Miscellaneous notes

I have not been posting, because I have not eaten anything worth writing about these days.

Last Sunday, we lunched at Pita Pan near Divani Caravel Hotel, because we needed to ear in a hurry. This is a "portion (merida)" of chicken skewers. It might look fine, but tasted industrially processed-food. Edible, but there is nothing really to say.

The location, however, is rather pleasant. It has tables on a pedestrian walk by a small park.

The reason why we found ourselves there was to visit the Byzantine and Christian Museum.

Last Sunday was International Museum Day and all the museums offered free-entry. I had visited this museum twice, but it was many years ago and I can gladly tell you that there has been much development. When I first visited it 15 years ago, the exhibits were housed only in one small building. At the second time, the new wing was open, but only the ground floor. Now the whole underground level is open to hold hundreds of artifacts to illustrate (mainly religious) life of Early Christian, Byzantine, Mediaeval, and Modern Greek world. It is a splendid museum.

And Friday, we went to 25araki in Glyfada, this time with a discount coupon. The food was delicious and very cheap, but as I have written about this place twice and last time was just this December 2013, I am not writing again.

Ah, I just want to note that we saw a new Indian restaurant in Zisimopoulou Street (Glyfada).
http://www.tandoor.gr/
I think (I might be wrong) that this is the first Indian restaurant in Glyfada since Jaipur Palace Glyfada was closed down.

Let's see what I am going to find Sunday today.

Views from Keratsini

Today we went to Keratsini for a coffee.

Foursquare turned out to be very useful again. :)

Sardela @ Korydallos

By some turn of events, we found ourselves in Korydallos last Sunday afternoon and needed to eat in 1 hour. Not having time to look for places in my very long "restaurants to visit" list, we entered one which we found by chance.

So much under a pressure to find a place quickly, we did not even realize that it was a fish restaurant until we sat down and read the name of restaurant, Sardela.

It is virtually on the Freedom (Eleftheria) Square, but you don't really feel it, because currently all the square is enclosed by metal wall due to the metro construction work.

I had an impression that they had cheap set menu of 12 Euro p.p. or so, but we ordered a la carte.

The menu mostly consists of psaromezedes (fish/seafood mezedes) and main dishes. I do not remember to have seen any meat.

Before we order, the head waitress came to us with a large tray with cold mezedes, like salt cured fish, marinated fish/seafood, potato salad, or dips. We picked up mavromatika (black eyed beans) and melitzanosalata.

This melitzanosalata was pretty good. I do not like the one with mayonnaise and this was without.

Bread came warm, if not the grilled bread with olive oil and oregano often served in fish tavernas in Greece.

Except for the cold mezedes, we ordered only 2 dishes. One was fried potatoes for GH. They were bit oily, but fresh and tasty.

And octopus stifado, which is octopus stewed with small onions and, I think, vinegar and white wine. Very good. Went well with fried potatoes.

At the end, we were offered chocolate mousse or 'submarine' (I don't know how to explain it; it is a sweet made of sugar and sticky consistency; it is often served on spoon sticked in a glass of water, hence the name), and we chose the former. I thought it was an instant sort, but, as it was free, no complaint.

With a bottle of beer and a bottled water (they just brought it on the table), the bill came to 25.10 Euro. Normally, you would order 1 or 2 dishes more, but it is still reasonable. It is not a destination restaurant, but if we happen to be in the area, we might well come back.

Sardela- Σαρδέλα
Taxiarchon 24, Korydallos, Athens
Ταξιαρχών 24, Κορυδαλλός, Αθήνα
Tel. 211 4111773

Before Korydallos, we were in Egaleo mountain visiting the botanical garden. It is a nice place to visit, if you want feel the nature without travelling far from Athens.

Some Developments in Central Athens

Miscellaneous photos from central Athens.

The ex-Gasoline of Piraeus Street, Gazi, has reopened as Gazoo Cafe, with only small changes.

And this is a shop at the start of Persefonis Street in Gazi, almost next to the Gazoo Cafe. It used to be occupied by cafeteria-cake shop, but has been closed for a while. But again, there is a sign of life now.

Peinirli from Stamatis on Akademias street, not far from Omonia Square. It specialises in Peinirli, which is made from the dough in the premises. I tried twice and can say that I love it as a snack. Price is between 2 and 3 Euros approximately, depending on the topping.

Stamatis - Σταμάτης
Akademias 77, Exarchia, Athens
Tel. 210 3300055

Next to the well known Furin Kazan Japanese restaurant in Apollonos Street, Syntagma, East Pearl Chinese Restaurant has opened. It is a shop used to be occupied by Golden Chopsticks.

On the other hand, there are some indications that East Pearl in Piraeus is closed. I have to go and check it.

Exploring Keratsini

Yesterday (Friday) night, we went to explore Keratsini. Although it is an area adjacent to Piraeus, we have rarely been there except for passing through it to go to Peloponnesos.

For the occasion, I bought a discount coupon which include 1 salad, 2 starters, seafood spaghetti for 2 persons, drink and dessert for 20 Euro.

I am not going to discuss about the restaurant itself for various reasons, one of them being that the coupon meal does not always give justice to the quality of restaurant. Seafood spaghetti was good, though.

What impressed us was that how deserted all the restaurants in the area were. We went to a street called Digeni Akrita where there is a concentration of 5 or 6 eateries, some of them even well-known. Even it was a Friday night, they were either totally empty or only a couple of tables occupied. As we stayed there well into 11 o'clock, I don't think we missed any late diners.

Some of these places, including the one we went to, were supposed to have live music in Friday evenings, but we did not see anything like that in any of them.

What was that? Since when Friday evenings became so quiet? Or, did it just happen to be so yesterday?

We need to return there to see it again.