Taverna Dionysos @ Finikounda

We have been to Messinia, Peloponnese for 5 days.

We were ones of those lucky "30%" of Greeks who could go for a summer vacation trip and more lucky "7%" of the Greeks who could afford to pay for accommodation.

Of course these statistics are bullshit. It does not explain at all how our neighbourhood in Piraeus is so empty and almost all the people around us go to (or have been to) somewhere for vacation, either because they have money to pay or they have a country house(s) to go.

Anyway, about the historical sites, beaches and cultural monument, I am going to write in the Gate to Greece website. Here I write only some random info.

During our trip we stopped at Finikounda (In Greek, it is spelled Φοινικούντα, and nt is pronounced "d") in the evening for dinner, because we had received a tip that Finikounda has pretty busy night life.

And it was true.

Finikounda itself is a small village. I imagine at least some of the people in Finikounda in the evening should have come from the hotels in the neighbouring areas like Koroni and Methoni, like ourselves.

We did not know how Finikounda was like and drove into the central Finikounda (we did not intend to, but it wasn't prohibited either). Having got scared after running amongst the pedestrians, we parked at a paid parking (2 Euro for as many hours you like), but we could have parked just outside the centre, for wherever you park, the centre is probably not very far.

As so many of the small village centres, there is only one main street in Finikounda which runs along the coast like. In the central part of the main street there are souvlaki places and cafeterias and tavernas are toward the both ends of the street.

The most famous one is Eleni's in the photo below. This restaurant should command a nice view in the afternoon and there were really many people. The menu looked interesting..

But we were put off by the live Greek music being played. We were not in the mood to listen to Monastiraki-like Greek folk music so we settled in a nearby taverna-psistaria called Dionysos which had some tables along the seafront.

Dionysos has grilled meat dishes, stewed food (magirefta) as well as small selection of seafood/fish.

As starters, we ordered tzatziki and horta (Vlita) which were both very nice.

I got rolled chicken staffed with vegetables and cheese.

It was somewhat salty, but the chicken tasted pretty good.

Greek Husband got an mussakas in earthenware.

He liked it very much, while I thought that it was overcooked. (You might ask what I mean by "overcooked", to which I answer that, as the Greeks use veal/ young beef - real beef is very rare here - to make meat sauce, it does not stand to be stewed many hours).

The portion size of moussakas was enormous and it would have fed both of us.

At the end they offered us 4 small pieces of watermelon.

Together with a half kilo of white wine (we liked it) and a bottle of fizzy water, the total bill came to 27.30 Euro.

The bill breakdown is as follows:

White wine (500 ml. ca.) 3 Euro
Fizzy Water 2.50 Euro
Tzatziki 3 Euro
Horta 3.80 Euro
Chicken 6.50 Euro
Moussakas 7.50 Euro
Bread 1 Euro

We would be happy to return, when we happen to be in Finikounda. Besides some of the people around us were evidently returning patrons, which means that this place probably is not a bad choice in Finikounda.

After the dinner I stopped at a ice cream palour.

I don't have the name because he did not give me the receipt.

I found it too sweet, but evidently I have strange taste as far as ice cream concerns. One scoop cost 1.50 Euro.

And here are some pages about Messinia in Gate to Greece.

What I ate in Skyros

It has been some time since the last time I posted. I was making pages on Gate to Greece website about Skyros where we went in early July.

Here I would like to show you some of the food we ate during the trip.

The first day we arrived, we went a bit crazy and entered an Italian restaurant called Marco Polo. The owner chef is an Italian and serves classic Italian dishes like pasta and pizza as well as some Greek and fusion dishes like these.

Here are devil's kebabs. The waiter tried to explain us why it was named so, but we did not really understand.

Judging from the texture of the meat, it was mixed with soda powder. This is a way to treat meat in East from Turkey to China, but not in Greece. I guessed it was inspired by Turkish Kebabs. They might not look good, but tasted pretty good.

And here is orange flavoured chicken tandoori. I don't think it was cooked in tandoor oven, but the chicken breast was treated with tandoori spice.

Unfortunately it arrived undercooked (the waiter told us that they mixed up the order and had to cook this dish in a hurry), so we sent it back to the oven. Regardless of the hiccup, it tasted interesting and I liked it.

This restaurant is relatively expensive for the island (the above dishes are 10 Euros each), but, if you get tired of Greek food (or even not), that is the place to go. I do not know the exact address, but it is located in the central square of Chora and it won't be difficult to find.

Our pension did not serve breakfast, so we had to go out to get something. This is an apple pie from a local bakery and we brought our bread to a nearby cafeteria. The pies and croissants were all right, if not anything noteworthy.

Here is a calorie bomb called "ladopita (meaning oil pie)" which is evidently a well-known local dish. Actually this sort of thing is eaten also in other places in Greece and called variously, but I have never seen it in tavernas.

It is really huge, about 30 cm in diameter. Typically it is eaten with a local soft fresh cheese called ksynotyri, which looks exactly like yoghurt. Depending on the recipe, the cheese might be already in the pie before being fried. On this occasion the restaurant was running out of ksynotyri, so we ate it with feta. The bread was very nice, but it wasn't anything I can eat with other dishes. However, you should try one at least once while you are in Skyros.

During the vacation, we eat the lunch so late that we cannot really eat dinner. Once we stopped at this souvlaki place called Mantzourana, near the central square. It serves pretty good souvlaki. It has also tables on the 1st floor terrace and you can eat souvlaki looking the people go up and down the main street.

In Skyros, the portions are quite large. These are biftekia served at a taverna Agios Petros on the road to Agios Petros Beach.

It is supposed to be for 1 person, but it could easily feed two.

On the occasions that we could not eat proper meal, we stopped at an ice cream place called Faltaina.

It has an interesting range of flavours and tastes good. This is another thing you should not miss while you are in Skyros. There is one outlet in central Chora and another shop/factory on the road just before entering Chora.

This was the last meal we had in Skyros, which unfortunately wan't good. On the last day morning, we went to a beach bar called Juicy in Molos beach. It is open from the morning and we had a savory crepe as snack. The quality of cheese was low and tasted bitter somehow.

It is a nice beach bar, but do not order savory crepe.

That is it about Skyros, but I would like to add also a baklava that we ate in Kymi Port of Evia.

Evidently Kymi is well known for baklava and there were signs everywhere (not so much in the port, but in the town). The upper crusts were very crunchy and the lower layers were gooey. We don't know if this is the typical balkava of Kymi as we ate only at one shop. Dried figs seem to be another famous local produce.

And to those who are wondering why we did not eat fish at all, I would like to inform that Skyros is well known for husbandry. There are fish restaurants, but the locals seem to eat more meat than fish. Particularly goats and sheep are local speciality.

So that is it for Skyros food. To be honest, except for the first restaurant Marco Polo, the food was not more than "good". Based on what I ate, I won't expect exceptional gourmet experience in Skyros.

Prix Fixe Menu

I have just past in front of the restaurant Pasaje and the cafeteria Zonar's in Syntagma. And noticed that they are both offering 3 course menu at prix fixe, the former at 15 or 21 euro and the latter for 21.

You can feel here an effect of the economic crisis, but on the other hand you cannot help realizing that this kind of effort has been done by many restaurants for decades in many of the European capitals. But not here in Athens (except in Plaka maybe).

How do you interpret it?

Sent from my iPhone

News from Marina Zea

It is very hot in Greece these days, around 40 degrees every day. The forecasters say that it gets better tomorrow and they promise me 37 degrees. What a difference!

Yesterday, we went out for a coffee to Marina Zea. If you think that we looked for an air-conditioned place, you do not know Greeks. The Greeks do not seem to like air conditions at cafeterias or at restaurants, like cats do not like air-conditioned rooms. So, although I would have preferred to sit inside with air-conditioning, Greek Husband did not allow me such a luxury.

Do you remember that I wrote that Costa Costa had closed down. Surely not. So I tell you that it was closed down and now there is a new cafeteria-restaurant called Bayway (BW).

It is a huge space. We tried it about a month ago and club sandwich was pretty good. Yesterday I saw that they were offering small croissants to those who order coffees, surely to snatch some people from Flocafe just next door.

On the other hand we were surprised to find that Kitchen Bar next door had been closed down.

There was a piece of paper on the door saying that it was removed by Marina Zea Authorities.

And we headed for Pisina (Πισίνα). It is probably one of the most beautiful cafeterias in Piraeus. There is a pool (piscina in Italian) at the center and, besides, you can see all the panorama of coastal Athens.

As you can imagine, things are on expensive side, especially the food, even by Marina Zea standard. I think desserts are 8 or 9 Euros. Club sandwiches cost around 9.50 Euro, but they were offering a free beer or a soft drink to every club sandwich and we took it.

Unfortunately the club sandwich was not very good, although beautifully presented. Bayway's club was a way better.

Pisina is for a coffee. When we want food, we would go to Bayway.


P.S.: By the way, here is the club sandwich of BayWay (it was club with egg and chicken if I remember well).

Going to Skyros

I am on my way to Skyros island. I wrote this post for record purpose.

We left home at 11 o'clock for Kimi. We stopped twice on the way, but if we didn't it would have taken about 3 hours. The road from Halkida to Kimi was good but long as one has to go around the mountain range.

There are many tavernas and cafeterias on the road on Evvia. We arrived at Kimi at 3 and had a coffee and baklava at a cafeteria near the port. Evidently baklava and dried figs are specialities of Kimi. 1 baklava, 1 Greek coffee, one coca cola and a small bottle of water for 5.5 euro.

As we had time until the departure, we went to see the town of Kimi which turned out to be not-interesting. We thought there are ruins of castle there, but we were told by a local gentleman that it is still some kilometers away. Still more baklava shops in the town, but they were closed for napping. We found a statue of Ioannis Belisarios who was a Kimian and a hero who liberated Ioannina.

We are on the boat now. The ship is called Achilleas of Skyros Shipping. A boat ticket for a car is 29 and for a person 10 Euros one way. The ship left at 6 and we will be on the island in about 1'40".

That is it for now.

Sent from my iPhone

P.S.: I started to write about Skyros on Gate to Greece
http://mesogeia.net/trip/skyros/skyros_en.html