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, especially in the cuisine of Anatolian Greeks, shares foods such as baklava, tzatziki, gyros, moussaka, dolmades and keftedes with neighbouring countries. To an even greater extent, it is influenced by Italian cuisine and cuisines from other neighbouring southern European countries.
Some of the dishes that are particular to Rhodes are : avranies, koulouria, pouggia, tsirigia, fanouropita, katimeria, melekouni, pouggakia, takakia, or mantinades, muchalebi and pitaroudia. The pitaroudia is a large chick pea fritter, and is a characteristic dish in Rhodes.
Other favourites are Mousaka, Taramasalata, 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 whichconsequently gives the wine a pine resin flavor. It is best drunk very cold or with a tiny top upof lemonade.
There are some very good wines in Greece and a couple of vineyards worth trying arePapaioannou, Lazarides and Gervassiliou. They are more expensive than Retsina but wellworth it.
There are also cheap wines and locally made wines served in tavernas which can be hit andmiss 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