Where We Ate in and around Leonidio 2

Continuation from the previous post.

After a short stop at Leonidio, we continued for Elonas Monastery and for Kosmas Village.

I did not know what we could expect from the village. It is somehow similar to one of picturesque villages in Pelion and there are several restaurants and cafeterias; definitely more touristic than Leonidon.

We stopped at a grill restaurant called Basaram, because it had their menu outside. I always prefer to study the menu actually going into restaurant.

Inside, there is nothing particular. Many of the patrons seemed to know the place, but they ate and left quickly, as if they had other destinations.

Although the interior decoration does not say much, it has a good view of the village.

They had a couple of curious stuff like wild boar, but, we ordered conservatively. Here are homemade biftekia. The portion was rather small, but for 6 Euro, I guess it was fine.

They were good, but I prefer the mince to be more coarse, while GH was very happy with them.

I was excited with this boiled goat, instead.

The meat was tender and the fat was sweet.

We had also a tzatziki, cabbage salad, a 500 ml of rose wine (they did not have red), and some pieces of apple on the house. The total bill was 20.50, again with receipt without any prompt. Excellent. Again we were very happy.


Basaram - Μπασαράμ
Kosmas, Arkadia
Tel. 27570 31413


After we wanted to have a galaktoboureko, as many people were eating it cafeteias, but when we arrived, it was sold out. A shame.

We did not feel hungry in the evening, so we just ate some spinach pie we brought from Piraeus at our room.

Next day (25 March 2013).

After having participated in the service at the local church of Sambatiki, we went to the village above called Pragmatefti.

We had a Greek coffee at the kafenio/mini-supermarket in the village. It is "THE" shop, because there is any other.

I wonder why the Greek coffees taste better in the countryside. A mystery.

We had a hiking in the mountain (they told us that there is a hiking road from Pragmatefti to Leonidio, but we did not spend so much time) and left Leonidio. For lunch, we needed to eat fried cod, because it was 25 March. We headed for Tyros, which extends along the sea.

We found only a few restaurants open and stopped at a one called Flisvos, because it had a bit more people than the others.

It is just in front of the sea and here is the view from our table (unfortunately the weather wasn't particularly good).

They had meat as well as fish/ seafood, but no magirefta (stewed stuff). We ordered fried calamari and fried cod.

Fried calamari was probably fresh and cost 8.50 Euro. Expensive but very sweet and satisfactory.

Fried cod with garlic mash was rather small for 6.50 Euro. Maybe because of the strong popular demand. Tasted all right, though.

Together with peppery cheese paste (tyrokafteri), salad and 0.5l of white wine, the bill was about 25 Euro. Our most expensive meal during this trip! Ha ha ha.

Flisvos - Φλοίσβος
Paralia Tyrou, Tyros, Arcadia
Παραλία, Τυρός, Αρκαδία
Τελ. +30 2757041316

After the meal I wanted to eat something sweet. So we made an extra stop at Agios Andreas. It is a modern village with an attractive central square.

We found a cafeteria/ mezedopoleio called Stou Kapela (Στου Καπέλα). They did not have Greek sweets like Galaktoboureko or Portokalopita that I wanted, so I settled with Profiterole, which turned out to be pretty good.

It cost 3.50 Euro and together with 2 coffees, the bill came to around 7.50. Quite a difference from the price in Athens.

That was the last thing we ate during the travel. We returned with a positive impression.

Where We Ate in and around Leonidio 1

I see that I have not been blogging for 2 weeks. Maybe I was too absorbed by Cyprus banking crisis, or maybe I did not find enough time. I have been doing fine.

The last 3 day weekend (including 25 March celebration on Monday), we went to Leonidio in Arcadia. I am planning to upload about the sites in Gate to Greece, but, as usual, I write about the food we ate in the blog.

We started for Leonidio in the Saturday morning (23 March). After a brief stop at the archaeological site of Argos, we stopped at Paralio Astros. Actually we first went to Astros itself, but as it did not have anything attractive, we went down to the coastal Astros.

We did not want to sit down to a real meal, so we had a club sandwich in a resto-cafeteria called Galaxias or something like that. That was a bad idea, probably.

The club sandwich was pretty average, though cheap (5 Euro).




Yoghurt that GH ordered was served with a packaged honey from Metamorphosis (suburb of Athens), mixture of Greek and Bulgarian honey.

Don't bother.

We stayed at a village called Sabatiki, but for dinner we went to Leonidio which is about 7 KM away.

It turned out that there were only 2 tavernas open in the town centre (there was also a few just outside the down - still in walking distance - toward Plaka). One was called Eugeston and the other was this Mitropolis, on Mitropoleos Street. I guess there are more choices after the Easter.

When we enter the taverna at 8 o'clock there was absolutely nobody (as in this photo), but at 9 o'clock it was so full that there was difficulty finding a table.



As it was Lenten period, they had also octopus and squids, but the normal main courses are meat, stewed and grilled.

Excellent was this pitalouda, which is a grilled pie with green leaves (horta) and cheese filling. I ate a similar pie in Lakonia, but this one was much better. Amazing.



Slightly sick GH did not have much appetite throughout the trip, so we ordered only 1 main dish. This was Rooster cooked in Tomato (kokoras kokkinistos) served with spaghetti (we could have chosen also rice or potatoes, instead of spaghetti).



I chose this dish because the waiter told us that the rooster was their own. It was indeed full of flavor.

We had also boiled green (horta), fried potatoes and a bottle of beer. The total bill was just above 20 Euro and they gave us a receipt without being requested. We left very happy.

Do not miss it out.

Mitropolis - Μητρόπολης
Leonidio, Arcadia
Λεωνίδιο, Αρκαδία
Tel 27570 29115

Next morning.

Our "Rooms" did not have breakfast, but had a kitchenette. So we bought a box of biscuits for breakfast a day before from a local supermarket just outside Leonidio. These were from Laconia and I saw them sold also in Athens. The same producer makes also pasta.



GH does not eat much breakfast, but as a good Greek, he eats 2nd breakfast at around 11 o'clock. We stoped at Eugeuston in Leonidio. Eugeston (Eugefston?) is the other taverna open then in Leonidio and, different from Mitropolis, it is open from the morning as a kafenio. GH bought a tyropita with mizithra cheese.



The owner was very friendly and told us some things about Leonidio.

Then we took a road for the mountains.

To be continued...

What We Ate in Arkadia

Last weekend we went to Arcadia for an overnight trip to celebrate my birthday.

We ate only twice in two days. It was not a result of perikopes & litotita. We usually have decent meal only once while we travel, because we eat lunch so late that we don't get hungry in the evening.

On 6 Nov evening, we ate at Elliniko as our pension was in this village as I wrote in the previous post.



According to our hotelier, this is the only taverna in the village: Georgada. I actually saw another building with taverna sign, but it was closed.



It was too cold to eat al fresco, so we had a table inside. Although it was very odd time (around 5 in the afternoon), some villagers and some tourists were eating.



Saganaki, Tzatziki and Horta. Saganaki was not-melty yellow cheese. Tzaziki also was very good, as yogurt was fantastic. It is not like the one you can find in Athenian tavernas, as central Peloponnese is yoghurt producing region.



The menu was not long. As mageirefta, there were only pork in wine (in the photo) and lamb in lemon sauce. Otherwise, grilled meat (tis oras). The pork dish was just average as well as fried potatoes.



White wine was nice, light & fruity, though.

Yogurt and spoon sweet (of some sort of cherry) on the house. Although we were quite full, we could not resist the temptation and ate it all.



The bill was extremely reasonable 22.50 Euro.

Georgada
Elliniko Gortynias
Tel. 27950 31009

Saganaki 4
Tzatziki 3
Horta 3.5
Potatoes 2.5
Pork in Wine 7.5
Bread 1
Wine 1
Total 22.50 Euro


On 7 November, we had a late lunch in Stemnitsa.



The taverna Stemnitsa had many tables in the village's main square, but, again, it was too cold for us and choose a table inside.



Tzatziki, Greek Salad & Florina Peppers. Frorina peppers were cold & marinated in vinegar. The meat was very thick and sweet. I don't think they were Florina variety. Excellenet.



They had spanakorizo (spinach rice) and lamb with oregano, so we ordered both.



The lamb was tasty, but dry & hard. It might be from an animal older than a lamb.



With a bottle of beer, the bill came to 26.30 Euro. Not bad, but I would try other tavernas in the village as well.

Stemnitsa
Stemnitsa Arkadias
Tel. 27950 81371

Greek Salad 6.5
Tzatziki 2.8
Red Pepper 4
Spinach Rice 4
Lamb in Lemon & Oregano 7
Beer 2
Total 26.30

Elaion @ Elliniko

Two days trip to Dimitsana area. We are staying at this ξενώνας (pension). http://www.innelaion.gr/