Food And Drink
Greek Food
Greek cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine. Contemporary Greek cookery makes wide use of vegetables, olive oil, grains, fish, wine, and meat. Other important ingredients include olives, pasta, cheese, lemon juice, herbs, bread and yoghurt. The most commonly used grain is wheat; barley is also used. Common dessert ingredients include nuts, honey, fruits, and filo pastries. It is strongly influenced by Ottoman cuisine and thus, especially cuisine of Anatolian Greeks shares foods such as baklava, tzatziki, gyro, moussaka, dolmades, and keftethes with the neighboring countries. To an even greater extent it is influenced by Italian cuisine and cuisines from other neighboring south European countries.
Local specialties of Leros include avranies, koulouria, pouggia, tsirigia, fanouropita, pouggakia, takakia, or mantinades, muchalebi and fylla. On the island you will be offered caramelized quince, bitter orange rind, small aubergines and the other hand-made syrupy delights.
Other favourites are Moussaka, Taramosalata, Kalamari and not forgetting the Greek salad, full of the flavours of Summer.
Wine & Drinks
One of the most famous wines in Greece is Retsina, it is stored in a pine cask which consequently gives the wine a pine resin flavor. It is best drunk very cold or with a tiny top up of lemonade.
There are some very good wines in Greece and a couple of vineyards worth trying are Papaioannou, Lazarides and Gerovassiliou. They are more expensive than Retsina but well worth it.
There are also cheap wines and locally made wines served in tavernas which can be hit and miss but always reasonably priced.
On a hot day much better to stick with a bottle of water which can be bought from kiosks, mini markets or shops and is thirst quenching and cheap.
A good alternative is a fresh juice, picked from the tree there and then, or a nice cold Greek beer.