yes or hello today's video is all about greek food and we are in
the center of athens this is hadrian's arch behind me an archaeological dig to my back and we are
gonna get stuck in straight away we're gonna go get some breakfast and i'll tell you all about
the traditional pastries that the greeks love there are two important things you should know
about greek pastries number one they are made with filo dough number two after spending two weeks in
the country i no longer fit into my stretchy pads probably the most famous greek pastry out there is
the spanakopita which is filo pastry stuffed full of spinach sometimes there's feta cheese inside or
leaks especially in the rural parts of greece but there's one more pastry that i want to introduce
you to because i only got to learn about it on this trip and i should mention i am not greek
but this is probably my 10th trip to greece i used to come here a lot as a child growing up
and i fell in love with it so much that even as an adult i just can't keep away
and on this particular trip as i mentioned i am here for two weeks so a lot of time for research
and the pastry that i got to know is called bugatta and it comes from the north of greece
it specifically comes from an area called macedonia not to be confused with nearby north
macedonia which is a country and only recently changed its name after many many many years of
kind of arguing about who got to call themselves what anyway in this greek
macedonia you will find a town called ceres in the 20th century during the ottoman empire
many greek origin refugees came back to their native country and as they did that they brought
with them the bugatti we're going to move on but i just want to show you where i have been recording
athens there's literally history every step of the way and it's an absolutely unbelievable city
the final type of pastry i want to introduce you to is called kolori it's these sesame
crusted circles of dough that are sold by street vendors all over big cities you will find them in
bakeries basically you can't miss them and if they seem familiar and you have ever visited turkey
you might know them by another game and that name is simmit that's because cooluri slicemets
are another ottoman dish now before we turn our thoughts to some proper greek dishes let's talk
about a really popular topic in this country which is coffee there are three specific types
of greek coffee i want to introduce you to and by the way i also want to mention that that is the
acropolis museum behind me which contains some of the most precious and valuable artifacts of this
country because greece is a pretty hot country you probably won't be surprised to hear that all three
of these coffee types are iced coffee the first is called frappe and it was only invented fairly
recently in 1957 during an international trade conference in the northern town of thessaloniki
but now it is so popular that you will struggle to find a place that doesn't have frappe on its menu
to prepare a tall glass of frappe all you need is instant coffee water ice cubes and sugar then you
just pop them in a shaker and blend furiously until you get a foam covered iced coffee drink
but obviously not everyone likes instant coffee and this is where the other two types come in
number one is cappuccino freddo which is an iced cappuccino and number two is
an iced espresso or espresso now if you want to be cool and try to order in greek here's how you can
do it say the name of your coffee for example cappuccino freddo para para calo means please
you're just being polite after this you will most likely be asked about your sugar levels
to which you have three potential answers number one if you're a bit hardcore and you want your
coffee plain and unsweetened you say okay number two you're just a regular person you're a normal
person and you want medium sugar you say metrio number three third option is you are me and you
are probably a psychopath and you want your coffee unbelievably sweet um that is when you
say this word glico which means sweet slash i'm a psychopath slash deport me now um it doesn't mean
the latter two though okay let's keep on walking now that is coffee down and we are gonna move
on to proper greek food starting with the greek salad a greek salad is genuinely very very greek
by which i mean that you will find it all over the country you will find it under a different name
on greek menus which is koreatiki but if you say greek salad virtually everyone will understand you
which is one point that i should raise i know i just told you how to order coffee in greek but
you don't really need these skills everyone that is in any way participating in tourism in greece
and that is a huge percentage of the population speaks very very good english at its most basic
greek salad contains tomatoes onions cucumbers feta cheese and olives typically from kalamata
and sometimes you will find funky editions like green peppers which are quite common in
the cycladic islands like santorini which is very famous you might find caper leaves in thessaloniki
i went to a fancy restaurant and i got served my greeks out with something called sea fennel as
well which is a thing i'd never had before and it's absolutely delicious my recommendation is
when you're ordering grease always get a salad it makes your meal more colorful it makes it
healthier and if you're anything like me and you want to try the really traditional stuff
greek food isn't necessarily that healthy now i know there's a lot of emphasis put on veg
and fish and stuff like that in the mediterranean diet but there's a lot of pastry there's a lot of
fried food there's a lot of oil not actually that healthy before we move on to our next meal this
sandwich shop called guaranty it's so loud here this sandwich shop called guaranty is absolutely
spectacular if you find yourself in athens and we're specifically in the neighborhood of kokaki
then definitely give it a go right i have managed to find a relatively quiet street so i hope you
enjoyed this video because we're going to stick around for a while and we're going to talk about
our next two dishes which are souvlaki and gyros or gyro as some people pronounce it erroneously
right these are both absolute staples of greek street food but there are differences euros is
made from meat cooked on a vertical spit it came to greece during the 19th century after immigrants
from anatolia and the middle east in general began preparing their version of kebab in the
region over time the dish took on a traditional greek character and that is why typically you will
find pork or chicken euros in greece whereas kebab is traditionally made with beef or lamb that is
because pork is not considered halal and kebab is traditionally served in muslim majority countries
as you can see here euros is typically served stuff in a pita bread along with tomatoes sliced
onions fried potatoes and tiki as for sovaki you'll often find it served in a similar manner
when it comes to street food restaurants but if you're in a traditional sit-down restaurant
you'll usually just get a skewer of meat and this is similar to dishes known as shish kebab
or for russian speakers shush like and yeah these are pretty much the same thing and that
is because they are all ottoman dishes i won't go on a long historical tangent but most of the
areas within greece's present-day borders were at some point part of the ottoman empire during my
visit greece was actually celebrating 200 years since the revolution of 1821. this revolution
was followed by the greek war of independence from 1821 to 1829 which was fought to free greece from
four centuries of ottoman occupation as a result of it greece was recognized as an independent
state under what is known as the london protocol of february 1830. i just mentioned that euroz and
sovlocky are often served with something called tsusiki but i should probably explain what that
is it is a yogurt-based dip that contains grated cucumber garlic salt olive oil and herbs like dill
or mint satiki can be served as a cold appetizer or a meze or as a side dish with any main meal
similarly here's another dip you should try it's called tiro cafeteri and it is usually described
as a spicy cheese dip it usually contains feta hot peppers olive oil lemon juice or vinegar
and garlic you can eat it with bread or wait till the hot dishes come out and eat it alongside them
next up we've got dolma an entire family of rice stuffed ottoman dishes the clip that i'm showing
you here is actually dolma made by a kurdish iraqi lady but this is just to illustrate how
similar they are here in greece the word dolma or del mares is used specifically to describe
stuffed vine leaves while the rest of the stuffed vegetables are called gemista but without wanting
to be controversial they are pretty much the same thing you use the same rice mixture to stuff
all of them next up we've got the saganaki another family of dishes this time prepared in a small
frying pan the best known is probably fried chi saganaki but you can also often find shrimp or
mussels next up we've got pasticio a layered dish made with ground meat and bechamel sauce
most closely resembling lasagna and that is no accident many greek dishes show italian influence
many parts of the country were under venetian and genoise rule from the 13th to the 18th
century musaka is a similar layered dish which contains aubergines and once again
bechamel sauce and then there's fava porridge beans blended with oil and lemon sounds basic
but it's incredible next there are queftedes which in their simplest form are basically just
fried meatballs with some spices and sometimes breadcrumbs mixed in if the name sounds familiar
it's probably because they're a lot like kofta the word comes from persian meaning pounded meat
i personally like these meatballs but i love the kind stuffed with feta cheese because duh cheese
but if you are slowly getting sick of all the cheese and feta based dishes then don't worry our
next one doesn't contain any because the next one is seafood you can just head to a seafood market
and pick out the exact fish you want and then have it cooked at a local restaurant there are oyster
bars basically any seafood that you can think of you can find in greece and my personal favorite
my personal favorite is the octopus i know it sounds a bit odd but it's delicious trust me
all right we're about to move on to the drinks but first let me talk you through two of my favorite
sweet dishes here in greece number one is a greek yogurt have you heard of it of course you have it
is probably the most famous variety of strange yogurt in the world but that doesn't mean it's
the only one you can actually find strange yogurt all over the world in the middle east you will
find lubna in faraway iceland scare but greece is definitely most famous for this product and
what can i say they do it very well now let's talk about my favorite sweet dish in greece
and what used to be one of the most popular sweet dishes in the entire ottoman empire it
is baklava and it actually pre-dates the ottoman empire but it's unclear where it originated from
what is clear however is that it's absolutely delicious it is basically a layered pastry dessert
made with filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey i realize it
looks incredibly complicated but i actually had a go at making it myself once and it's not that hard
if you use store-bought pastry it basically just requires a lot of time but not that much effort
okay one final type of dessert free dessert in greece there's something called kerasma
the free dessert or drink you get at the end of your meal my favorite is the sticky orange cake
you see here but i also really like mastija which is a liqueur seasoned with mastic a pine flavored
tree resin also used in cosmetics retsina a famous greek white wine is also made with resin and its
production dates back at least 2 000 years the addition of resin is thought to originate from
the practice of sealing wine amphorae with resin in ancient times our final two drinks are greek
spirits you'll find on every menu zipper was created by a group of 14th century monks on
mount athos one version of it was flavored with a knees and this eventually turned into oozo zipper
can also contain a nice but it's always made with grapes while uzo can be distilled with any neutral
spirit honest thoughts on tsipouro not very nice it is a very strong 40 spirit so drinking it on its
own is a little challenging fine i may not love zipper but i did enjoy all the other 24 items on
this list have you tried any let me know and see you next friday when i bring out new videos bye