No Shorts Allowed !!!

Alex - no, I missed that one! I had a lot of lamb and potato dishes; stuffed tomatoes, pastiso (kind of like a lasagne), mousaka, beefteki (spicy hamburgers - much better than ours), fish soup with lots of lemon, bread, honey and yogurt for breakfast, I became totally addicted to Greek coffee, spanikopita, tiropita, cabbage salad (can't remember Greek name), feta and psomi (bread)....when you go to a taverna and order Ouzo, they automatically bring bread, tomatoes, and cheese; sometimes sliced apples and nuts. I never drank without food. And I drank every day, but never got drunk once. That's another thing about Greece - people drink but not like here. Stuffed grape leaves too, and the honey based desserts were so good I felt like crying. One of the interesting things about Greek restaurants is that once your order, the waiter brings your check right away and then they never come back to the table. It's up to you to flag them down if you want something else, and it's totally appropriate to do that - in fact, you can spend hours in a restaurant ordering dish after dish. You can even ask to see the dishes before you other them. I had something called "bakalau" -a very stinky, dried and heavily salted fish I saw in the open market. But when I had it and dressed it with fresh lemon, it was one of the best things I'd ever eaten. It came with potatoes. We also had some great Retsina, which I learned to love. Just like anything else, there's bad Retsina and good Retsina, and we had both. Funny story: we were looking for a place to eat in Crete and we were really hungy and we came upon this tiny hole in the wall that only served filo dough with baked feta cheese - it was kind of like a take out service - this woman had these huge cheese pies and her son kept boxing them up to be delivered. So she welcomed us in for a slice of her pie and this was again one of the best things I've ever tasted. We asked for Retsina and she said...in broken english..."I honor you with traditional drink!" Of course you can't say no, so we drank what she gave us: a small shot glass of Raki, which was some of the smoothest stuff I'd ever had - and I'm not a big whisky drinker, unless it's watered down with diet colke! (big whimp, I know). And this stuff was clear as water. Anyway - a few weeks later, and after eating that this one particular restaurant day after day in Crete (once you find a place that's good, you really want to stick with it!). My husband speaks fluent Greek and really hit it off with the owner. But before that, we had had some really rotten Raki - tasted like lighter fluid! But we had to drink it, because it would have been insulting not to. Anyway, so fast forward to this little restaurant where the owner comes over and says...."I honor you with traditional drink!!" We looked at each other like, "uh oh" - we better down this stuff because we didn't want to insult the man. We all three had a shot and once again, it was some of the smoothest booze I had ever had! We actually bought a flask and asked him it fill it for us!! It now sits in our freezer...haven't felt like drinking it yet but we know it's high quality stuff! Raki is made from the residue of the process of making Retsina.

Alex - no, I missed that one! I had a lot of lamb and potato dishes; stuffed tomatoes, pastiso (kind of like a lasagne), mousaka, beefteki (spicy hamburgers - much better than ours), fish soup with lots of lemon, bread, honey and yogurt for breakfast, I became totally addicted to Greek coffee, spanikopita, tiropita, cabbage salad (can't remember Greek name), feta and psomi (bread)....when you go to a taverna and order Ouzo, they automatically bring bread, tomatoes, and cheese; sometimes sliced apples and nuts. I never drank without food. And I drank every day, but never got drunk once. That's another thing about Greece - people drink but not like here. Stuffed grape leaves too, and the honey based desserts were so good I felt like crying. One of the interesting things about Greek restaurants is that once your order, the waiter brings your check right away and then they never come back to the table. It's up to you to flag them down if you want something else, and it's totally appropriate to do that - in fact, you can spend hours in a restaurant ordering dish after dish. You can even ask to see the dishes before you other them. I had something called "bakalau" -a very stinky, dried and heavily salted fish I saw in the open market. But when I had it and dressed it with fresh lemon, it was one of the best things I'd ever eaten. It came with potatoes. We also had some great Retsina, which I learned to love. Just like anything else, there's bad Retsina and good Retsina, and we had both. Funny story: we were looking for a place to eat in Crete and we were really hungy and we came upon this tiny hole in the wall that only served filo dough with baked feta cheese - it was kind of like a take out service - this woman had these huge cheese pies and her son kept boxing them up to be delivered. So she welcomed us in for a slice of her pie and this was again one of the best things I've ever tasted. We asked for Retsina and she said...in broken english..."I honor you with traditional drink!" Of course you can't say no, so we drank what she gave us: a small shot glass of Raki, which was some of the smoothest stuff I'd ever had - and I'm not a big whisky drinker, unless it's watered down with diet colke! (big whimp, I know). And this stuff was clear as water. Anyway - a few weeks later, and after eating that this one particular restaurant day after day in Crete (once you find a place that's good, you really want to stick with it!). My husband speaks fluent Greek and really hit it off with the owner. But before that, we had had some really rotten Raki - tasted like lighter fluid! But we had to drink it, because it would have been insulting not to. Anyway, so fast forward to this little restaurant where the owner comes over and says...."I honor you with traditional drink!!" We looked at each other like, "uh oh" - we better down this stuff because we didn't want to insult the man. We all three had a shot and once again, it was some of the smoothest booze I had ever had! We actually bought a flask and asked him it fill it for us!! It now sits in our freezer...haven't felt like drinking it yet but we know it's high quality stuff! Raki is made from the residue of the process of making Retsina.