How to Get RICH in Greece

While Greek tavern meals are great they can run up the cost of our trip pretty fast, so one of our favourite ways to eat is to have a little picnic somewhere along the road, preferably with some delicious shade and/or a fantastic view. With such excellent bread, cheese, olives, nuts, fruit, veg, honey, tahini, and yogurt available everywhere it is an easy way to makeup for the shocking cost of the 43 Euro fish we shared at the tavern before our trip to the entrance to Hades. And, with that, I'd like to note that we have uncovered one of the craziest food scams in Greece.

Our 43 euro fish (that's euros, right?) had us reeling, but considering the number of fish we see when we snorkel in the seas around here ,we reasoned, well, perhaps fish are so expensive because there aren't any. They should be expensive, right?

Yeah, right.

Some days before the "Hades Tavern 43 euro fish highway robbery escapade", we ordered ourselves grilled octopus with one of our meals. I've since learned that in Greece, an order like this is routinely one tentacle and costs at least 10 euros. It is quite standard. A few days after the 10 euro tentacle, I was standing by the harbour in one of the many towns we've passed through and I decided to do a little math (brace yourself for this is truly rare) I counted the number of octopi artfully hanging on the line across the street from a nearby tavern – sinisterly whetting the appetites of passersby. I counted 13 octopi with 8 legs each, that's 1040 euros, 1040 EUROS! artfully hanging out in the street unsupervised! Fishy? I was furious and determined to get to the bottom of this standardized greek thievery, so the next time we were in a market I took a closer look at the octopi. How much?
12 Euros for the whole critter.

Now, that is some mark up if you ask me. Wanna get rich quick? Open a seafood restaurant in Greece.

achoo! sniffle sniffle

Spring in the Peloponnese is full of wild flowers. Everything is in bloom! A feast for the eyes, a nose full of aromathrapy

and allergens. Yikes! Everything is coated in a hazy dusting of gentle olive green and that'd be because olives have blossoms too - millions and millions of them. They tickle your nose and web up your eyes and could just about make you craaaazzy! Camping provides no refuge fom them especially because olives cover every cultivatable piece of land. Allergy sufferers: beware the olive stuffed state of Messinia home to the beloved Kalamata olive. Achoo! Achoo!

Laconian Oranges

Citrus is full-blown right now in the Southern Peloponnese. The whole valley that spills south of Sparti towards the Gulf of Lakonikos is ordered with olives and fruit trees. The orange trees that line the coastline are doubled over under their bounty of oranges and blossoms. The fruit is so plentiful that it almost seems there could never be an end to the season. Could this be why the only fresh juice available in Greece is orange juice? They're one step ahead of Belize where every orange grown in the country goes straight to concentrate and then straight to flavourless English breakfast tables.



Under the cool presence of Lakonia's snow capped Taygetos range, we take a pause from our pedalling to quench our lazy thirst with sun-ripened oranges fresh from the tree . As we near the port of Gythio we understand why this region gave birth to Helen's epic love affair that led Mycenae to 10 years of war with Troy. The contrast between the harsh and craggy interior where Helen lived and this gentle green seaside destination could loosen up the sternest of Mycenaeans.

Delicious thistle buds

Sitting in the passenger seat of Christofer's car I squint to make out what the familiar shapes were that were nearly bursting out of the back of the rickety old pick up in front of us. Artichokes! A whole truck full of artichokes! I can't believe my eyes. I remembered seeing these spartan looking plants in Kevin's garden years back, but to see so many spilling out of the back of an old pickup seemed absurd to me. 2 Euros buys me about 15 massive artichokes and a lot more work than I anticipate, but well worth every second.

A plateful of Koukia

Koukia, or the fava bean, I had no idea how tasty this Mediterranean symbol of spring harvest could be. We were fortunate enough to arrive at George and Sandra's just in time to enjoy a fava and potato stew fresh from George's garden.

Originally from North Africa, fava beans in a dish known as ful medames is Egypt's number one breakfast item. In Southern Europe, the lowly fava, which grows heartily between early spring and late summer, has saved many a region from famine.

Having had George's fava stew I know that fava will definitely feature in my future dream garden.

Lemons, I've got lemons

I've mentioned in the past the whole lemon and lime debacle in Mexico. Now, Mexico calls limes lemons which in my mind is criminal because a lime is a lime and a lemon is a lemon and they both have their own magic - so stop trying to pass one off as the other! With one taste of the lemons that come fresh off the tree hanging in Helen's garden in Xiropigado, no self-respecting Mexican could ever go back to calling a lime a lemon. And when that day comes Christofer is ready to build a lemon empire in lemon deprived Mexico. For now I propose, simple breakfast of fresh squeezed lemonade with a bowl of strained yogurt smothered in fir honey and topped with almonds and a squeeze of lemon? So simple. So delightful! A natural accompaniment would be a little side dish of Zorba.

Gastronomical Goodbye

There is no better way to say goodbye to a place than to have a fantastic meal and that was exactly what we were looking for in Iraklio. After stocking up on gifts for home a very friendly Kostas Dandalis a silversmith\cycle nut recommended a great final eatery away from the dreaded turit hubbub. The meats and the salads are extraordinary. Thanks Kostas for the recommendation! and double thanks for our lovely bike jewellery.

Losing Mainstream Crete

As the surrounding olive filled hillsides prepared to be harvested, we meandered our way east from Hania and south into the mountains choosing increasingly steeper routes and praying the rain would hold off. As always, the quest for milk was on and Basil wandered in to a few small tavernas with the hopes of finding some. Unfortunately, the region was fresh out of fresh milk. All the sheep were either pregnant or nursing, therefore - no milk. We were surprised and pleased to learn that these guys were so serious about their milk that commercially farmed milk is not even available. One taste of their local cheese would fully and proudly allow you to understand why.

So, off we went with our milk starved kefir to find a place to set up camp and dream of a world just like the one we were already in. A world where the men favour camoflague clothing, drive black pick up trucks, eat salad, and homemade unprocessed sheep's milk yogurt, and where the lady in black who bakes your bread, has a beard, and remembers the days when women did the family's laundry at the water starved fountain you can still barely drink from in the middle of town.

Grape Harvest

The vines are heavy with grapes, the smell of fermentation is in the air, Greece is busily producing this years harvest of tasty wines. Samena Golden is the pride and joy of Samos. It continually graced my glass and will be sorely missed on future dinner tables.

Plum Season

The tiniest Charlie Brown tree bowed heavily under the weight of these lovely damask plums. Wise food wizard Chryssa boiled them down into some of the most deliciously sweet tart jam that begs for the savoury embrace of tahini and bread.

Wild Oregano

What is more Greek than oregano? Wild oregano! The minute I realized that the kilometers of ground cover I was walking over was blossoming wild oregano I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I'm pretty sure this bee is thinking the same thing.

Rain Day

And then it did what it had promised to do for days...it rained, and it rained, and it hailed, and it rained some more, and we ate gyros, and drank labneh, and we waited. Then we made the terribly wise decision to stay in a hotel that night. It rained three times as much while we slept. The sunflowers drooped and the tobacco was happy and we got to eat bougatsa one more time.

The Road to Xanthi

On the plain to the east of the base of Dionysus' sacred Mt Panageum lies the region of Drama. The fertile soils of this region have been producing delicious wine for millennia. We pedalled our way through pretty Drama and detoured into the first vineyard we saw. Here we met M. Hadley's estranged twin brother and left with a lovely bottle of Assyritiko.

The secondary road to Xanthi continues to wind it's way along the route of the ancient Via Egnatia. Nearing the border of Thrace , it was a rare treat to find ourselves surrounded by thick forest spread over gently rolling hills. We were clearly crossing into a much less touristed and distinctly different Greece. After thoroughly and cautiously being inspected by a young shepherd's team of dogs, we set up camp in the mountains outside Stavroupoli.

Figapalooza!

They're here! They're here!! After months of watching these lovely treasure troves of tastiness plump up on the thousands of trees we have cycled past they are finally ready for picking. They are well worth every minute of waiting.

Refuelling

I know I talk a lot about food, but it is my gasoline so I really treasure it. Besides it is so much more interesting than dead dinosaurs. So, this is a particularly lovely snack that Basil and I shared. The fusion of these stewed chick peas, marinated aubergine salad, and lovely grilled local mushrooms was one we will be recalling to our memory tastebuds for a long time. We also added an order of garlicky tzatziki and a jug of retsina to the flavour extravaganza. Marry all of this with some psomi horiatiki and you just won't want the refeulling session to end.

Big Broad Macedonia

After watching the grades get increasingly steeper through the Pelloponnese and Evia we found ourselves laughing heartily at the "10%" grades Macedonia alerts drivers to at almost every hill. 10% is for sissies. Okay the 40+ temperatures make it a tad challenging, but 10% grade? Why are they even posting that? Nobody posted the 14, 15, 18 or 22% we have seen up to this point.

A good amount of gently rolling valleys sweep across a large part of Macedonia. I don't usually think of the term "Big Sky" as being characteristic of Greece, but there we were in the middle of Greece's bread basket surrounded by just that. Hills must come as a shock to these people who don't live with the mountains in quite the same way the rest of Greece does. Life in this part of Macedonia is all tractors and large scale agriculture. And it is mighty remarkable just how fast a tractor can go with a Greek farmer at the helm.

I was proudly told that Macedonia is Greece's California. Their agricultural role and use of labour from outside perhaps resembles California, but I think the comparisons stop there. Californians might not unearth the same quantity of Dionysian temples in their fields, Mount Olympus doesn't watch Californian hired Mexicans while they till the soil, and Alexander the Great didn't march across California in his mission to conquer the world.