what it tastes like.



The package says "pita me mastiha".

Let's open...




It is a white substance sandwiched by two thin wafers (by the way, this is Hubby's hand).



The white substance is very sugary fluffy soft stuff flavoured with mastiha (sap from mastiha trees). We did not particularly like it. As neither Hubby nor I like mastiha in sweets, it is no wonder. It cost whipping 1.50 euros! It used to be 1 euro a piece. It is a rip-off! (By the way, this is my hand.)


I tried the same sort of thing from Mastihashop (actually I bought it from Loumides shop, but it is product of Mastihashop). Same price, but it is about 50% heavier.



It is the same sort, but this one does not include mastiha and has honey instead (and bigger almonds).



We liked this one quite a lot. It is also sugary, but honey gives a nice flavour and melt-in-the-mouth consistency is also very pleasant.

If you feel like trying these wafer pies, I recommend to try Mastihashop products (you can find them in Mastihashops in Athens, in majour groceries, or in Athens airport). They come in three flavours and one is with mastiha.

Breakfast Biscuits/Cookies

Recently Hubby eats biscuits for breakfast. We tried various stuff from our neighbourhood.

These are Kouloulakia Smyrneika from Vienneza. 8 euros a kilo (about 450 grammes in this photo).



Not sugarly and very light.

I returned to buy the same thing, but they did not have any. I bought voutimata (biscuits) instead. 9 euros a kilo.



These were excellent. Baton shaped ones are cinnamon flavour and round ones are filled with chocolate. Both had subtle flavours and got our thumbs up.

Then, from Exarchos Bakery.



Sticks are kritsinia. Exarchos makes the best seed kritsinia. Round one is mizithra pie, which unfortunately contained masticha that we both dislike in sweets. The others are orange biscuits, very good.

These Greek breakfast biscuits are not as sugarly or butterly as, say, English type biscuits. Although we don't usually associate biscuits with Greek cooking, they are worth the note, being quite distinct.

Milky Cream Desserts from Hatzis

Bought some creamy sweets from Zacharoplasteio Hatzis in Syntagma area.


From the round cup in the left up corner clockwise, they are Keskoul, Malebi, and Tauk Giouksou, all around 4 euros.

Giouskou was the least interesting of all: it was virtually custard cream mixed with some nuts. Tastewise it was fine, but nothing exciting.

The other two were more interesting.

Malebi is a cream made from buffalo milk and rice powder, scented, I think, with flowerwater and mahlepi. It was written that it contained mastiha, but I could not sense it.

Tauk Giouskou is milk, rice power and chicken breast pudding. Again it was scented with either flower water or mahlepi.

I seem to like these flavourings of the last two and ate them with great dilectation.


Hatzis
Mitropoleos 5 (Syntagma)
Athens
Tel. 210-3222647

Χατζής
Μητροπόλεως 5 (Συντάγμα)
Αθήνα

http://www.mesogeia.net/athens/places/syntagma/chatzis_en.html

Agapitos @ Syntagma, Athens

[P.S. of 10 May 2014: This place does not exist any more. It closed down quite a long ago now].

Having been enticed by an article I read in a free town paper, I visited Agapitos, confectioner near Syntagma Square. I don't know when the Athenian branch opened, but the main shop in Thessaloniki was founded in 1944.



The first thing I wanted to try was Kazan Dipi, sweet of Turkish origin made from milk, sugar and chicken breast, according to the original recipe.

Unfortunately Agapitos' recipe isn't true to the original and does not contain chicken breast; it is more like gooey solid cream. The worst part was the caramelised brown surface. I don't know if they do it on purpose or not, but it has very strong smokiness which both Hubby and I thought off-putting. We eventually removed it and ate the rest.



As Agapitos is Salonican, I thought it is a good idea to try also Trigona Panoramatos which are basically baklavas with custard cream.

These are not bad, but balkava part was too much like a sfoglia pie, soggy and laked in crunchiness of good baklava. Trigono of Terkenlis was much better.



Both of these cost 2.50 euros a piece.

The best of the batch was these small almond pastries.




I asked the name but could not really get it. The outer case was made of marzipan and something else and the cream has a melange like consistency. These were sold by weight and two came to 1.20 euro.

On the whole I was rather disappointed, maybe due to high expectation. I need to explore more elsewhere.

Agapitos / Αγαπητός
Voulis 7
Sintagma, Athens.
Βουλής 7
Σύνταγμα, Αθήνα
http://www.agapitos.gr/

Loukoumades @ Aigaion, Athens

This content is moved to the following address:
http://www.mesogeia.net/athens/estiatoria/aigaion_en.html

Thank you very much for visiting.

Oriental Sweets from Xanthi

Visited the Athenian branch of Sarayli Saray near Omonia Square. I have seen quite a lot of publicity of it on free papers and got curious.



From the publicity I had an impression that there was seating space, but actually there wasn't. It is quite small, but there is are quite many things inside. The shop is from the town of Xanthi in northern Greece (the shops in Xanthi are evidently called "Fresh Co") and this shop, opened in October 2009, is their first Athenian venture.

I had an idea of buying Kazan Dipi, but it did not look as good as the one I bought a week ago from another shop, so changed idea and bought some baklavas.



The girl of the shop was enthusiastic and happy to explain which is what. They have many exotic sweets that I have never seen (although I admit not to have so much experience with balkavas).

I sampled 4 pieces of siropiasta (syrup soaked sweets) and there are two of them.

This is baklava with pistachio nuts of Aegina. 2.50 euros.




It did not have as much pistachio as I would have liked and the texture was rather soggy (lacked in crispiness), but had a nice flavour, probably because of the good ingredients.


Again another of baklava type sweets made with Aeginian pistachio. 2 euros.



This one was eaten by the wife of my bro-in-law and she said it was nice.

On the other hand, another one I ate wasn't very nice, being too dry and lacking in nuts content.

All in all, it is probably above average, but I have known better ones. However, the variety of sweets here is huge and the price seems reasonable. I don't mind coming back when I happen to be near.

Sarayli Saray
Aiolou 105 & Panepistimiou (near Omonia Square), Athens
Πανεπιστημίου και Αιόλου 105, Αθήνα
http://www.sarayli.gr/

Kazan Dipi

I bought a packet of Kazan Dipi (Κάζαν Ντιπί) from a shop near Syntagma Square, Athens.



They look like tiramisu, but they are not. The brown part that looks like cacao powder is caramel.

Kazan Dipi is Turkish sweet made from buffalo milk (now, more often from cow milk) and chicken breast, with some extra sugar to caramelise.

If you buy it from ordinary Greek sweet shops, it is often like pannacotta with caramel sauce, but it isn't the authentic version and tastes not as good as the real maccoy. It takes quite a long time and a lot of work to process chicken breast and it is not cheap sweet. These ones I bought cost €5.80, but it was worth the price.

The texture of the pudding is heavenly. It is similar to pannacotta to a certain extent, but it is firmer and stickier. I enjoyed it to the full.

Fig and Almond Sweets

Mom-in-law (MIL) made a fabulous dessert and gave some to us.



These are very small fig fruits stuffed with raw almond and cooked in sugar. MIL told me that she used to made these sweets when she was younger but recentlty she has not seen these figs for for years until that day.

She said these were bitter figs. I don't know if the bitter figs are different from sweet ones, or they were bitter because not yet mature.

They don't have much taste in themselves: sweet (because of sugar, but much less sweet than glyko tou koutaliou) and slightly bitter. The best thing about them is the aroma. I don't know how to describe it. It reminds me of pickled cherry leaves that Japaense people make, but it also has raw almond smell and it creates a really nice mixture.

You won't believe me until you taste it. Well, at least I wouldn't.

Καλή Ανάσταση και Καλλό Πάσχα

I have been a bit disorganised in time wise because of heavy church-going and have not had time to write on this blog.

I bought some meat and some cheese and milk for the week from tomorrow. Besides, I bought a Toureki from the usual bakery in my neighbourhood.



Tsoureki is Greek Easter bread. It is similar to Brioche, but has particular smell because of mahlepi and mastiha. Because of butter and egg content, it is suitable for the fat week ahead.

I wish all the Orthodox people happy Easter tomorrow.

Halvas Drapetsonas

Some time ago, I posted an note about a halvas factory in Drapetsona area of Piraeus. It is really called Kosmidis and Gavriλis's Halvas of Drapetsona (Κοσμίδη-Γαβρίλη Χαλβάς Δραπετσώνας) and evidently famous all over Greece.

When I saw the shop at the beginning of the Lent, I did not even dare enter because of the long queue in front.

After almost a month, there isn't any more queue and, when I went to LIDL last week, I could secure a box for me.

They sell several types of halvas, like almond, cacao etc, but I bought the "sketo" (no added material) one. This is 450g box and the price was something between 3 and 3.50euros.

To tell the truth, I was totally sceptical about it, because I have never liked sesame halvas; they are just too sweet and uninteresting in flavour. I don't even like sesame so much. I bought it only because Hubby said he wanted some. Although he does not like halvas either, being a traditional Greek boy, he thinks he needs halvas to pass the Lent properly.

To my surprise, it turned out to be quite good. I cannot really tell what is different about Kosmidis' Halvas, but it is definitely better: it has stronger sesame flavour (but not bitter) and more pleasant texture.

They say it is good because it is hand-made (χειροποίητος), but I cannot believe that they mash the sesame actually by hand and in fact I see machines inside the factory. A mystery.

If you never liked sesame halvas, give it another chance by trying Drapetsona halvas!

http://www.halvas-drapetsonas.gr/

Tsoureki + Cookies = ?

Was today 'Stavroproskynesis' day? Dim's mom told me about it, but could not find any reference on internet. We missed the mess this morning and don't know what happened, although afterwards we got a branch of dendrolivano (Rosemary) from church. Anyway...



When we had a coffee party at home inviting some friends and brothers, one of the guests brought us this strange cake.

Sorry that it is already cut and eaten; guests ate some pieces and the photo was taken on the day after.

From this angle, you can see it is a toureki bread coated with chocolate.

For those who are not familiar with toureki, it is sweet bread with eggs and butter, Greek brioche, so to speak. It is typical bread of Easterday, but we can find it in bakeries and cake shops all year around. For more detail, please refer to this article in Wikipedia.

This is the section. Do you see yellow and chocolate colour stuff in between?

These are cookies! Who would thought stuff brioche with cookies? I often feel disappointed by Greek sweets, but this one did impressed me. Although I am not 100 % sure about the match of cookies and brioche, the dry and cruntchy texture of cookies and the syrup soaked lower part of toureki make an interesting contrast. Besides, as all the parts are so tasty that the combination itself wasn't that important.

It is an original product of chocolate & cake shop Max Perry of Drapetsona area of Piraeus. It has two more shops on Thevon road. Although I am not a chocolate lover, I would love to pay a visit.

This flower is also a gift from one of the guests.



We bought the exactly the same flower when we moved in to a new flat in UK 5 years ago. Strange coincidence.