Greek cuisine (Greek: Ελληνική Κουζίνα) is the traditional cuisine of Greece, a typical Mediterranean cuisine, sharing characteristics with the cuisines of Italy, the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Levant. Contemporary Greek cookery makes wide use of olive oil, vegetables and herbs, grains and bread, wine, fish, and various meats, including poultry and rabbit. Typical ingredients in Greek cuisine are lamb and pork, olives, cheese, eggplant, zucchini, and yogurt. The desserts are dominated by nuts and honey. Some dishes use phyllo pastry.
History
Main articles: Ancient Greek cuisine and Byzantine cuisineGreek cuisine has a long tradition and its flavours change with the season and its geography. Greek cookery, historically a forerunner of Western cuisine, spread its culinary influence - via ancient Rome - throughout Europe and beyond. It has influences from the different people's cuisine the Greeks have interacted with over the centuries, as evidenced by several types of sweets and cooked foods.
It was Archestratos in 330 B.C. who wrote the first cookbook in history. Greece has a culinary tradition of some 4,000 years . Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its frugality and was founded on the "Mediterranean triad": wheat, olive oil, and wine, with meat being rarely eaten and fish being more common. This trend in Greek diet continued in Roman and Ottoman times and changed only fairly recently when technological progress has made meat more available. Wine and olive oil have always been a central part of it and the spread of grapes and olive trees in the Mediterranean and further afield is not uncorrelated with Greek colonization.
The Byzantine cuisine was similar to the classical cuisine including however new ingredients that were not available before, like caviar, nutmeg and lemons, with fish continuing to be an integral part of the diet. Culinary advice was influenced by the theory of humors, first put forth by the ancient Greek doctor Claudius Aelius Galenus. Byzantine cuisine benefited from Constantinople’s position as a global hub of the spice trade.
Overview
The most characteristic and ancient element of Greek cuisine is olive oil, which is frequently used in the dishes of the Greek cuisine. It is produced from the olive trees prominent throughout the region, and adds to the distinctive taste of Greek food. The basic grain in Greece is wheat, though barley is also grown. Important vegetables include tomato, aubergine (eggplant), potato, green beans, okra, green peppers, and onions. Honey in Greece is mainly honey from the nectar of fruit trees and citrus trees: lemon, orange, bigarade (bitter orange) trees, thyme honey, and pine honey from conifer trees. Mastic (aromatic, ivory coloured resin) is grown on the Aegean island of Chios.
Greek cuisine uses some flavorings more often than other Mediterranean cuisines do, namely: oregano, mint, garlic, onion, dill and bay laurel leaves. Other common herbs and spices include basil, thyme and fennel seed. Persillade is also used as a garnish on some dishes. Many Greek recipes, especially in the northern parts of the country, use "sweet" spices in combination with meat, for example cinnamon and cloves in stews.
The terrain has tended to favour the breeding of goats and sheep over cattle, and thus beef dishes are uncommon. Fish dishes are common in coastal regions and on the islands. A great variety of cheese types are used in Greek cuisine, including Feta , Kasseri , Kefalotyri , Graviera , Anthotyros , Manouri , Metsovone and Mizithra .
Too much refinement is generally considered to be against the hearty spirit of the Greek cuisine, though recent trends among Greek culinary circles tend to favour a somewhat more refined approach.
Dining out is common in Greece, and has been for quite some time. The Taverna and Estiatorio are widespread, serving traditional Greek home cooking at affordable prices to both locals and tourists.
Recently, fast-food has also become more popular in Greece and Europe, with local chains such as Goody's springing up. Although fast food is gaining popularity and many major fast-food chains have opened all over Greece, the Greek people still rely primarily on the rich and extensive dishes of the Greek cuisine. In addition, some traditional Greek foods, especially souvlaki, gyros, pitas such as tiropita and spanakopita (savory or sweet stuffed phyllo dough) are often served in fast food style.
Origins
Greece has an ancient culinary tradition dating back several millennia, and over the centuries Greek cuisine has evolved and absorbed numerous influences and influenced many cuisines itself.
Some dishes can be traced back to ancient Greece: lentil soup, retsina (white or rosé wine sealed with pine resin) and pasteli (candy bar with sesame seeds baked with honey); some to the Hellenistic and Roman periods: loukaniko (dried pork sausage); and Byzantium: feta cheese, avgotaraho (cured fish roe) and paximadi (traditional hard bread baked from corn, barley and rye). There are also many ancient and Byzantine dishes which are no longer consumed: porridge as the main staple, fish sauce or salt water mixed into wine.
Many dishes names come from the Ottoman cuisine tradition and their names reveal Arabic, Persian or Turkish roots such as moussaka (layers of ground minced lamb meat, eggplant and tomato baked in oven), tzatziki (yoghurt with garlic and cucumber), yuvarlakia (meatball in sauce) or keftethes in Greek (meatball). Many dishes' names probably entered the Greek vocabulary during Ottoman times, or earlier in contact with the Persians and the Arabs. Some dishes may be pre-Ottoman, only taking Turkish names later; Ash and Dalby, for example, speculate that grape-leaf dolmathes were made by the early Byzantine period.
A few dishes are influenced by Venetian (Italian) and French cuisines, such as pastitsio, makaronia me kima, (pasta with meat) found mostly in Greece and Anatolia and Asia Minor and regions of that influence.
Legend has it that Klephtico (or Kleftiko), which is slowly cooked lamb (or other meat), can be translated as 'stolen meat'. The Klephts, not having flocks of their own, would steal lambs or goats and cook the meat in a sealed pit to avoid the smoke being seen.
Regions
Distinct from the main stream regional cuisines are:
- Creteki
- Ionian islands
- Macedonitiki
- Politiki, from the tradition of the Greeks of Konstantinoupoli / Istanbul
- Pontiaki, found anywhere there are Pontioi (Greek immigrants from Black Sea , from the 1924 exchange of populations)
Typical dishes
Greek cuisine is very diverse and although there are many common characteristics amongst the culinary traditions of different regions within the country, there are also many differences, making it difficult to present a full list of representative dishes. For example, the vegetarian dish " Haniotiko Mpoureki" (oven baked slices of potatoes with zucchini, myzithra cheese and mint) is a typical dish in western Crete, in the region of Chania. A family in Chania may consume this dish 1-2 times per week in the summer season. However, it is not cooked in any other region of Greece.
The list will present some of the most representative Greek dishes that can be found throughout the country and the most famous of the local ones:
Appetizers
Meze is a collective name for a variety of small dishes, typically served with wines or anise-flavored liqueurs as ouzo or homemade tsipouro . Orektika is the formal name for appetizers and is often used as a reference to eating a first course of a cuisine other than Greek cuisine. Dips are served with bread loaf or pita bread. In some regions, dried bread ( paximadhi ) is softened in water.
- Boureki : individually vegetable and meat fillings wrapped in phyllo pastry or dough.
- Deep Fried vegetables "tiganita" (courgettes, aubergines, peppers or mushrooms).
- Dolma
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