Authentic food - the quest part 1

 Authentic food - the quest part 1

My family loves food.  As far as I can remember, food has been a celebration of our lives' big and small events.  So I felt very much at home in Syros, as the Greeks also celebrate life around a full and colourful table.    Not only is it a daily celebration, but it also is an incredibly rich and diverse array of foods that are the culmination of literally thousands of years of living and eating. Each Greek meal is fresh and inviting, but it is also a trip back through Greece's history and the specific history of the Greek island you are visiting.

My mum, sister and I were in Syros with friends so there were 7 of us around the table, including two locals.  With them, we went to authentic Syros cuisine places and also had home-cooked meals.  The real food thing instead of the tourist places which you often find following Tripadvisor. 

The Greeks have a super interesting "fusion" cuisine which started way back to 350 B.C, when Alexander the Great extended the Greek empire from Europe to India.  And then much later, Greece fell to the Romans, and this resulted in another blend.  And then, much much much later, the then Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks, with some Turkish dish names remaining to this day, like hummus or tzatziki.  This fusion makes Greek food super tasty and interesting.  

We found out that Syros more particularly was a island filled with small farmers who produce - mainly organically - cheese, oils, fruits, wine, vegetables and herbs that grow in the wild. And we found out that Greece and Syros is the ultimate places for all us cheese lovers! Syros has its own cheese called San Michali.  It’s a hard cheese obtained exclusively from the milk of cows bred on the island and is famous for having been produced for more than half a century using the same traditional methods. The local cows are fed a diet of aromatic local plants and herbs, which contribute to the buttery scent of this cheese. 

There also is the simple and beloved traditional Greek Saganaki recipe, made with only three ingredients and ready in less than 10 minutes! Flour, olive oil and a thick slice of cheese which is shallow fried and has to be eaten straight our of the pan, with a drizzle of lemon.  We had it for our first meal after we arrived, and it became our stable entrée during our 3 weeks’ stay.  Hello cholesterol!

I also visited a vineyard in Syros - the one owned by the lady we were holidaying with (and we had a super meal there in a quaint open “manger” kind of place).  I am not a wine lover, but I loved the sweet Syros wine.  I was told that Syros wines take advantage of the specific characteristics of the Cycladean vineyards and the microclimate of the island, the strong sunshine, the sandy soil and the cool northern winds.  Whatever it is, the wine was sweet, and super tasty.  And yet cause for another celebration.

We celebrated a lot around tables during these 3 weeks in Syros.  Celebrated the end of school (again), the start of new beginnings, friendships, 3 generations of women holidaying together, and the quests yet to come for the 7 of us.