Harry's Greek Food and Wine Guide
Greek Fast Food: Sandwiches, Pie & Crepe Shops
There are several good Greek fast food chains like Goodies, Everest, Grigories and Black Sheep that sell sandwiches and I recommend them. Goodies also sells hot food like burgers and fries too. The Greeks distinguish this type of hand food into two main categories: Salty and Sweet or almyra and glyka. These chain stores all have unique signage and bright lights and are not a traditional type of Greek place to eat. Still they have their place and are far more interesting than McD's or BK.
I also recommend the more historic and smaller little no-name independent pie shops and bakeries which sell traditional Greek fast food like pies "sto hyeri" (in the hand) with fillings including ham, chicken, cheese, minced meat, spinach, mushroom. You'll notice stores like these all over Greece and the hole in the wall places can be better
than the bigger establishments too, especially if they are Mom and Pop operations which have been in business for years. Many bakeries also sell these same traditional pie items in addition to loaves of bread. So in general no matter what kind of place you find yourself in, if there are Greeks in there buying stuff, than you can bet its decent. Don't be afraid to experiment. Read some more and you'll have a good idea what is going on.
As mentioned, besides a ham and cheese pita you could choose a sweet pie too. Worthy of eating are the traditional, and only in Greece, bou-ghat-ses. Boughatses have sweet cream fillings and are like a pastry but sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. They are usually rectangular in shape but its up to the individual baker.
Triangular walnut sweet pies are another must try type of Greek fast food and are called kareedo pites. Almond pies are ordered by saying amigdalo pita which I also highly recommend trying. Imaginative bakers may come up with other delicious combinations so it pays to ask if its not too busy.
Greek Style Sandwiches and Toasts
Since the invention of electricity, the modern Greeks have liked to toast their sandwiches in special toasting devices,
which remind me of a waffle iron. I don't know why they do it this way, they just do and its a bit different. Greeks call toasts like this oddly enough toasts.
You cant really call these 'toasts' part of traditional Greek cuisine can you? Try one and let me know. Its more of a 'Mediterranean thing' likely. Anyway, one day, after spending a lot of money on shop bought toasts, I went out and bought a toaster grill for 70 eu and it changed my life! These grills are pretty handy things to have around but hard to clean if you tend to melt the cheese as I do. Pictured left is a professional version and I may have to upgrade soon. I am on my second toaster grill and currently using a 'bosche' model. Its as hard to clean as the generic version I wore out. German engineers aren't quite as efficient as they are made out to be in this case. Guys have you ever used a toaster grill? Well please give it a go.
Toasting is optional when you go into a sandwich shop and it takes longer too. Some of the chain stores mentioned above will have sandwiches pre-made and ready to be toasted. You know the kind of thing: ham and cheese, chicken and tomato, cucumber, cream cheese and olive and so on. They do that in Italy a lot too but in Italy they have special kind of toasting bread which they don't seem to do here in Greece.
Picky toast customers with time, generally choose what goes in their toasted sandwich by naming it
or by pointing at the ingredients. Often you can order from
a menu, usually on the wall someplace. Menus all over Greece are in English fairly regularly too so that's
a help! Mayonnaise is also something that if you request be sure to say "legho" or a "little
bit of" or else they'll invariably slather 1/2 a cup or more onto your sandwich so be careful.
I thought this was a fluke thing until it happened every time.
In case you are wondering the Greek word for Mayonnaise is: my-yo-nez-ah. Say it any other way and they will look at you funny. Greeks sometimes put mayo in their salads too. Another easy to remember toast word is tomata for you guessed it, tomato and mustard is easy too moostarda. For ham they use the French word Jambon. Cheese in general is called Tee-ree and the sliced cheese will usually be there visible to you. The also have blue cheese and call it, appropriately enough, Roquefort.
That's my buddy Yiannis left from the Piccolino
sandwich & pie shop in Exarhia Sq. Yiannis made so much money from my having him in the guide that he sold the place and its under new management but that's OK. I found an even better place near by which I tell you about on the bakery page. One thing I don't like in the way Greeks make a toasted sandwich is how they don't cook bacon. Even if
you beg them, they just don't understand, or pretend they don't. THEY HARDLY
COOK IT AT ALL. This is an issue of huge international controversy, or if it isn't, it should be. I like
my bacon crisp or at least cooked for crying out loud, and so should everyone
else. What's a few free radicals? You only lives once and a free radical or two are better for you than raw pork aren't they?
Greek Crepes: Salted or Sweet
I like the somewhat recent importation of the Creperie idea to Greece. I sure don't remember
them from my previous stint here and its one change I view with vehement approbation. Crepes are relatively inexpensive (but not as cheap as a souvlaki) and will fill you up if
you order a big enough one for $4. The kind of salted fillings are pretty much the same as you would have on a sandwich: ham, cheese, tomato, bacon, turkey, chicken and so on.
The best Creperie in Athens I have discovered is in Exarhia Square. I have tried a few others,
but not all, and been disappointed. The Creperie
X-arhia is what its
called and its at the corner of Themistocleous and Arahovis St. The
best news of all is that, it is, unlike the metro stop, right across
the street from my house. But that's not why its good. Its good period. A metro stop is due across from my house in 2008 (they 'say').
In the Creperie X-arhia they make the crepes fresh and right then and there, not before, like that place up the street which has them stacked up like thin pancakes waiting to be filled. You can order crepes with lots of stuff including eggs, green peppers, onions, and even potato chips. Scrambled eggs are a good filler too.
You can also order sweet crepes too which is a nice plus if you are with friends and want to eat a bit more after dinner. Banana, nuts, chocolate, ice cream,
whipped cream are on the menu but plain old chocolate and banana works for me.
Most of these places have outdoor seating which is half the fun too.
GREEK PIZZA
Salty, thicker, crisper crust usually as in deep-dish, but good. Better and less expensive than Pizza Hut which is here too. Worth it! No hot peppers available usually. Delivered to your hotel room or buy it by the slice off the street. My favorite Pizza place which is consistently good is called Napoli and they deliver: 210-330-4314. If you want to order a pizza for delivery its not that hard. Pizza is the same in Greek as in English only pronounced peet-za. Delivery is De-yia-monee. They will now have a general idea what you want ie. 'pizza for delivery' and will want to know your address so you better have that handy. Lets say you want a tough one like ham and cheese? Jambon kai Teeree is what to say. Need mushrooms: ma nee tar yia. Say you want a veggie pizza or even a veggie pita wrap or pie when you are elsewhere? That's easy just say Ecologiko or ecological. Its a Greek word of course. My pizza of the month is ground beef or Keema, mushrooms, green peppers (peeper yes). If the pizza arrives in good time I usually give the guy 2 euros, like the big time spender that I am. If its late, then I only give him 1 euro. Napoli normally deliver within half an hour tops. There are other Pizza deliver places like pizza hut but they suck. Greeks make good pizza especially if you like thicker crust, which I do. Now we could talk about pizza if we wanted to, like Chicago deep dish or NY slices or what have you, but I pretty much guarantee that you wont be disappointed by Greek Pizza.
Greek Grills or the Speese tar yia
I can't decide where to put 'the grill', a mainstay of Greek cuisine. It can be fast food if you get it to go, se paketo (in a packet), and even if you sit down, it can be fast because its usually cooked or almost cooked. Grills are one of my favorite places to eat in Greece and I guess its ok to put them here on the fast food page because they are pretty darn fast.
Some grills are also affectionately known as SOUVLAKI JOINTS and where you get GYROS. Gyros are usually pork. That round slab of meat below right is pork. You can also usually get other kinds of meat dishes in a grill: lamb (expensive), sausage, chicken, pork, beef, ground beef, codo-souvli (pork done differently and one of my favs), kokoretsi (intestines, also good!), etc. Some of these will take longer as they wont be cooked yet so if you are in a hurry, and what visitor to Greece isn't, be aware.
GREEK SOUVLAKIA = SKEWER & "GHEER-OS" (GYROS = ROUND)
There are 3 ways to go here. One is on a stick called 'Kalamaki', like our friend the cat in Aegina is holding, and the second is wrapped in Pita bread and the 3d open faced on the plate. Chicken, pork, beef keftedes (meat balls) can all be ordered all 3 ways.
Kalamaki or on the stick (shis-kebob is a Turkish word and usually means a pricier sit down diner dish) is just that, only meat. It could be chicken, beef or pork. Usually a couple of pieces of white bread are included in the price too. Gyros is really pronounced: 'gheer-ohss' not Jyro as you Yanks are wont to.
How to pick a good Souvlaki joint
Look at he two rolls of gyro meat above. The center right one has inferior meat, full of fat. The center left one has better quality leaner meat... 'Vle-pees';? = (see?) That's what to look for if you have a choice in souvlaki joints and are in the mood for 'jeer-ohss'.
GYRO MEAT never comes on a stick but comes only wrapped up in pita or as a gyros plate with the pita cut into triangles in a side basket ...hopefully just grilled. To get it that way order mia mer-reeda geer-oss
Wrapped in Pita Bread
Me Pita the unleavened round Pita bread, is a sandwich in roll up form and I am sure many of you are familiar with the type. The meat is usually pork and occasionally of questionable pedigree. Often they will have a chicken gyro set up next to the pork one as well, if its a busy, popular place.
You can order your pita with onions, tzatziki (yogurt-garlic-cucumber sauce) or mustard, tomatoes, and recently french fries, which purists will leave out and order as a side dish.
Some prefer the skewer or kalamaki as they suspect the exact identity of the meat in gyro form. Who says the kalamaki is any better? These are an inexpensive and delicious way to sustain oneself in Greece. A pita with kalamaki or gyros is usually about a euro or a dollar.
Sausage or Lou can eco can be ordered also for Pita inclusion. Depending on where in Greece you are, the sausages may be locally produced and therefore better, or like we get 'em back home on the 4th... sort of anonymous looking but all the same. There is also bif-teki or ground meat available in more on the ball places like the great little souvlaki joint near my house in Exarhia. Beefteki is ground beef rolled and put into the pita as a further alternative to pork gyro, the most popular of all, hands down.
The name of this little gem is the 'Agrafa'. Corner of Emanuil Benaki and Veltetsiou St. in Exarhia. (They deliver all over town too: tel: 210-3803-144), Incidentally, Agrafa is an area of central Greece with lush valleys and snow capped mountains which is where the owners are from.
Agrafa also serves rotisserie chicken which I had tonight. A 1/2 chicken was 600 grams or 'grammaria' and ran me $3. .... you can see it below where Panayiotis is chopping it up for me. He then sprinkles salt and oregano on it for me too! The chefs get the pitas in the next shot half cooked, and then grill them just before serving.
The funny ghoulish looking things, above bottom center, are cooked sheep heads and are for display and to let you know the meat is local Greek domestic stock & whole carcasses which they butchered themselves.
They prepare the Kokretsi which is pictured far bottom right, being rotisseried, with other some parts of the animal, including intestines! Yum! 'Codo-souvli' is 'heer-e-no' or pork, and finger licking good too! Both of these dishes are served on plates and are weighed by the gram and cost accordingly. In a casual place like the Agrafa, salad and tzatiki are standard too. Beers, sodas, and tonic water to drink but no barrel wine but they will have bottled retsina which I don't care for.