Day one we meet Gary, Kit and Lydia at the Eleftherios Venizelos Athens airport and fly to Xania. We carpool to Kera Stalos where we had rented our apartments. These digs are very nice. Cool pool. Great view. We had a two room flat with two baths. I thought it was about 3 when we went for lunch but it was much later. The owner of our condo suggested that we eat at her husbands brothers place, Merovigli in Pano Stalos, about a kilometer up the hill in the little village.
We went in and there were only a few others that late in the day. We said that cousin Demetria sent us and that started the party. Yannis and Christos were like brothers from then on. We had tzadziki, bread, lamb with Horta and avolemeno. Stuffed peppers, chicken with rice, Horta and lemon, Crete rusk salad called Dakos, then to finish we had Tsikoudia, Loucomadia and a pancake with cheese and honey. Mythos beer and Tsikoudia.
OK you will see Tsikoudia mentioned often in my Crete section. That's because its everywhere. When we were greeted by Demetria, at the condo, she insisted we have some walnut cake and a shot of home distilled Tsikoudia. I'm in. Dinner was on the deck and consisted of Tsikoudia and baklava that Kathleen brought from Trabazon, Turkey. See, there it is again, Tsikoudia. and another shot you ask? I'm in. Yamas.
13 / 2
Day two we went to old town Xania to see what was there and get lunch on Limani Harbor. Monastiri Taverna was the place Protopappas recommended. The place was on the wharf and had plenty of people. Turns out he was spot on. Gary and I went into the kitchen to order fish. tzadziki, shrimp saganaki, small fried fish, grilled bream, pork stuffed with cheese grilled on skewers. Fried vegetables, grilled octopus, horta, and Tom and I drank more Tsikoudia. Really don't need dinner after a two hour lunch at 3PM.
14 / 3
Day three, Kathleen and I had our food adventure. We went for Bougatsa at Bougatsa Chanion at Apokoronou 37 in the morning before anyone was up.. This was the same place Anthony Bourdain filmed his Crete scene for No Reservations. First we ate some and then we went to watch the dude make it. We had the first of two food epiphanies.
Then in a fast trip through the Agoura I had epiphany number 2. Patsa at Agapinis in the East wing, the lamb tripe soup with zucchini in a lamb broth. Holy shit. This was the big one I was waiting for. It melted in your mouth. we were both so happy we bought a bottle of cinnamon raki for dinner.
Today we are making lunch at the apartment. We hired a cook, Theano, to come make Cretan dishes and teach us a little about Crete food traditions. Boureki with zucchini, myzithera, potatoes, mint, salt pepper and used thick phyllo. Two layers top and bottom. Lamb in paper with potatoes, graviera, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, tomatoes and garlic. tzadziki. Horta, Chicken in tomato sauce served with milk cooked noodles, and a fried phyllo pie with ricotta, mint and covered in cinnamon and honey. Gary bought some good cheap wine, both a rose and white. Did I say nap time. Yamas.
Dinner was reheated bougatsa and Kitron Nasoy and cinnamon raki. Yamas. The power went off just as we were getting to bed so the air conditioner was out and the mosquitos were in. They love me and I hate DEET. The waves were so big that we could hear them when we opened the windows. Slept like a log till 8:00 am.
15 / 4
Elafonissi Beach in southwest Crete was the day target. John Tounger Family are here. Now we are the Doedeka or The Twelve, and the order of magnitude for going anywhere or doing anything increases dramatically. We caravan with Gary, John and me as drivers and I'm lead and Tom Ferenz is navigator. Cousin Kathleen is driving from the back seat. She calls it a Tounger assist. Kathy is holding on for dear life. It's a late start, so the goal is lunch half way, and I find a real nice taverna named Kamaresin in the mountain town of Elos . With now 12 opinions for food, ordering gets interesting but we manage to put together a nice lunch of tzadziki, Greek salad, dolmadikia, and souvlaki, both chicken and pork. Kathy asked for a pie and we got a leek torta that was very thin and crispy. A delicious lunch and then on to the beach.
Road, wind, road, beach. This picture says it all. 80 plus water temp. Clear. Oh yes, you can see that. Walk to the island in knee deep water and then Tom swims back around the point. Twice because he thought he lost his sunglasses when he dove in and went back to find them. He didn't but swan back anyway. About a mile each time. His sunglasses were in the condo. Tsikoudia?
The road home was crazy. I asked John and Gary what they thought and Gary said he would do it on a bike but in a car it sucked. John said he couldn't feel his hands from gripping so tight. At one point a goat jumped off the hill and into my path. I missed having souvlaki on the hoof by a few One of the narrowest roads ever but we white knuckled it to Sfinari beach where we heard there were three fish tavernas that were equally good. I pulled into the second driveway thinking I would turn around but a giant guy came out and kind of blocked - directed me into parking. The three restaurants were all supposed to be good and I really had no selection criteria so I just parked. I'd like to say, I didn't pick the restaurant, it picked me. We were going to eat at Thalami. Thalami means the home of the octopus in the ocean. There was octopus drying on a line hanging in front.
I was immediately selected by the owner Manolis Georgakakis, as his sumo-fat brother, ordained by a belly bump and a hug. Ok, I'm a big guy but this guy was a Big Guy. He was kind of grimy and smelled of both sweat and raki. Greasy hair. But he was somehow charming in a real weird way. Broken English. Big hands. Great looking restaurant right on the beach.
Kathleen and Gary went back to the kitchen with Sophia, Manolis wife, and ordered or were ordered, not quite sure, considering Manolis personality. We all got up to loom at his outdoor clay wood fired oven and see the potatoes roasting inside. We did order some of these, I mean Manolis told us we would eat some, we picked the number. Eight I think.
Cousin John commented that the the first restaurant had a grill going and maybe we should have picked it. Then we hears a crackling sound and a high speed whine. Looking behind us, Manolis was getting his grill fired up like a jet engine. He had an industrial blower on his charcoal and it was now spitting fire. John said we will incorporate this new method at the next Greek picnic. The fire was ready in ten minutes and things were looking up. A variety of brightly colored small fish were put on a fish rack and started smoking and grilling.
The usual, tzadziki, bread, salad, moussaka, then it got interesting. Fresh cuttlefish fish fried in big chunks, pork souvlaki, the whole grilled fish, fried vegetables, Horta, and the wood oven roasted potatoes drizzled with olive oil and fresh picked oregano.
Sun was down and the road was nasty so we wanted to leave. I went to get the check but Manolis had to show me the kitchen. I mean the whole kitchen. Every part, every drawer, every refer, every pot, both dishwashers, the sink. Then he says he is making us something special. Two lobsters from today's catch. Sofia boiled them and split them and Manolis threw them on the grill. Gary was in the let's go mode so he and Kathleen went back to get the check but no way could we leave with Manolis grilling the lobsters. So, we waited ten more minutes. I excised the meat as soon as it hit the table. Gary did the same on number two. We all then bit into the best, freshest, sweetest white meat ever. It was moist, delicious, and even Kathy who doesn't like lobster, loved it.
Then we walked. Sofia chastising us for leaving so early. "You should stay the whole evening", she said. "Relax." We walked. Gary walked by Manolis and tried to give him the Bro Shake or low five but Manolis embraced him and kissed him on both cheeks. He patted my belly and then kissed me, again on both cheeks. Sweaty, Tsikoudia breath, scratchy beard. Now I felt like Seinfeld, and the smelly car episode. I had to take a shower to rid myself of the smell.
Kathy had to drive home. Not because I was drinking but because I only had my extra dark prescription sun glasses and couldn't see. We couldn't see the exit, even though we new it was coming and it didn't follow the EU standard 300, 200, 100 meter signage, so we went one more. Came around on the next one to home and hit the sack
Then the power went out. Not the rolling blackout, just in our apartment.
16 / 5
My phone rang at 1:00 am and since I had set the alarm, I thought it was time to wake up. It was still dark out but something was wrong so I checked. One AM. Dammit. Back to sleep. Alarm. Five. Still dark and no power. Pack up and borrow a cup of coffee from Tom and Kathleen. They had power.
The reason we were up early was because I concocted a crazy idea about walking the Samaria Gorge. 11 miles of hell, dropping 3000 to the town of Agia Roumelli. No road out, just boat access. We went to the bus. 5:45. Family JT makes the bus in the nick of time. No Gary. I ask the driver to wait 5 minutes. No Gary, Kit, or Lydia. John III runs back to the house. No Gary. The bus waits for no one and starts to drive off. As it's pulling away, I see the group rounding the corner a block away and yell "stop the bus". I jump out and start whistling. Thankfully they are fit and ran to the bus.
Kathy and I walk up the gorge reducing stress on my knee of pounding down. The gorge is very narrow but beautiful. It was a good three hour walk. The first of our group down was, guess? Ok it was Kit and Gary. They flew down. The next group was the kids and they were an hour behind. Everyone made it and we gathered at a Taverna for some lunch.
Nice lunch at Agia Roumelli. Beautifully town, set on the Libyan Sea.
Is water was the greatest color I have ever seen. The deepest clearest blue ever. Visibility exceeded 100 feet. The Greek flag gets it's color from here.
Again a long day. The bus was long and the guide was talking non stopped about the history. Did you know that the Minoans invented everything. Olympics, Democracy, language, geometry, the telephone, sex. anyway it was a long ride back over the pass. We head back to Taverna number one.
Same, same, same with some additions. Snails in rosemary and olive oil for the adventurous, stifado with onions, melt in your mouth beef stew and the only beef dish we encounter in Crete. These guys, Yannis and Christos are good. They remembered that Saturday was my birthday. They took such good care of us. This place must be revisited.
Tsikoudia, yogurt with preserve grapefruit, skin and fruit, Loucomadia. More Tsikoudia. Sleep.
17 / 6
This morning Kathy and I went to the beach and walked to the island connection. About a three mile round trip. Sand waking is good exercise. Really works out the feet.
The night of my birthday dinner we all took taxis to a restaurant in the old tannery district, east of old town. The places coming in looked like they had been bombed during the war. The taxi let Kathy, Kathleen, Tom and I out and said, as he pointed down the small street, "it's down there, around the corner." So we went, the Doedekas, and we collectively sucked in our Cretan, skordalia tainted breath and walked onto a movie set. Thalassino Ageri in the tannery district was a perfect setting for the "big Doedeka Dinner"
The place only had outdoor seating and they had set a table for the Doedekas, all 12 of us, almost in the water that lapped less than a foot from my eventual seat. To many Tsikoudia and I'd be swimming.
I ordered for the table tonight. Ouzo for all. Gary and Kit ordered wine. The restaurant only had white wine. No red, no rose, no champagne. They also only had fish. John was going to be hungry. No not really but the place only had one pork dish, chops. OK can we go one meal without tzadziki? No, and this place did it great. OK, let's add spicy feta dip and some husky bread. Kathy take a defensive scoop of skordalia. Greek salad, warm beetroot salad with more skordalia, dolmathes with yogurt so thick that it wouldn't come off the spoon.
Sea urchin in olive oil and lemon. This dish was to die for. Old grandpa Socrates would be smiling on me now. Grilled octopus, fried cuttlefish, fried small smelt-like fish. Kathy asked Kathleen how do you eat these "eat the whole thing, head and all." After Kathy eats one down Kathleen says, "I pulled off the head." This picture is Kathy eating octopus. That's almost never done.
Then the pork chops grilled on carbon, grilled swordfish with tomato, and rice. By now we are starting to groan. Six bottles of wine, Ouzo, and now comes Tsikoudia and a slice of desert that I had to go into the kitchen to ask what it was. A semolina halva flavored with Bergamot. Very unusual and a dish that most thought too weird. Me? Loved it, had two. This dinner lasted four hours and we made it to my real birthday ending past midnight. The owner even let me grill some fish.
Same taxis home and we passed out. What a day.
18 / 7
The following morning Kathy and I took a small road trip to Kokino Chorio east of Xania. On the way, Kathy and I sneaked in one more trip to Bougatsa and also a bakery to pick up a galaktoboureko in Nea Hora Beach at Perithoraki. Galaktoboureko is phyllo filled with pastry cream, baked and soaked in sugar syrup. This one was hot when we got it and so yummy later that day, I wanted to eat it all.
This small village is the home of two glass blowers that are cousins of Erika Tompanis/Thornton how works with me at Clif Bar. The father and son are very good glass makers but with limited space, I only brought back a small vase for Erika. Then on to the beach for a Helenicos Diplo Metrio, or double greek coffee. This beack in Almyrida on Soudas bay was very idyllic and peaceful. Great place for a coffee. We lunched in Kalamaki Beach at the Kalamaki Taverna owned by Mihalis and his brother Kosta, friends of John Protopappas, a buddy of mine from Sequoyah Golf Club. Kathy had some Horta pies, little baked turnovers filled with greens and Feta. They were OK, somewhat cold in the center but tasty. I had Cretan Goat Stew. It was also very tasty but hard to eat being mainly bone. A few Fix beers and it was alright.
The whole family now minus Kathleen and Tom, went to our favorite (third time back) taverna in Stalos up on the hill. Yannis and Christos were super happy to see us and wished me a happy birthday.
The food was great and had the regular by now, Tzadziki, Greek Salad, Horta, Stifado, lamb in Avolemono, but added grilled pork, stewed chicken, and fries with melted cheese. Gary ordered a nice red wine from Crete and we finished off three bottles. Christos said this was like Greek Viagra. Loucomadia with ice cream and Tsikoudia to finish. Great last meal of the Greek trip.
19 / 8
Morning coffee and flight to Paris.
posted from the road, somewhere on the journey.
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