Una faccia, una ratsa (Ούνα φάτσα, ούνα ράτσα)

Throughout the approximately 6000 years of her existence in human civilisation, Crete has been conquered by a number of dynasties, which includes the Venetians. Many architectural features of Cretan towns retain Italianate elements, and this has made an impression on the Italians who visit Crete. A group of Italian ERASMUS students who are studying at MAICh wrote up their thoughts on tourism in Crete, giving us an insight to how our neighbours see Greece and Crete in particular.


For a start, Greece's crystal clear sea, for its grastronomy, for its old history and its islands are the main attractions for Italians coming to here. When Italian tourists talk about their holidays in Crete they always describe its amazing beaches and the clear sea. As for Crete:

"... it is a part of their being to welcome someone. Greeks introduce themselves offering water as a sign of who gives a hand to life in this land that at first glance seems to be parched... Satisfied by a nice welcoming a tourist from Italy will look around to find a good restaurant to please his/her tastes too and to end the day in style. A sense to which an Italian reserves an important place is the stomach. So here you wouldn't remain on an empty stomach both for its full selection of restaurants and for copious quantities of food. Crete can make your mouth water. Traditional dishes attract Italians who, on holiday, do not care about their diet, eating the old traditional Mediterranean flavors here."

And what about the sights?

"To harmonize the night there is the enviable Old Harbour. Its Venetian architecture is a pleasure to Italians’ tourist eyes, well known as mama’s boys, so they easily feel homesick. Once again to help them with their homesickness Cretan people are equipped with bars with espresso machines, easy to find even in a small kiosk located on the edge of the road to nowhere."

And the most revealing Euro-message of all:

"Crete, and Chanià, is a refreshing of memories for a sixty-year-old, as it recalls an Italy in development, a flashback of their youth made by simple things. On the other hand it is the place where young people live the reality told by their ancestors."

A price comparison of airtickets comes to the conclusion that it is very cheap to fly to Chania. So is hiring a car here; the students have already realised that you can haggle the price down, something Southern Europeans know better than Northern Europeans. Taxis are also considered cheap here, too, for those who prefer to have someone else do the driving for them, as our roads are more difficult to drive on, if you are used to higher quality road conditions.

The “kindness in welcoming” factor is very important: a kindly welcome helps to hide inefficiencies, because not all is perfect on our little island paradise. It is noted that although it is easy to find a variety of hotels here without booking in advance, Italians have higher standards when it comes to holiday accommodation. Searching for accomodation in Crete, tourists should not be too demanding:

"Advice concerns rooms which are sometimes too small, and there is very limited space. Wifi is not always available. Others concern the variety of food served and the quality too, first of all for breakfast. Some negative notes are also reported on hygiene referring most of the times to cheap accommodation, which are made to satisfy small needs. 

Cuisine is important to the Italians:

"Crete offers a wide variety of restaurants. It is possible to find restaurants that serve haute cuisine but they are more international. So if you want to dig into the heart of the culture and eat as they do you need to go to tavernas. There are places called ‘mageirio’ where you can eat fresh fish and meat. A different name is given to the place where you go for a dessert which is not available in restaurant menus. But as a surprise at the end of your dinner you get a dessert coming with the most famous Cretan drink ‘raki’. Greek authenticity lets the tourist feel free to choose the dish after he has looked into the kitchen to see what is cooking. There are also vegetarian options. Since vegetables are the ingredients of the Mediterranean diet they often take part in every dish, as well as cheese, legumes, olives, bread and of course pita... But the hygiene of restaurants is not their strong point. Also the service defects on speed."

This shows the level of professionalism in Greek restaurants  Although the food is good, it is rarely served to a high level of standards in a Greek taverna. There is an element of truth here. But I think that this also has to do with costs:

"Considering that Italians are known for being hearty eaters an average of their opinions report that Greek dishes are fairly good. But what they wouldn't do at the end of dinner is to gape at an expensive bill; quite the contrary.

Despite the crisis, the prices are low. Low, that is, to Italians, where the minimum salary and pension levels  are twice that of the respective Greek ones... Having said all this, however:

"... it is easy to find the real Greek culture here and to feel like home, this is the instance where one can use the famous sentence “Una faccia una razza”. Where there is a human face the races are reduced to a minimum becoming one, the human one."

The most important aspects of any study are the recommendations made for future related work. Here is what my Italian students have to say about it:

"Crete has become a popular destination for packaged tourism, especially for Italian tourists; although the weather in Crete is desirable from March to November, the tourism is concentrated during the summer months. In addition there seems to be an unbalanced geographical distribution of the tourism activity since the greatest concentration of tourism is on the northern part of the island. In this case to enlarge tourism in different seasons would also develop alternative tourism which is not much practiced at the moment, so it would give more economic dynamism to the Island during the whole year. This political strategy satisfies the needs of the traveler who likes to dig into the culture and habits of local people. In fact it is more demanded of accommodation like B&B and agritourism. Those travelers are indeed looking for folk events that take you back to the past traditions. Presently the Prefecture of Chania seems unable to afford the sustainability of the environment because tourism grows faster than environmental policies. On the contrary tourism spread all over the Island would produce an extended economy hence reducing overexploitation of its single part.

According to press reviews about this famous appointment, Italians’ choices are going towards four main areas: wine and food, culture, sport and nature. Furthermore, there are two other features to look for: the policy of saving money to support the economic situation and at the same time to finalize them for deep research on alternative and sustainable holidays. From our point of view, according to what is often expressed by most of the Italian tourists, Greece should also invest more in urban and extra-urban road infrastructures to enhance the local mobility. More rules should be respected: for example, the use of helmets for motorcyclists and the use of seatbelts for drivers. Furthermore, educational campaigns should be evaluated in order to change behavior on the roads and more."

The final word comes from an authority of tourism:

“... tourism development must match the needs and aspirations of international tourism with the peculiarities of the host areas today and in the future” (M. J. Stabler, Tourism & Sustainability, Principles to Practice, 1997)."

The above discussion provides some motivation for what could be changed. The observations were made by college students. It's not rocket science, is it?

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Cook the Books: Pomodoro! by David Gentilcore (Μαγειρεύοντας τα Βιβλία: Πομοντόρο!))

When I recently smashed the very last jar of last year's home-made tomato sauce as I was moving something in the fridge, I was devastated. This year's tomato crop did not get off to a good start, and I didn't end up making enough of my home-made tomato sauce to last me through to the next season, which is why the sudden and undignified loss of that final jar made from last season's harvest caused the same effect as it would to a wine connoisseur who lost his grip of a bottle housing an old and rare bottle of wine. The importance of tomato in Southern European Mediterranean cuisine cannot be underestimated. It is a ubiquitous crop in the typical Greek summer garden. It is also one of the most revered tastes in a Mediterranean kitchen: it's hard to imagine what Italian/Greek food would look like if the vibrant red of a Mediterranean-grown tomato was missing.  

Pomodoro! by David Gentilcore (Columbia University, NY, 2010) is a tribute to the importance of this special crop, which plays a prominent role in the Southern European kitchen. Given its importance, it is hard to believe that the tomato is such a recent addition to  my own country's cuisine. Aglaia Kremezi notes that the tomato came into the Greek kitchen in the 19th century; before that, the tomato was seen as a poisonous but beautiful species of flower!

The history of the tomato could be described as saucy, just like its use. We learn from Pomodoro! that it started off being considered a poisonous plant, related to two other equally unpopular plants in antiquity: the tomato, the eggplant and deadly nightshade are all part of the Solanum family of plants. Eggplant and tomato are now eaten all over the world, as is the potato (another relative to the tomato), but deadly nightshade (Solanum nigrum) is known to very few, mainly Cretans like myself (we call it stifno), and people living on the Mediterranean coastline of Southern Turkey.

The tomato (below left) is closely related to the eggplant (above left), deadly nightshade (called stifno in Crete; above right), and - of all things - the potato (below right). One look at their leaves and the resemblance becomes more apparent!

Some trivia from Gentilcore's book: Tomato was regarded as poor man's food, not just because it couldn't provide nourishment in the way other crops like wheat did, but because tomato was a low-lying crop; the closer to the ground a crop lay,  the more lowly its status! The book covers the tomato's career as it became an object of scientific interest, eventually being regarded as an exotic garden species by the rich, before gaining its reputation as the most important global non-grain crop, with Italy being "Europe's premier tomato nation". The book also contains some of the earliest known Italian tomato recipes, which unsurprisingly are still being used in slight variations following the technological innovations of modern times (eg the grater, the food processor, a greater range of spices available almost everywhere, etc). Some sad truths about tomato production are touched on in the epilogue, from the import of tomatos from China to Italy while local tomatos were left rotting in the Italian countryside, to the attempts to genetically modify tomato, which "turned out to be a dud".  

*** *** ***

The tomato season in Crete is longer than other Greek regions, given the extended sunny period that Crete enjoys. We can enjoy the taste of garden fresh tomato grown in the open field for at least six months.  It is most unusual for me to cook something without the use of tomato in some way. Tomato doesn't usually play a prominent role in our meal; it is nearly always a highly essential ingredient in my cooking, playing a background role. It is rarely referred to in the name of the dishes I cook, but its absence would be blatantly obvious. Because tomato is such an important ingredient in my family's food, just like David Gentilcore's mother, I make a lot of home-made tomato sauce for use in the winter; tomato is a staple in the Cretan kitchen 

Here's a slightly sharp-tasting sauce that combines tomato and olive oil with some herbs and spices, to make a great dip for thickly sliced sourdough bread. It can be used for a topping on rusk or toast. This kind of dip is commonly eaten in Crete right throughout the open-air growing season for tomato. A freshly grated tomato over a slice of bread or rusk was a popular snack (until globalisation got its way and changed people's dietary habits).

You need:
1 large tomato, grated
1-2 cloves of garlic, according to taste
olive oil
salt and oregano for seasoning

Drain the grated tomato of its excess liquids. Add the salt to the grated tomato, and let stand in a fine sieve until more liquids drain away. Chop the garlic finely and add this with the oregano to the strained tomato in a small wide bowl. Drizzle some olive oil over the tomato. Use this dip with slices of fresh sourdough bread (optionally toasted), as a snack or a light meal, accompanied by some cheese.

If you don't want to go through so much processing, why not just enjoy tomato straight off the plant, just like my daughter!


Thanks to Rachel, the Crispy Cook, for the chance to review Pomodoro!: A History of the Tomato in Italy (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History) by David Gentilcore (Columbia University, NY, 2010).

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Stuffed artichokes (Anginares yemistes)

Artichokes are an incredible crop. Every spring, we see the first signs of their thorny leaves sprouting up out of the ground. Slowly, the leaves turn into a low shrub, overtaking the spot where they are growing. A month later, the first artichoke pops up; as the stem grows, more and more artichokes jut off it. If artichokes aren't your kind of food and you leave them on the plant, by the end of spring, they turn into a beautiful flower with furry purple thistles. The whole plant then starts drying up and slowly dies away down to ground level. You won't see any sign of the artichoke plant for the rest of the year, until the whole cycle starts up again next spring, without the touch of a human hand; nature takes care of this plant with her own cycle of weather patterns.

We have two rows of artichoke plants which fence the garden like a kind of hedgerow. They produce about 100 heads per season. In Greek cuisine, fresh tender artichokes are eaten raw in a salad, or stewed in red or white sauce. They can also be baked with meat in the oven as a substitute for potatoes. We recently gave our Sicilian neighbour some of our excess crop, and it was her use of them that gave me my idea for these Italian-style stuffed baked artichokes.

1. Snip off half of each leaf on each artichoke, and cut off the stem, but leave the thick outer leaves on the artichoke, so that they form a cavity above the heart.
2. Boil the artichokes in some water for a few minutes, then drain them and scoop out the furry choke and pull out the purple tinged leaves in the centre.
3. Fill each artichoke with approximately 2 tablespoons of mince mixture (like the one for makaronada).
4. Make a bread and herb topping with some grated cheese, and sprinkle over the mince. It doesn't matter if it falls in between the remaining leaves of the artichoke.

5. Place them on a baking tray, drizzle olive oil over them, and pour some water in the tin a third of the way up the artichoke.
6. Cook on high heat for an hour. To test the artichoke heart for 'doneness', insert a knife through it. It should pierce the heart easily.

When they are ready to serve, peel off each leaf and eat the bit of heart that remains on them as they are pulled away, finally working towards the tender heart, which may be spooned off with the filling from the tough base. The actual leaf will still be too tough to eat; only a small bit is edible at the base.

This dish makes a great appetizer at a dinner party, something I haven't held myself or been to in a while; this must have something to do with all the good dining-out opportunities we get in Hania...

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When Alaska came to town ('Οταν μας έκανε επίσκεψη η Αλάσκα)

(PART 1 of our adventures on the Omalos plateau; clicke here for PART 2 and PART 3)

When Alaska comes to town, the city folk rush to visit her. Everyone joins in the bandwagon, because snow is not a common sight in the town of Hania, except from a distance; I can see it on the mountain range of Lefka Ori from my house.

The view from our house on the first day of snow: One day in Hania

But it's not enough to see it; the townies need to feel it, pick it up, toss it at each other (like they see on television) and make snowmen out of it, with carrots for noses and buttons for eyes.

Three years ago, on one of Alaska's previous visits...

When Alaska comes to town, she creates a bit of winter madness; as soon as the snow falls, the locals race up to Omalos, the 'in' place to be in the winter.

View Larger Map

Luxury autos and 4X4s can be seen on days like this (you say SUV, we say 'tzeep'), as soon as white fluff ices the road at Lakki (Lakkous in the accusative), the last inhabited village leading up to Omalos, which saw a white Christmas this year. The sun is shining most of the way up the hill, until you reach the valley, where it disappears, in deference to the visitors and vehicles that all came to see Alaska, lest it might cause her to depart too quickly, leaving behind a disappointed mob.

Once we drove past the historic village of Lakki...

... the snow became quite visible.

Hi ho, hi ho, off to Omalos we go,
While the sun's in town and the snow's down low,
Take your 4X4, and the kids in tow,
Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho, hi ho!

The trouble is that sometimes those cars can't seem to find a way to reverse and get back down to Hania without suffering a few scrapes and bruises on the way.

Trying our best to create a minor traffic jam; the road stops just up ahead. If you turn your head the other way, facing the direction of Hania, the sun can be seen.

When Alaska comes to town, the locals speed-dial their friends from their cellphones: "Let's go up to Omalos for coffee", "Let's go for lunch to Omalos", "Let's take the kids to Omalos to play in the snow". Some see it as a good opportunity to book a room at one of the few hotels in Omalos and spend the Christmas period there, or hopefully see the New Year in with snow - and all just half an hour from their own homes!

Any room at the inn? The Greek way to park - right outside the restaurant...

When Alaska comes to town, everyone welcomes her with open arms, even though they don't fully understand her, as snow rarely makes an appearance in the town, and it seldom settles. Ladies dress up in their high heeled stiletto boots and Sunday best for the day's outing, all bundled up in thick polyester coats, which come off only when one enters the Omalos eateries; it's not just the snow that has to be seen.

A pretty lake situated in the Omalos valley, below the snowy mountains; what a shame there is no frappedadiko located nearby. Would one not feel like they've just been to the Alps?

The children are wearing the made-to-German-quality-standards ski boots and ski costumes LIDL was selling in November, when the sun was still shining and it was too warm to wear a jacket. Only the men seem to understand her - they wear sensible clothes and footwear, most likely bought (from LIDL) by their wives.

And that's about it - the lookout point at the Omalos plateau, looking down onto the entrance of the Samaria Goge, except that the weather conditions make it difficult to see even teh mountains. It's all downhill from here, but the Samaria Gorge is closed for the winter.

When Alaska comes to town, everyone rushes up to the Omalos valley, but not for the Samaria Gorge; it can't be seen anyway from the katsifara that always envelops the Lefka Ori (White Mountains). But just below the lookout point, where the Omalos plateau ends and the downhill narrow path begins, lies the entrance to the Samaria Gorge, one of the wonders of the Mediterranean, the longest narrowest gorge in Europe, its narrow path ending at the Libyan Sea in the coastal village of Ayia Roumeli, with its beaches covered in black sand.

The road towards Alaska...

... nearly there...

... almost done ...

... the entrance to the Samaria Gorge is always guarded - the warden's hut is on the left.

When Alaska comes to town, everyone treats the moment like a happy hour. The fractures clinic at the local hospital has a field day trying to cope with the numbers of idiots who go out into the snow without the right footwear, while insurance agents lay claim after claim for crashed cars.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (it's only temporary).

When Alaska comes to town, her visits are brief. It's difficult to keep her with us very long; as soon as the sun comes out, she simply melts away.

And don't forget to bring home a souvenir!
(Mr Organically Cooked in the pick-up truck.)

*** *** ***

But when Alaska comes to town (and she makes annual visits to Hania), it is a real treat. The last time she came to town and made her presence clear, it snowed so much that Hania actually did look more like Alaska than a Mediterranean town. But I wasn't here to greet her.

Our house is the one on the right - my neighbour took the photo. The snow melted after two days, leaving behind a few large clumps that took a little longer to melt. But the large evergreen Ficus benjamina tree was left with broken boughs and it lost nearly all its leaves.

It was a most ominous day, Friday the 13th, 2004, when my neighbourhood was covered in snow. I was on a Singapore Airlines flight heading to Athens. At 6am Greek time, the Australian captain informed us in a muffled voice that we were descending towards Macedonia Airport in Thessaloniki instead, because Eleftherios Venizelos Airport in Athens was closed to all flights due to the heavy snowfall. As we flew over the whole country, we noticed that icebergs had sprouted in the sea - at least that's what the Greek islands looked like after they were covered in snow.

Icebergs in the Aegean (flying over Greece, February 13, 2004)

We landed in Thessaloniki, capital of Macedonia, with the sun shining brightly. It did seem a sort of paradox that the whole country was covered in snow, except the coldest part of it: not a snowflake in sight in the north of Greece; in fact, it was a very sunny day. I'd never been to Thessaloniki before, so I thought my family's winter holiday was going to be extended; we could do some exploring there. We were wearing the summer clothes we had travelled with on our two-month journey to the Antipodes. We left the aeroplane in great excitement.

Our luggage waiting in the snow outside Athens Airport

To our dismay, Alaska greeted us with her deep-freezer breath: -8 degrees Celsius, despite the bright sunlight. But there was no snow, just freezing temperatures. We were taken to Kempinski Hotel for the night (thank goodness we weren't flying Olympic), and there we spent the night, without venturing outdoors, not even once, not even onto the balcony of the hotel room. We left the next morning, slightly dazed, feeling that an opportunity had been lost to the elements. And it was all due to Alaska.

*** *** ***

Alaska came to town rather early this year, so I had to quickly think up of something to make for her arrival.

(Laurie's biscotti)

I know how much she likes these Italian meringue biscuits; she gave me the recipe herself.

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Broccoli pasta bake (Μπρόκολο με ζυμαρικά)

Our winter garden can only be deemed a success - never before have I seen large unblemished heads of broccoli and cauliflower, bursting out of their leafy homes, growing in the damp December soil of the Cretan earth. This garden fresh produce has replaced our regular weekly serving of stamnagathi salad. The only problem is that we planted them all at the same time, and can't eat them as quickly as they grow, meaning that some have been given up to very appreciative neighbours.

Broccoli doesn't need much cooking time when it is boiled and eaten as a salad, as it contains a lot of water and becomes mushy when overcooked. We started off eating it as a plain warm horta-style salad, flavoured with the typical Greek oil, lemon and salt dressing. A very pretty version of this is to mix cauliflower and carrots with the broccoli.

Broccoli is also a great addition to a stir-fry, since it doesn't need a long cooking time, and stays crispy: the less broccoli is cooked, the more its antioxidant value and Vitamin C content are retained.

Wild black mustard: a relative of broccoli. Considered a weed by most people, it's edible.

Broccoli is a perfect match for cheesy pasta sauces. It has a leafy taste similar to horta, it's practically odourless (compared with cauliflower) and its greeny-blue colour blends well in a macaroni hotpot. The Romans were most likely the first to grow broccoli, hence their Italian name. Broccoli is related to the cauliflower (which it resembles very much, save the colour) and the cabbage, but it also related to a largely unknown leafy green: wild mustard. The shape of the leaves of the mustard plant resemble the broccoli's, and the flowers of the mustard plant look very much like tiny heads of broccoli. Wild mustard grows profusely in Crete, and those who know it use it as a leafy green in various dishes.

A search through the internet for pasta broccoli recipes reveals that pasta-broccoli dishes are one of the more kid-friendly green meals. Apparently a broccoli pasta hotpot freezes well, but it's very simple to make when you have some fresh broccoli on hand, as it uses mainly kitchen staples like milk, cheese and pasta. You can also add other bits and pieces to spice it up a little. My version includes spicy sausage.

You need:
500g pasta of your choice: I used a mixture of cheese-filled tortellini and penne
a small head of broccoli, cut into florets: I also used the tender parts of the stalk, sliced thinly
a few tablespoons of olive oil: in Crete, we use a lot more than that
a large onion, chopped small
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 small ripe tomato, pureed
1 spicy sausage, cut into very thin slices
a cup of grated cheese
500g of milk: non-fat milk won't work very well; you can use cream, but it's more fattening
1-2 tablespoons of mustard
salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add the broccoli and pasta. Cook for 10-12 minutes, then drain well. While this is happening, heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic till translucent. Add the sausage and cook till heated through. Mix in the mustard and tomato (these two ingredients are optional, but they lend a spicier taste to the finished dish); season with salt and pepper. Mix the sausage with the cooked pasta and broccoli till well blended. Pour into an oven-proof dish, and mix in the cheese. Pour the milk over the pasta and bake for half an hour, till the milk turns into a sauce and the cheese has melted.

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything.

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