today we're in Athens, Greece we're here to eat we can't wait to show you some of
the best food this city has to offer
the Greeks a culinary tradition
dating back 4,000 years so it's no surprise that Athens takes its eating
very seriously this is our first video from Athens and we're here to hunt down
the best local food watch out for a hidden mezze experience, a cheesy buttery
local favourite and traditional Greek foods in this four-part series we'll
show you the city's tastiest food from delicious 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
Athens is an incredible city
for wandering and of course when you're wandering you're eating and we've loved
filming here so far we have found the most incredible local spots all over the
city and this video is going to be no different we're going to be walking
around the city or traveling all around the city
having some incredible local food what do we mean by local food we're talking authentic
stuff, genuine honest tasty food mom-and-pop restaurants, small street
stalls just the best of the best we're actually right in front of our first stop
we're here for a breakfast pastry
this breakfast pastry is called bougatsa it's made up of phyllo and a semolina
custard with a sprinkling of icing sugar and cinnamon let's go and get one
we've got our bougatsa in front of us and boy does this look good so what is
it it's basically just semolina custard and phyllo so phyllo pastry with a ton
of icing sugar and cinnamon sprinkled over the top and it is I think yep it's
still warm so to go with it we also ordered a freddo
espresso this is the thing to drink in Athens it's basically just coffee a shot
of espresso and they mix it up and blend it up in a milkshake maker
and then add ice and that's why it's got that layer of foam there because of the
mixing or the blending
all right so I'm not really much of a sweets person for
breakfast but if there's anything with custard in it I'm good so let's give
this a taste
hmm it's really good it's not overly sweet the custard is very thick and warm
and then the filo pastry is really soft I thought it was going to be really
crispy but it's not a really soft pastry and then the powdered sugar the icing sugar
and the cinnamon just sort of dissolve in your mouth there's a beautiful earthy
fragrance from that cinnamon it's really good
this bougatsa actually hails from the north of Greece from a place called
Thessaloniki and it's quite popular here everyone
looking over at everyone's table they've all got this on their table
I can see why, it's a good way to start the day
let's have a taste of this freddo espresso
that caffeine hit is good and it
works perfectly with the bougatsa because it's really strong almost quite
bitter in flavor and you will see every second Athenian walking around the
streets with a freddo espresso or a freddo cappuccino in their hand this is
the local drink it's the thing to drink
next up we're heading to a bakery which is incredibly popular with the locals
and we hear they do incredible bread and pastries so we're sticking with the
pastry train and we're gonna be having a savory pastry this time we are having a
Greek feta pie called kourou tiropita, can't wait to get in
the smell in here is unreal you've got all the bread and all the pastries lined up
we've got what we came for but oh my god it smells good I think we'll go down
the road find a park or something to eat this cheese pie
the bakery had quite a modern look about it but it's actually a really old place
but they're just in the process of moving from about three doors down and
across the road so the old place we could sort of see in the door and it's
got a much more sort of rustic old-school feel to it but that one's
really modern looking but I'm sure the quality is just the same
this here is
the kourou tiropita so it doesn't actually look like too much from the outside I
think the magic is going to be inside what is quite special about this is the
pastry and that's the kourou it's actually a phyllo pastry but it doesn't really
look like it, it resembles much more of a of a short pastry but definitely I think
the magic's going to be in there so let's get right in covered in sesame seeds
cheesy
it's a really salty feta in there
I think there's a bunch of pepper or something it's got a great like
balance of spices so the super saltiness from the cheese just rushes forward then you
get a real creaminess
mmm wow
it's incredibly simple even though it's a phyllo it definitely is
more like a short pastry it's got a bit of a squishiness so it's a tiny bit
crunchy on the outside and then it's sort of squishy it's not overly buttery
it's sort of like a classic short pie crust wow that is good this is great
because of its simpleness and you can see there look at the inside it really
is just a cheese pie because it's so simple you can taste things quite
clearly like these sesame seeds
it's just a great mouthful it's really good it's
sort of that bakery is what this pie is all about, what am I trying to
say it's got a feeling like the bakery looks quite plain everything's just
simple there's no colourful cakes or anything but they just do simple
delicious stuff it's a very very good pie
it's time for a heftier snack we are about to eat peinirli it's a really popular
dish with Greeks it's a boat shaped bread I suppose and it's got a
really cheesy and buttery filling
the second you walk into this shop you're hit with the smell of fresh bread
baking and that's because there's a huge wood fired oven smack bang in the middle
of the shop and the staff are going like the clappers making the peinirli so it's
basically dough, a bread dough that's piled with loads of different
ingredients we have ordered up two and they look incredible I couldn't go past
the classic beef and cheese and then this one here is the spicy sausage and
cheese now with peinirli it is all about the butter so it's not a
genuine peinirli unless you use tonne of full fat butter and actually right at
the end before we were served the peinirli the lady brushed some fresh butter over
the top of it to give it that extra richness
alright let's give this classic beef and cheese
a go it is still super hot
oh my god
Wow that beef has so much flavour it's
really really intense the cheese is so oozy, very creamy and the bread it is the perfect
texture it's a little bit chewy, it's crispy and overall the flavour's so
buttery
okay time to give this sausage and cheese one a taste you can see that oil
that's sort of leaking out from that sausage
holy moly that is so tasty the sausage has a
beautiful heat to it it's full of flavour you can taste a lot of different spices and herbs
and the bread
I just can't get over it
the fact that it is so, so fresh, it's still very very warm very pliable
but it's got such a beautiful texture, ohhhh so delicious
they were just great I loved the balance between the bread which was perfectly
baked and then the wet ingredients so they weren't making the bread too stodgy
but it also wasn't dry there was just a perfect balance of that oiliness and wet
ingredients versus the beautiful bread what I really love about the food here
in Greece is that it's unfussy, it's simple the quality of the ingredients that they
begin with is already so high that it doesn't need mucking about with
the dishes are just so pure in their flavour
next up we're eating at a really hidden, blink and you miss it sort of
hole in the wall place it is right behind me this tiny little doorway now
we ate here the other day while we were researching for this video series and it
was brilliant, super local super hidden and seriously you'd walk past this place
without even noticing it but the food is amazing so we have to show you guys
let's go check it out
so you come in that tiny little doorway and you end up in this amazing little
courtyard restaurant so it's a tiny very skinny doorway to get in here
and then you're in this beautiful little secluded courtyard with trees and
look at the beautiful colours in here but the food is incredible here too
we've ordered up such a spread let me talk you through what we've got this
here is fava it's got some drizzles of olive oil on top some red onion and
capers, this here is the keftedakia this place is well known for its
meatballs so these are pork meatballs this here is a spicy feta dip, oh look
at that olive oil glistening on the top then we've got amazing sausage we
ate this the other day it was incredible so that's loukaniko a pork sausage
and then we've also got just a simple salad cucumber, tomato, olives
oregano and then a little basket of bread
and of course being Greece we've
got some wine to go with our meal they serve the wine in these great little jugs here
so this is a little aluminium jug and you can get it in great portions we
just got 250 mls of the local rose now where to start I I think this here
this feta cheese chilli dip look at that olive oil you get so much stuff in
Greece that's just coated in their amazing olive oil really famous here for
the production of olive oil look at that
unreal
it is so good sometimes this dip can be quite creamy which this one is however it's
quite a dry feta they've used so the little dry cubes of feta have still got a
great texture sometimes I find it's a bit more creamy it's really combined
together and broken down more but that has not at all it's got beautiful little chunks
of feta it's got an amazing kick of salt it's a really
salty feta and the chilli is brilliant let's get a bit with a nice big bit of chilli
oh man
the flavour is unreal
let's grab one of their famous meatballs so these are a pork meatball they're
nice little things and I love this style of eating it's all about just grabbing
little bits of what you want and you'll notice we don't even have side plates or
anything so it's all about just sitting around the table and just picking away
you don't load up your plate or anything you just have little bits and work your way
through the through the dishes
really soft, so those are made with pork mince but it's very very fine
incredibly soft, nice little crispness on the outside where they've been cooked in
the oil but then inside super soft once again a really nice hit of salt I
really like the way they season food here in Greece you never have to add
salt and pepper yourself they really know how to season and those are perfect and
they're full of herbs as well so you've got a real fresh flavour and then the
flavour of the pork actually comes through really well
okay time to get
into this fava now fava is on a lot of menus it's a really really popular
dip here in Greece so I'm just gonna load it up with a bit of capers and red
onion okay
really really simple so fava is yellow split pea puree it's really
earthy really creamy and has a like Thomas said before a really good amount of
seasoning it's got a lot of flavour a little bit salty, those capers add a
really welcome tanginess
I'm really excited about this sausage because we
had it the other day and it was intensely amazing so we get a lot of our
recommendations and tips about where we film from locals and also people that
we really trust in the taste stakes so our friend Greg from Food and
Footprints he was here in Athens recently visiting his family and he said whatever
you do just order the loukaniko or the sausage cause it is always
amazing so we took his advice the last time and holy moly
we were blown away by how good the loukaniko was so let's just get
a huge bite of this so this is a pork sausage I'm just, look at how chunky it
is that's what i love about this particular sausage you've got these huge
bits of fat and then some chunky bits of onion in there alright
holy moly, it is amazing, it's very chunky in texture so
as I said before you can really taste those bits of fat they burst in your
mouth lots of spices so a little bit of spicy so chilli in heat and then lots of
herbs as well so there's heaps of flavour heaps of texture
and now this
beautiful salad look at it swimming in olive oil there's about a centimeter of
olive oil in the bottom of that so this is a really simple salad here it's
really common to get a Greek salad so that would have onions, feta and maybe
some other ingredients but onions and feta with it this one's just cucumber tomato
olives and a ton of olive oil and some dried herbs on top so really simple to
cut through the heavier flavors and particularly the sausage which has a burst of
flavour and how cool is this environment so this is a courtyard wedged between
two tiny buildings, it's got a little stairway going up to the balconies of
the couple of buildings which are actually really decrepit and clearly not
lived in it is such a brilliant environment that feels super secret
super local when you're in here because as we said in the beginning it
is incredibly hidden, you would just not see this place you could walk past a
hundred times and not notice it but man is it worth coming in here the food is
unreal the environment's incredible and the wine is great too