today we're in the stunning city of Athens, Greece we can't wait to show you
some of the best food this city has to offer
if you love to eat Athens is the
city for you the food culture here revolves around fresh vibrant
ingredients cooked simply this is our second video from Athens and we're going to
show you the best local food watch out for succulent meat from a traditional
steakhouse, the king of Greek street food and local favourites
in this four part
series we're hunting down the city's most iconic food from street food to
heritage recipes you don't want to miss this series get ready for some
mouth-watering food
I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate we hope
you're hungry let's eat
today's video is going to be all about super authentic local food here in
Athens we just love showing you guys all the proper authentic stuff the stuff the
locals are sitting down to eat nothing gimmicky nothing fancy just proper local
food
our first stop is for a pie and you know how much we love pies this is a
spanakopita so a Greek spinach pie and we've come to
a bakery which is really popular with locals they say that they do a really
really good version
now spanakopita is one of the foods I think of when I think of Greece and
where we got this one from which by the way check it out it looks absolutely
incredible but where we got this from is a really traditional place doing it in a
really traditional way and they're serving up 400 pies a day
so an incredible amount of spanakopita coming out of this bakery now what I
think of when I think of spanakopita is a spinach and feta pie this however is
just a spinach pie with some onion in there as well and we said to the guy at
the bakery would you do you know would you have spinach and feta and he said no
no no no no never together you'll have a cheese pie or you'll have a spinach pie
but you'll never have them together this just looks incredible so you've got this
phyllo pastry on top which is super layered and looks really golden and
crunchy on top and then you've got a whole lot of spinach inside there
Oh
Wow it is as simple as it looks
perfect filo pastry really crunchy on top and nice and soft in the middle and then the
the spinach is really really soft and has just a beautiful earthy taste
oh that is so good it's got a really good um saltiness and
then a great bitterness from that earthiness from the spinach wow that is
good it's so simple and it doesn't lack the cheese I mean like I said I
thought of this as being cheese and spinach not at all doesn't need it
absolutely unreal pie ohhh the flavour's really building to of that spinach yum
that is a very good pie
absolutely delicious and the onion flavour's coming on really strong later on
the really sweet beautiful onions we're right now on the steps of the National
Library and this is a stunning stunning building it's a real city of contrasts
Athens you've got these incredible ancient buildings and then you've got
some other parts of town that are incredibly grungy incredibly rundown
looking it's a really interesting place
we're off to find our next snack and that is a gyros a really popular street
food here in Athens now we have been eating our weight in gyros over these
past few days and we've yet to find a really good one we've heard that this spot is a
real local's favourite so let's go and see what it's like
we've been in Athens for about a week now eating our way around the city and
researching to work out what foods to put in these videos to show you we wanted
to show you the best local food and we've eaten our weight as I said before in gyros
in order to find a really really tasty one so I'm hoping that this is
gold because I've heard that this is a real locals favourite so what is it
made up of we've got this really fluffy looking pita and it's wrapping up a
whole lot of ingredients so we've got the gyros which is meat in this case pork
which has been roasted on a vertical spit we've got some fresh red onion some
fries some yogurt hiding underneath there and then some chunky bits of
tomato okay I hope this is the one
oh yeah this is the one the meat is so so flavoursome it's beautifully
charred and caramelised and there's a really great fat to meat ratio
mmm
I think that yogurt sauce is actually tzatziki because I can see bits of
cucumber in there the pita is really really chewy it's got a great texture
and then those bursts of onion they're fantastic they're really really
vibrant
the chips are a little bit soggy but I don't mind that it sort of just
all works
oh my goodness this gyros is really the best that we've had since we've arrived
in Athens it is next level the meat is so juicy and the pita has turned really
soft down towards the bottom because it's soaked up all of those meat juices ohhh this is great
we've wandered across town for our next stop we love walking in this city you can
wander sort of from place to place really easily but things change in a
heartbeat you can be in a quite a touristy street and then within seconds you know
like literally cross the street and you're in a really local sometimes
really posh street sometimes a much rougher feeling street it's a really neat place
to walk but we're standing right outside where we're going next and it's all
about meat now we're going for a meat feast
this is basically a Greek steakhouse but serves only pork and it looks unreal
so we've got a huge pile of pork steaks each which comes with a massive piece of
lemon, chips underneath which are a little bit herbed looks like got a little
oregano on them and we've got this hot salad it looks really interesting so
tomatoes feta and jalapeno so pickled jalapenos I think they're pickled it
look definitely looks like they are all through there and that salad was just
sitting right on the hot charcoals so it was just bubbling away and the oil's all
come out of the cheese I've got a bit of bread to go with it and that's that
I've got two forks hang on there we go, I've got a knife, fork
let's go actually let's go some lemon the lemons here in Greece are insane
look how juicy that is I'm hardly squeezing that to get that much juice
out of that lemon and we'll grab beautiful piece of pork off the top I
love how thin the meat is and we've got to get some salad as well to sort of
combo this all up so you can see the salads really really thin just spread
really thinly on that tray and so the heat was coming up and through it really
really easily all right and I want some tomato and
jalapeno and cheese in there all together
Wow hmm oh wow
the pork oh it's so soft because it's so thin it's really really tender but it's got a
lovely nice bit of bite from where it's sat on the charcoal so it's nice and
crispy on the outside but then it's super juicy
I'm gonna have some pork by itself
hmm ohhh that was a really fatty bit in a
good way mmm oh it's really well seasoned beautifully salted that pork and the fat
just bursts it's nice and caramelised on the outside the fat but inside it's
really juicy and the salad is unreal because the feta's all melted through
it it's got a beautiful sort of cheesy oily flavour through everything
tomatoes are super sweet and the the chillies aren't spicy they've just got a
nice little tingle so they just add a tiny little tingle on your tongue ohhhh
this meal is definitely a match made in heaven to go with a Greek beer
it's just really really good and it's quite late so it's quarter to four at
the moment and there's people just starting to come in having lunch
breaking from work and that's pretty normal here to eat a big lunch for
starters and quite late and then an incredibly late dinner so dinner well
after 9:00pm you know 10 o'clock at night so lunch now is pretty normal now
this meat I talked about the oregano that I thought was on the chips but
actually it's on the meat so it's just caught up in the beautiful oil there on
the meat and it's just running down onto the chips so the chips are full of
flavour because they've got that fat from the meat coming down and if you combo
everything up it's heaven
it's as simple as this looks actually the flavours are all there you've got the
beautiful pork flavour that's really well seasoned and spiced and herbed and then
you've got the beautiful simple flavours of that salad and I love that the
salad's hot it's something a bit different you would have seen in the
videos we posted already you often get a fresh salad with fresh cucumber
tomato onions feta cheese a Greek style salad this is a bit different
anything we've seen and it is a match made in heaven for the meat and the
chips
that was such a delicious feast it was a really low-key humble family restaurant
and it's just the type of place that Thomas and I love to find when we're
traveling and love to be able to show you like just authentic
genuine delicious local simple food brilliant
time for something sweet after that huge meat feast there is an ice cream shop
just around the corner from where we had the steak and they are very
well known for doing really really good ice cream
there were so many delicious flavours to choose from now that shop is known for
doing really artisanal fresh ice cream so that's why we're eating at this spot
we went for two flavours so the first is the traditional kaimaki this is the
white one and then the other flavor is mascarpone bergamot and molasses now
let's just get into this Kaimaki because it is rapidly melting
okay so kaimaki is very distinct because it's got a bit of a sort of stretchy texture I
suppose and that's because it's got the sap from the mastic tree it's got mastic
in it and it's also got I think it's called salep I think that's how
you pronounce it it's the root of an orchid so that sort of creates this
stretchy consistency and then the flavour of the mastic
oh it's really fresh tasting it's almost a bit like a subtle mint or a fennel like
a forest flavour like how a pine forest would taste um that's sort of the flavour it's
quite hard to explain but it's just a really fresh mouth tingling sort of
flavour it's delicious
now this mascarpone bergamot and
molasses is rapidly melting so let's get into that one
oh it's so creamy
that mascarpone flavour is very subtle as is the bergamot so bergamot is a small
citrus fruit it's just like the slightest hint of the bergamot and then
the molasses is really sort of caramelized and sweet it's just so so
creamy so tasty