Table Fare
If I were a Travel Channel food guru who hosted globe
hopping, gastro safaris for a living, this place would be a no brainer for a
target destination. The restaurants here are small. They serve fresh local fare, expertly
prepared and attractively presented in open air settings that Anthony Bourdain’s
film crew would kill for. The prices are
very reasonable with a complimentary dessert or a glass of free sweet wine that
is usually served after the check is called for. Tipping, while not unheard of, is not
expected, and certainly not the obligatory 10 to 20% waiters in the U.S. have
come to expect. A Euro or two, on a big dinner
for four people with drinks, or a little pocket change on the table, is more
than adequate. Most wines served are of
a local variety or “barrel wines” served in a carafe’, your choices are red or
white. The water here is excellent,
served in a sweaty glass pitcher which your waiter just filled from a
continuous free flow, spring fed, outdoor fountain. Bottled water is for tourists.
There is very little prepackaged or processed food here, so
food preparation is more labor intensive, but you are compensated in taste and
quality. All of the meat, poultry, eggs,
wine, oil, honey, fruits and vegetables are produced and marketed locally in
small shops, from roadside stands or out of covered pickup trucks. Your meat is cut to order in immaculate
butcher shops by the man waiting on you.
Cooking herbs like rosemary and oregano grow like weeds along the side
of the road. Local eggs might sometimes
need a little cleaning, but the yokes are the color of cheddar cheese, and the
whites stick up half an inch in the pan.
You don’t need to be a television food critic to tell the difference in
taste between a garden grown tomato and the ones sold in supermarket chains
back home. We have a nice can opener we
brought from home last year that has never been used.
Bourdain and his crew did visit the Greek Islands a couple
of years ago, but his tepid attitude toward the food and culture were not lost
on his audience. The restaurants and
cafés in coastal towns like Kokkari and Pithagorio depend heavily on a brisk
tourist trade to stay healthy, but with the current economy tourism has fallen
off, and things are not good. I would
like to see them survive and prosper; and a little good publicity would not
hurt, but do I really need to see Vourliotes featured in the next episode of
“No Reservations?” There is a biblical
admonition about “hiding (one’s) light under a bushel,” that said, the food
here is great, just keep it under
your hat.
 |
| photos by Newell |
There is very little prepackaged or processed food here, so
food preparation is more labor intensive, but you are compensated in taste and
quality. All of the meat, poultry, eggs,
wine, oil, honey, fruits and vegetables are produced and marketed locally in
small shops, from roadside stands or out of covered pickup trucks. Your meat is cut to order in immaculate
butcher shops by the man waiting on you.
Cooking herbs like rosemary and oregano grow like weeds along the side
of the road. Local eggs might sometimes
need a little cleaning, but the yokes are the color of cheddar cheese, and the
whites stick up half an inch in the pan.
You don’t need to be a television food critic to tell the difference in
taste between a garden grown tomato and the ones sold in supermarket chains
back home. We have a nice can opener we
brought from home last year that has never been used. 
Bourdain and his crew did visit the Greek Islands a couple
of years ago, but his tepid attitude toward the food and culture were not lost
on his audience. The restaurants and
cafés in coastal towns like Kokkari and Pithagorio depend heavily on a brisk
tourist trade to stay healthy, but with the current economy tourism has fallen
off, and things are not good. I would
like to see them survive and prosper; and a little good publicity would not
hurt, but do I really need to see Vourliotes featured in the next episode of
“No Reservations?” There is a biblical
admonition about “hiding (one’s) light under a bushel,” that said, the food
here is great, just keep it under
your hat.
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