Athens: Fabulous Food

Apologies for the delay in blogging. Leaving the country for a month means that you have LOTS of house/yard work to catch up on once you're home. (Of course, it's totally worth it!) Then there's that whole pesky day job thing...

Of course, it's kind of nice to take a pause in the midst of my hectic to-do list and remember our lovely vacation.

At the moment, I'm having "taste memory" of some of the delicacies we tried in Athens. Unfortunately, our jet lag meant we slept through several opportunities to eat (a misfortune that was NOT repeated on the rest of the trip).

Generally speaking, we'd have two meals a day: breakfast, and late dinner (though often with a snack in between). This was easy to do... the heat made us crave water, not food! Dinner was always a spectacularly filling affair and often took several hours to consume. (The wait staff in Europe isn't quite so concerned with hurrying you through your meal... you can sit for hours at a cafe table with only a lemon soda, and they'll just let you be.)

Our best meal in Athens was definitely Xenios Zeus on the Mnisikleous Steps. To get to this taverna near the base of the Acropolis, we had to walk up several winding alleyways. The view was gorgeous: grapevines and rooftops.


We had an insanely tasty feast, prepared simply with fresh ingredients. The salad was one of the best I've ever tasted, though it was just lettuce, salad greens, and lemon juice. We mixed it with a taramasalata (fish roe dip). There was also super garlicky bread as well as an olive tray. And this was just the first course!


Next came fried eggplant.


When the calamari came out, we thought (a) "We didn't order onion rings!" and (b) "This must be the main course."

We were wrong. There was also fish, still on the bone and absolutely delicious... crunchy skin, tender flesh, and lots of lemon.


This was also the meal in which Mike and I discovered that we are not the biggest fans of ouzo. Bummer! Still, it was nice to try the local libation and get another (literal) taste of the culture.


Next up: some actual sightseeing photos!