Meze

One of my favourite ways of eating here on Crete is to have Meze, which I think we would call appetizers in the States.  Small individual plates are brought out, and everyone helps himself to the dishes as they are set on the table.  From what I can tell, this is the most common way of eating the evening meal, or vradino.  I like this for a couple of reasons: first it feels more communal and friendly, and second, you can control your portion size.

Friday evening I got to go out for meze with Manolis and two other friends who are close to the family: Iannis and Kostas.  The name of the spot was Argentina Ψαροταβερνα ("psaro" = fish, so "fish tavern"), and I still don't know what it has to do with Argentina, but the food was outstanding.  Here we are heading in:

Argentina Ψαροταβερνα

After we sat down and the water and bread were brought out, the menus were taken away after a brief discussion, and the owner came to the table.  Apparently we were in for a treat: Manolis is friends with the owner (whose name is also Manolis) and rather than ordering from the menu Manolis and  Manolis were going to choose for us the best dishes.

dolmathes

fish salad?

The first two dishes to come to the table were the dolmathes, which are easy enough to find in America, but were especially nice here (although of course Για-γιά's dolmathes are better ;-) ) and a legume salad with little bits of fish.  I don't recall the name but it was very nice.




Then came the kalimari and the xtopodi (the word octopus has lost its initial o in modern Greek), fried and grilled, respectively.  I had had xtopodi before and it is a particular favourite of mine.

After this came a pasta dish with a variety of bivalves that I didn't recognise, but all very tasty.  Finally they brought out grilled kalimari, which is called soukia if I recall correctly, and was out of this world.

pasta with various bivalves

Soukia?

Finally came the tsikoudia (aka raki elsewhere in Greece), which no restaurant meal would be complete without.  I have come to love this practice--it makes the bill easier to swallow, among other things--and some time back I was complaining to another student that I didn't know how I was going to adjust to no tsikoudia after dinner when I get back to the States.  I will close this blog entry with her reply:

There was life before tsikoudia, and there will be life after tsikoudia.

From the left: Manolis, Kostas, Iannis, and Iasonas