We racked up another food tour this past trip, so I think it’s safe to say we are quickly becoming expert consumers of food tours. (I’ve done food tours in Madrid, Tel Aviv, Beirut, Prague, Amsterdam, Rome, and Thessaloniki! They truly are the best way to travel.)
We woke up bright and early so we could get in a run before our 10:00 am meet-up time. We ran along the corniche from our hotel to the port to Thessaloniki’s iconic white tower and back. It was crazy humid and the corniche didn’t have a wall or fence or anything between us and the sea, which was a little disconcerting, so Severin kindly volunteered to run on the sea-side.
Our first stop was for breakfast. The skinny bagel-like thing is called a kolouri, and it slightly chewier than a regular bagel but is otherwise very similar. We saw lots of them in Athens as they are a popular street food; they really aren’t a thing in Cyprus. Clockwise from the koulouri are two glasses of ice water with mastic, Cretan barley rusks, halva, and fresh strawberry jam. You can also see two smaller ramekins of olive oil and dried oregano. This halva is tahina paste boiled with a sugar syrup until it reaches a hard-crack state. When you bite into it it’s a crumbly sort of texture. The halva was some of the lightest we have ever had, it was really superb and I think we both regret not buying some to take home. I enjoyed everything on this plate and would happily eat this for breakfast any day of the week. The barley rusks only work if you soak them in a lot of olive oil though, as they are pretty dense and fibrous…
The mastic “submarine” was also a special treat. Mastic is a form of tree resin (mixed with A LOT of sugar) and was a component of the original chewing gum. GREEK FACT: It is also the root of the English word “to masticate”! You simply scoop out the mastic out of a jar and drop the spoon into a glass of ice water. The water softens the mastic a bit, and it becomes sort of like a lollipop. It is VERY sweet and a little piney, so you just pick up the spoon and take a taste periodically over the course of an hour. Neither of us finished ours, but I ate more of it than I expected to. Once you’re done, you can drink the water which becomes vaguely herbacious after the mastic has steeped in it for so long.
Our next stop was for some of Thessaloniki’s super famous bougatsa. Though it’s made with filo dough it is quite a heavy pastry. There are three varieties below: beef mince, feta, and sweet custard with a sprinkle of cinnamon and powdered sugar. My favorite version was the mince version, but I must admit of all the greasy/fatty breakfasts I could eat, this is one I didn’t really care for all that much…it’s not worth all of the gym time I’d spend burning it off! (A good chocolate croissant, however, definitely is!)
We meandered through Thessaloniki’s municipal market. It is clear the market area is older than the rest of the town (large parts of Thess were destroyed in a fire in the early 20th century), since the buildings are all no more than one or two stories, unlike everywhere else. I was marveling at the olives and after tasting several varieties we settled on buying half a kilo of fresh Kalamata olives to vacuum pack and bring back to Cyprus. Our local grocery store has an olive bar, but these were the biggest, meatiest Kalamata olives I have ever seen and really don’t compare to any we have had in Cyprus. Even Severin, a major olive hater, enjoyed them. I’ve already used them in some Puttanesca sauce to great effect, so it was a great purchase.
Fresh pickles of various types, though we didn’t sample:
So many shallots!
A very nice organic herb shop:
Our next stop was for Greek/Turkish/Cypriot coffee. Since you can get Greek coffee basically anywhere you go in Cyprus this was not necessarily new to us, but it was nice to sit down for a bit and enjoy. Severin takes his sketto (no sugar), while I take mine metrio (half-sugar).
One minor complaint I had about this food tour is that I said specifically that we are not huge fans of seafood, and both of the major protein dishes included in the tour were seafood. It’s kind of a minor complaint because we still ate everything I just wasn’t totally in love with it. We stopped at a food stand and got this big tray of deep-fried sardines, kalimari, and shrimp. The shrimp were fried and meant to beaten whole– head, legs, shell, and all.
Our next stop was for two mezedes, one of sardines (grilled and pickled), olives, whipped feta, the most flavorful cherry tomatoes I’ve ever had, and greens. Our guide told us some people eat the fish whole, but we cut off their heads and pulled the back bones out. See above re: not being crazy about seafood.
Another plate of greens, cheese, and Greek salami:
Our last stop was super-special. We walked in the door Constantinides Bakery and were promptly handed small cups of fresh gelato over a piece of delicious baklava. My gelato was actually a fresh key lime sorbetto and totally amazing, even though I usually prefer creamy gelato. The bakery was a family business though there are many outposts in northern Greece. One of the family members came out to greet us and told us all about the family and the bakery. Before we knew it, we were in the back room folding filo for pastries.
One of my Cypriot friends told me that while we were in Thessaloniki we had to have the “Thessaloniki triangle things filled with cream” — aka trigona panoramatos, though obviously her translation was much easier for me to remember. After the filo cones are baked, they are dipped in syrup and filled with unsweetened cream and dipped in nuts. They were decadent and so rich I decided better to only eat half; after eating 3/4 I finally put the pastry down! We also bought a loaf of tsoureki (an enriched sweet dough, not unlike challah) to take home.
While in Thess, we also ate the things we have yet to find satisfactory versions of in Nicosia: delicious pizza and burgers. The burgers ended up being super cheap– for two drinks, two burgers, and a side of fries for Sev, our bill was only 12 euros! That is the price of a single mediocre burger at the best place we’ve found here.