tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10436153519245652422024-02-20T22:16:22.878-08:00DineOutAthensGreek food guru Diane Kochilas' opinionated restaurant and food guide to Athens, Greece.Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-74275039894768295972011-06-13T20:56:00.000-07:002011-06-13T20:56:39.821-07:00Kostas Souvlaki<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">It’s not everyday that I lose total self control and give in to the temptation for Greece’s classic “junk food”—souvlaki. But when I do, there is only one place worth sacrificing self-esteem and birthright for: Kosta’s.</div><div class="MsoNormal">A tiny, hole-in-the-wall with a large following and an even larger queue, Kosta’s has been around for a few generations, serving up this Greek classic to legions of Athenians who happen to work or live or stroll in the immediate vicinity of Syntagma (Constitution) Square. The place, almost nondescript from the outside, is nonetheless pretty easy to recognize because a line of mostly men of the round-belly body type starts to form around 11.30 in the morning and doesn’t ease up until late afternoon. They<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>typically leave with bags full of Kosta’s souvlaki, to share over a beer with their work buddies. </div><div class="MsoNormal">One caveat: The wait for a 2 euro souvlaki is an exercise in zen patience. It could take up to a half hour. Over the grill, where Kosta the younger (the original owner’s grandson) tends to skewers, hangs a sign that says, simply (in Greek): No Anxiety! </div><div class="MsoNormal">The wait is worth it because every component of the souvlaki here is perfect. The pita bread is grilled and smokey, just on the cusp of crunchy, and nothing like the greased-up pita wraps of other, lesser, souvlaki joints. Lamb is the meat of choice here, grilled over coals, juicy, tender, delicious. The fixings give Kostas’s souvlaki the brush strokes of culinary brilliance. First there is the yogurt, which is as thick as ice cream and unapologetically sour. Tomatoes are fresh and sweet, onions pungent and plentiful, parsley properly refreshing, and cayenne pepper spared no quarter for anyone who asks for it. Add to this the fact that the place is spanking clean, a rare thing, indeed, and what you get is the ultimate recipe for success. A, and one more jewel in this souvlaki’s crown: He will gladly prepare Greece’s national street food for…vegetarians. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Kosta’s Souvlaki</div><div class="MsoNormal">Mitropoleos & Pentelis St. 5</div><div class="MsoNormal">Tel. 210 322 8502</div><div class="MsoNormal">Price: 2 euro each</div><!--EndFragment--> </div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-23555645846079873312011-06-12T08:10:00.000-07:002011-06-12T08:10:43.691-07:00Magemenos Avlos (Magic Flute)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">The Magic Flute</div><div class="MsoNormal">It was quite by accident that I ended up dining at the “Magemenos Avlos” (Magic Flute), one of Athens’ oldest, and most history-filled, tavernas. To eat here is to step back in time.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The place, located just off Plateia Proskopon (“Scout Square”) in Pangrati, not far from the Hilton and the National Gallery, is as it was in its 1960s heyday, when it was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> hangout for Greece’s most famous artists and musicians, including the internationally known composer Manos Hatzidakis, for whom the Magemenos Avlos was something of a second home. </div><div class="MsoNormal">The menu has the decided flavor of nostalgia, too, harking back to a time when dining out in Athens meant either an indulgence in Greek Sunday classics like braised rooster with noodles, or a foray into the continental (i.e. French) cuisine of the time: fondue, Tournedos Rossini, Viennese schnitzel, crepes, paillard, and duck a l’orange. Here and there are a few nods to “contemporary” Greek cuisine, in the form of chicken breast cooked with Chios Mastiha, which was actually pretty good. </div><div class="MsoNormal">The classics are competent: the rooster was a little dry but flavorful. The duck a l’orange was retro even in its plating, with rice and steamed vegetables. A green salad livened up with avocado, grapes, and sesame seeds was good. A plate of German-style sausages may not have a place much longer in the hostile-takeover atmosphere of Athens circa 2011! </div><div class="MsoNormal">The atmosphere is worth indulging in more than any plate we had. Dinner is still served with a serenade or two, performed with dramatic flair by the singer of the house and her two-man band. The walls are filled with pictures of a Greece in more innocent times, when people still danced in the aisles and on the tables and when the boundaries between common folk and the country’s rich and famous were not separated by barbed-wire and infra-red cameras. Around 1 a.m. the owner, with a group of friends, started crooning along with the singer. The repertoire seems to be religiously devoted to the music of Hatzidakis. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Despite the less-than-stellar food, we spent a most pleasant evening here basking in the retro glow of happier times for this beleaguered country. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Magemenos Avlos, Amynta 4, Pangrati</div><div class="MsoNormal">Tel. 210 72 23 195</div><div class="MsoNormal">Prices: 35 – 40 euro a person</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-81059153055967353922011-06-12T08:06:00.000-07:002011-06-12T08:06:49.156-07:00ThaMa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thama is Greek dialect for miracle. The miracle of sorts that Thama represents is a Greek-crisis-born trend, the arrival of which has long been overdue: the mushrooming of reasonably priced, nicely appointed neighborhood restaurants with good, decent, even interesting, food.</div><div class="MsoNormal">If you’re willing to take a metro ride to the Nomismatokopeio station, about 10<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>minutes from Syntagma, you might want to venture here. Thama is virtually next to the station. </div><div class="MsoNormal">There’s a bonified chef in Thama’s kitchen, and he draws much of his inspiration from the southern Peloponnese, land of citrus, olive oil, olives, and more, which happens to be the owners’ birthplace. The region’s legendary olive groves, sprouting of sheer rock in an almost lunar landscape, are what have given inspiration to the simple, pared down décor here, too. Each table is decorated with an olive branches. A few potted trees hold court in the corner. The décor is plain and the lighting maybe a tad too bright, especially for evening meals. </div><div class="MsoNormal">At Thama, despite the fact that it’s really “just” a neighborhood restaurant, the plating is artful and the flavors marks above average. One plate we liked a lot were the stuffed eggplant. Don’t imagine a drooling imam bayaldi (eggplant halves overflowing with ground meat sauce). Here, stuffed eggplant comes cut like cups and filled with chunky, shredded, aromatic braised beef. Four pieces stand tall on beautiful, long plates. A broccoli “soufflé” comes served in small, individual terrines. The vegetable’s herbaceous character comes through loud and clear. A baked potato stuffed with cheese would win the hearts of any tater fan. It is literally dripping with a variety of Greek cheeses. Zucchini fritters were a little starchy, maybe because the vegetable was out of season in early spring, when we visited, and so a little more watery than normal. Mixed with flour, this turns to gum. The flavor, redolent of mint and other herbs, was good. There is also a host of regional, s. Peloponnese dishes to try here, from the tomato omelet, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kagianas</i>, to the grilled Kalamata sausage to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">babanatsa,</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EL;"> </span></i>a local barley rusk salad. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Main courses were a little less focused. I liked the veal cutlet with feta sauce, although presentation-wise it was tired (plain rice). </div><div class="MsoNormal">A chocolate tart was as thick as fudge and came served with caramel ice cream.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thama, Mesogeion 242, Holargos</div><div class="MsoNormal">Tel.: 211 013 9951</div><div class="MsoNormal">Prices: 20 – 30 euro<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><!--EndFragment--> </div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-68341130348306034352011-06-12T03:54:00.000-07:002011-06-12T03:54:04.006-07:00Fishalida<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Optimism in Greece is in short supply these days, so visiting a new restaurant filled with hope (and people) was refreshing to say the least. Fishalida is one such place.<br />
The recipe for “success” at this new fish restaurant in Pangrati is as old as the hills: Location, location, location (very centrally located at a short walk from the Hilton and the Evangelismos Metro stop); a bright, original, and inviting interior that communicates lightheartedness; a good relationship between price and quality and a menu filled with playful, tasty dishes created by two young chefs.<br />
The space is done up in shades of sea blues and coral, with funky lighting fixtures, bubble motifs and a general, all-around, happy feel.<br />
As the name implies, the fruits of the sea fill the bowl here. We loved the house-marinated anchovies, plated to resemble a star, crisp and clean in flavor and perfectly toothsome in texture, the result of having spent just the right amount of time in salt and vinegar to “cook” without toughening up. The grilled bread, aka bruschetta, topped with crabmeat was simple and cutsy. The taramosalata was excellent: silky, sharp, balanced with proper acidity. I loved the smoked mackerel and lentil appetizer, cooled by a bed of raw, shredded, marinated zucchini. The combo of beans and smoked or grilled fish or seafood is one that has been evolved over the last few years here as chefs look to tradition but also to contemporizing the classics. A squid-ink risotto with strips of cuttlefish was delicious and bravely black. A heap of fried tiny Simi-island shrimp was as easy to eat as popcorn at the movies. Other specialties include retty damn good Greek fries, sun-dried octopus, and aromatic tsipouro (Greek fire water) from Thessaly.<br />
Fishalida: 2 Naiadon & Antinoros street<br />
Tel.: +30 210 723 4551<br />
E-mail: fishalida@gmail.com<br />
Website: http://www.fishalida.gr<br />
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</div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-21475021328297787722011-03-01T08:38:00.000-08:002011-03-01T08:40:10.032-08:00Skoufias<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPml2fcm96oH90ZHApN9kjUh4RtfJaNoJKHaSOn3XGhYFUBtB9fN5R8Jqh0gOFybRduuqhS6O4rfip7Df84DI32p35eYdQXzsmc3OabZHYoZN4SG7DUjdVP4yPA1QXHASpKJGfX_L4BCz-/s1600/tomatoes+red+and+yellow_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPml2fcm96oH90ZHApN9kjUh4RtfJaNoJKHaSOn3XGhYFUBtB9fN5R8Jqh0gOFybRduuqhS6O4rfip7Df84DI32p35eYdQXzsmc3OabZHYoZN4SG7DUjdVP4yPA1QXHASpKJGfX_L4BCz-/s320/tomatoes+red+and+yellow_a.jpg" width="213" /></a>The vicinity of the new Benaki Museum, on Piraios Street in Redi, an old, industrial part of Athens that is slowly being gentrified, is still a gastronomic no man's land. After a recent visit to the museum, to see the work of the Greek architect Pikionis (he designed, among other things, the stone pathway leading up to the Acropolis), we ended up at Skoufias, a traditional taverna right across the street.<br />
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Skoufias has good energy. Young but traditional, filled with old and new chachkas and contemporary Greek art, it has just the right artsy feel for an apres museum outing. The menu, hand-written in a traditional school notebook, is simple. Most familiar dishes have a twist.<br />
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Out of six salads, we tried two, the potato salad with oranges, inspired by the use of oranges in the southern Peloponnese region of the Mani, and the Mesogeiaki (Mediterranean), basically a slaw with yogurt dressing, the main difference being that the cabbage was cut in large, unwieldy strips that were hard to pierce with a fork and even harder to fit in your mouth! A plate of dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) was of the vegetarian kind, stuffed with rice, raisins and pine nuts and served "yalantzi" --with yogurt. They were tender, flavorful, and good. The fava, a puree of yellow split peas, was nothing out of the ordinary. It is served cold, which I have a pet peeve about. Grilled pleurotus mushrooms were simple and competent, while the pita kaisarias, a buttery (quite so) mass of phyllo pastry, pastourma, tomatoes, and kasseri cheese was a little laden, but the combination is always seductive to me. A prasotigania (pork and leeks cooked in a small skillet) was a little tough.<br />
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Main courses were simple and competent, with nothing stellar to recall. A pork loin stuffed with peppers and feta and wrapped in grape leaves was a little dry; the salmon with eggplant cream, a special the day we went and a take on the classic Anatolian Greek dish, hounkiar begendi, typically made with lamb or beef, suffered from an overly sour eggplant cream that knocked the flavor balance off kilter.<br />
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The atmosphere, lively, urban and artsy, is definitely more of a reason to try this fun little place than is the actual food.<br />
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Dessert was a totally over scoop of kaimaki ice cream (flavored with mastiha) and spoonfuls of the Greek sour cherry preserve, vyssino.<br />
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Skoufias, Megalou Vasileiou 50, Rouf<br />
Tel. 210 341 2252<br />
Prices: 17 - 22 euro per person with wine<br />
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</div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-48489032334807684862011-02-23T07:32:00.000-08:002011-02-23T07:32:32.138-08:00Flavours of Northern Greece: FLAVOURS OF NORTHERN GREECE: A CULINARY JOURNEY<a href="http://greekcookingtour.blogspot.com/2011/02/flavours-of-norther-greece-culinary.html?spref=bl">Flavours of Northern Greece: FLAVOURS OF NORTHERN GREECE: A CULINARY JOURNEY</a>: "Wine Roads of Northern Greece: An 8-Day Culinary Journey Greek Food Guru Diane Kochilas and Greek Food Blogger Peter Minakis (a.k.a. Kalofa..."DineOutAthenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05159984676313769493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-53233154044218674192011-02-09T07:05:00.001-08:002011-02-10T09:23:51.710-08:00Adamo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhBT-ETVuEenPbirOm1RDSwxXQ-5LfQD1Aizb_MgzNcmnue4pyEIJHTfkDlFEeR8vwbD5OiTfdkZO_v406cjlHoxyevMv5t2bV9hj8dOKptU2Xraa6ez1HZxchhrJ_VUmw0bIAFqlgqQf/s1600/Italy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhBT-ETVuEenPbirOm1RDSwxXQ-5LfQD1Aizb_MgzNcmnue4pyEIJHTfkDlFEeR8vwbD5OiTfdkZO_v406cjlHoxyevMv5t2bV9hj8dOKptU2Xraa6ez1HZxchhrJ_VUmw0bIAFqlgqQf/s1600/Italy.gif" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Anyone who wants to get a sense for how the well-to-do party, Greek style, should take a cab ride about 6 km (4 miles) north of central Athens to the suburb of Neo Psychico. Here you’ll find the chichiest shops and some of the city’s most crowded restaurants, cafes and bars. On the main strip jutting out from the big A/B (pronounced Alpha-Beta) supermarket everything from traditional fare to Sino-Greek fusion, to Italian food can be samples. My last visit here was to the newest addition, Adamo, a bustling be-everything-to-everyone place that is part cigar bar, part café, part enoteca, and part restaurant. It sits in a space once occupied by Dioskouroi, in its heyday a very well-known Greek taverna. We sat in the quietest spot in the restaurant, at the one table inside the glass-enclosed cava, but it was still hard to hear my neighbor.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Adamo is for ears more resilient than mine, or maybe for diners who also don’t mind donning ear plugs. Is it worth the trek north for this? Probably not. Better, much better, Italian food can be found downtown. </div><div class="MsoNormal">All the classics are on the menu, from carpaccio of bresaola, to the married-forever duo of prosciutto and mozzarella (buffalo), to vitello tonnato. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Most of what we tried was a little heavy-handed; much of it was drenched in oil. A plate of grilled vegetables with thyme vinairette and buffalo-milk mozzarella was denser and wetter than it needed to be. Vegetables grilled included red peppers, zucchini, and carrots. I would have tried the scallop (fresh from the Aegean, but where? Are scallops a native of Greek waters?) carpaccio with truffles, but a 93 euro price tag prevented me ordering it (as a starter BTW). I love vitello tonnato, but skipped it here, mainly because my dining companions opted instead for a few risotti and more. An appetizer of hot radicchio stuffed with mozzarella, prosciutto, parmesan, and arugula, dressed in the all-powerful balsamic turned out to be better than expected, the pleasant bitterness of the vegetable playing nicely against the sweet, almost syrupy consistency of the dressing. </div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s hard to go wrong with the intoxicating aromas of a truffle risotto, even if it is a bit played out. This one was competent. So was the Milanese risotto, if a bit staid and run of the mill. (It happened that I had just tasted another one, at the new Fuga near the Athens Music Hall, which was ethereal.) The tagliata with greens come served on a sizzling hot plate. The meat was a little tough. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Desserts included a tiramisu, a chocolate soufflé, and a lemon tart. Everything here was designed to be a risk-free collection of classics that satisfies the average Joe, even if he’s driving a Porsche Cayenne. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Dim. Vasileiou 16, Neo Psychiko</div><div class="MsoNormal">Tel. 210 671 3997</div><div class="MsoNormal">Prices: 35 – 50 euro a person </div></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-44113202554421956172011-02-09T07:04:00.001-08:002011-02-10T09:27:17.349-08:00Efimeron<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">There are very few real neighborhood places in Athens, hang outs where office types congregate after work for a beer or a glass of wine and something to nibble on. Efimeron is one such place, located right around the corner from the brand new Onassis cultural center, Stegi Grammaton & Technon (Center for Letters and the Arts).</div><div class="MsoNormal">Efimeron remonds me wholeheartedly of a Parisian tabac. It’s smoky, there is a large catalogue of cocktails, wines, and beers to choose from, and the food, although simple, is a lot better than I anticipated. Of course, you can also just sit and enjoy a coffee, at prices much less than those at the Ledra Marriott across the way. Its location is a boon, since all around the neighborhood, up and down Syngrou Avenue, office buildings crowd the streets. </div><div class="MsoNormal">If you’re here for breakfast, indulge in an omelet; for lunch a decent club sandwich might be the thing; for that time in between lunch and a typical Greek dinner (never before 10 p.m.) there is a fair amount to pick from. </div><div class="MsoNormal">A chicken salad with croutons, parmesan, bacon and cherry tomatoes was a little leaden thanks to a syrupy dressing. But the portion was generous enough to be called a main course. The beef (is it really veal, as stated) burgers, biftekakia in Greek, are pretty good and pretty juicy. A pasta with salmon surprised us. It was prepared with whole wheat pasta, for one, a rarity on restaurant or snack bar menus. There was no cream in the sauce. And the fish, smoked salmon, was plentiful. </div><div class="MsoNormal">We shared a bottle of Palivou rosé, with a luscious body and plenty of texture, and we reveled in a scene unfolding where 30-somethings unwound after a tough day at the office. This was a sliver of Athens I had never really known. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Efimeron, Evridamantos Street 15</div><div class="MsoNormal">Neos Kosmos</div><div class="MsoNormal">Tel. 210 9324414</div><div class="MsoNormal">Prices: 15 – 20 euro per person</div></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-51338399468472110872011-02-09T07:03:00.001-08:002011-02-10T09:29:37.659-08:00Valentina<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This is about the defrocking of a cult hero!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">About 20 years ago, when we first moved to Athens, Valentina, in the boondocks of Kallithea, a working class neighborhood that is home to many of the most recent Greek immigrants from the farthest reaches of the former Soviet Union, used to be the place we escaped to for real food from one of Greece’s least known regional diaspora populations, the Rossopontioi (Greeks from the Black Sea). The place was refreshingly unadorned. Décor consisted of just a plain glass exterior, white curtains, a few chatchkas, and busty older blonds with mile-high twists of hair sipping tall glasses of vodka and Fanta. Their better halves smoked stinky cigarettes. Borscht, garlicky carrot salad, meat-stuffed cabbage leaves, and the best skewered meat in Athens were among the dishes we flocked here for. Driving to Valentina 20 years ago was an experience that combined food and social anthropology. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Then the place burnt down, suspiciously. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Then its owner and his family rebuilt it. The new, improved version was really just an updated rendition of immigrant bland, without any real character, less so than before, actually. The menu remained exactly the same.</div><div class="MsoNormal">That could have been a good thing, except that when you have fond taste memories of unique food, a 10-plus-year lapse requires either a leap of faith or a fall into the simmering hostilities of gustatory disappointment. We had the latter and came home with our memories bruised. </div><div class="MsoNormal">The shredded carrot salad with a watered down mayo dressing was so garlicky it repeated on me for two days. The “rossiki”—a Russian-style potato salad that has long been popular in Greece—consisted of, well, chunks of boiled potatoes. Frozen peas dethawed and cooked, carrots and mayonnaise. Like much else, it fell flat on this palate. The pelmeni are like raviolis but with absolutely no finesse. They must buy them frozen and cook them straight from the freezer. The flavor was totally flat and the meat inside popped out like little knobs with the slightest touch of the fork. Blinis, basically crepes, filled with a sour creamy cheese, were the best starch-cheese combo by far. I ordered a bowl of Smetana, which is a silky yogurt dip, to go with the lamb kebab, called saslik. Saslik is also made with turkey (a new addition to the menu) and with pork. It was pretty good. The meat marinates for a long time before it hits the grill on long metal skewers. When served it comes topped with ample shavings of raw red onion and a sprinkling of cayenne. </div><div class="MsoNormal">The garlic in everything haunted me for days afterwards. The meal left me feeling heavy and dense, with none of the ethereal pleasures I had remembered from Valentina’s more youthful days almost two decades ago. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Lykourgou Street 235, Kallithea </div><div class="MsoNormal">Tel. 210-9431871</div><div class="MsoNormal">Prices: 14-18 euro per person</div></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-67676597687508958322011-02-09T07:02:00.001-08:002011-02-09T07:02:41.724-08:00KOUZINA Breeze Cafe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Restaurant finds are a rare thing in Athens. The kind of places you simply stumble upon that turn out to be great are few and far between. Breeze Café is one such place.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Situated on the lower plaza in the Agia Paraskevi suburb (a place that once was home to Athens’ very first pizzaria), Breeze Café serves forth haute Greek cooking at affordable prices, turned out by one of the city’s most talented young chefs, Gikas Xenakis, who did a stint at the Michelin-starred Spondi. The venue itself might confuse a casual passerby at first. It looks like all the other “all-day” cafes on the strip, with an outer wall of movable glass that opens in summer and a very casual aura. In fact it is open all day, for coffee and snacks, but at night it morphs into a fine dining restaurant. There is a bit of a disconnect between the quality of the food and the energy of the space, but the owners are moving along with some design changes to sync the room and the menu more harmoniously. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Our first plate was a gorgeous “millefeuille” of Portobello<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>mushrooms and goat’s cheese, stacked over a thin pool of fire-engine red (but sweet) pepper sauce. An ersatz pizza-tart came loaded with whole small roasted tomatoes, prosciutto in billowy folds, boccancini balls and arugula, a peasant dish that went upwardly mobile without losing its soul. I loved the special of the day: squid cut into disks that were meant to look like scallops and did, served over a carrot foam and on two small tasty dollops of roasted eggplant salad. The chef plays with a pan-Mediterranean palette. Paella is on the menu, in spirit if not in form. Here it is made with orzo not Valencia rice, but all the right flavors are there, right down to the think rounds of chorizo that add a land-lubber’s richness to the shrimp and baby squid. It was wonderful. Ditto on a rabbit dish that came deconstructed and rebuilt in two ways: as a fritter, all crunchy and golden on the outside, and as two lobes of tender white rabbit meat served in an orange sauce over soft, comforting, cooked wheat. The ossobuco won me over, too, but for one thing. For some reason, Athenian chefs like to serve this hero’s cut without the bone, losing all sense of drama in its presentation. Xenakis serves the meat, which is meltingly tender, over a bed of polenta. The dish is delicious but its presentation is literally flat. </div><div class="MsoNormal">I loved the acidic, puckish lemon curd tart but could have done without strawberies in January. The tiramisu was topsy-turvy in a martini glass, rich, aristocratic, and velvety. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Breeze Café is a little out of the way for the average visitor in a downtown hotel, but now with the metro stop a few minutes away, it’s easy to get to and well worth it. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Dinner here costs somewhere around 40 euros, most of the time with wine, too. It would be double that if this place were downtown. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Agiou Ioannou 102, Agia Paraskevi </div><div class="MsoNormal">Tel. 210 6009092.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Prices: 35-45 euro per person </div><!--EndFragment--> </div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-53072458877985503372011-02-09T07:01:00.000-08:002011-02-09T07:01:34.178-08:00Askimopapo (The Ugly Duckling)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">How could Frank Bruni, the New York Times’ former restaurant critic, miss the ugly duckling, which is what Askimopapo translates to, when he wrote a recent roundup of traditional Athenian tavernas? Indeed, Askimopapo is one of this city’s oldest holes in the wall, located in one of its oldest neighborhoods, together with a handful of other traditional tavernas and a slew of newer, sleaker places. It’s so old it’s a kind of temple to Athens of another era.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Askimopapo wreaks of history. The taverna was opened by the current owner’s father and was actually the original family home. The walls are covered with old Greek objects, from musical instruments to 50-year-old black and white photos. Braids of garlic hang from the rafters. Smells of traditional food waft from the kitchen.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The taverna interpretation of “tradition” unfortunately means almost nothing but meat, which always struck me as odd, given Greece’s wealth of main course vegetable dishes. On weekends, the specialty of the house is chick pea soup. We visited midweek, when the menu is scaled back to include about five or six main course meat dishes (mainly stews), a few salads, a phyllo pie or two, usually with cheese, and boiled greens. </div><div class="MsoNormal">We sampled a cheese and pasturma pie, called pita kaisarias, which glistened with butter and resonated with the spicy flavors of the cured beef (pasturma). A beef stew in paper was homey and comforting. The salad, a large, overflowing platter of grated carrot, cabbage, lettuces, arugula and more, was just right. Dessert was the taverna classic halva, the lagniappe almost all old-school holes in the wall like this treat their customers to when the meal is over. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Wines are bulk and served in quarter and half liter carafes. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Ionon 61 Petralona</div><div class="MsoNormal">Tel. 210 346 3282</div><div class="MsoNormal">Note: The taverna is about a 12 minute cab ride from central Athens. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment--> </div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-39910135488109937212011-01-24T13:19:00.000-08:002011-02-10T09:16:21.022-08:00Greek Diples - Fried Dough with Honey. Yum!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHLI85cnHLD2pw4GSm3LTaVBvsbl89LASMzzwtqKrHGf5twCPxT7TIcjVXAt_J0fKO-FLK386ahgzriRzC0LLQ20mQD58N6gK6EHYZiui1x59KDT54mh1N-eAkpH6xw2zSbIKrMEM2_64F/s1600/may+2010+%252820%2529.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHLI85cnHLD2pw4GSm3LTaVBvsbl89LASMzzwtqKrHGf5twCPxT7TIcjVXAt_J0fKO-FLK386ahgzriRzC0LLQ20mQD58N6gK6EHYZiui1x59KDT54mh1N-eAkpH6xw2zSbIKrMEM2_64F/s320/may+2010+%252820%2529.jpg" style="clear: both; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0;" /></a><br />
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<div style="clear: both; text-align: LEFT;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; border: 0px none; padding: 0px;" /></a></div></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-70058405698979545572011-01-21T09:53:00.000-08:002011-01-21T09:54:21.084-08:00FUGA<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">This business of reviewing restaurants usually sounds more glamorous than it is. Most of the time, people who eat for a living end up eating a lot of very mediocre meals and a few very good ones in any given year. This year, 2011, got off to a great start for me with a visit to Athens’ newest haute dining spot, Fuga, which belongs to the Athens Concert Hall and is perched on the top of the hill right behind Hall.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Getting up there is either a climb or an elevator ride through the labyrinthine catacombs beneath the Concert Hall. When you finally find your way, the room, simply and elegantly appointed in wood and glass, makes you feel somehow light. It’s the view, of course, overlooking Athens, the modern city. At night, with the Athenian hills silhouetted in the background, and lights flickering everywhere, it’s easy to forget this is the same Athens of suffocating strikes and civil strife. Gravure-like projections of classical composers and a gravure-like wall remind us, like its name, a play on fugue, is part of the grand Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis in Greek). </p> <p class="MsoNormal">For a time, before coming, I had a fixed idea that this very iconic space overlooking moderns Athens needed to serve modern Greek food. That was before I sipped the first taste of a warm carrot soup studded with rosemary croutons and indulged wholeheartedly in one of the most delicious meals I have had in a long time here. The chef, Pantaleo de Pinto, is a protégé of 2-star Michelin chef Andre Berton. The food achieved a level of artfulness rarely seen in this city while maintaining its earthy Mediterranean roots. Much on Fuga’s menu is a paean to Italian classics, but<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>nothing wehad was even remotely cliché, either in presentation or flavor. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I feared the buffalo milk mozzarella-tomato-basil trio would be pedestrian, since this dish now belongs to the rank of international food. What arrived at our table was a visual garden of delights: mozzarella, tender and milky, cut into small wheels, each one with a tasty core of jelled tomato. The basil sauce spread out like a star beneath the rolls. A sprouting of lettuce and other tender salad leaves at the top gave the dish the aura of a flower that had just bloomed. The whole thing was very subtle and soothing on the palate. The warm cod ad steamed vegetable salad had an entirely different composition. This came like a game board with pieces of zucchini, broccoli and more upright on the plate, softened by bite-sized chunks of perfectly salted fresh cod. We poured a little more olive oil over it, morphing it into a more “Greek” dish that way. The vitello tonato, so often heavy handed and stodgy, was another salute to the breeziness that the room itself inspires, despite the earth-water duet on the plate. The veal came in two rounds of perfectly cooked, very tender loins, crunchy with a bit of sea salt; the tonato was a dollop of sauce on the plate. One caper berry had to suffice for the two of us (I got it!). Strips of crisped celery were woven into a stack on the plate. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">All the starches beckoned to be sampled, so we had to chose: the rigatoni Amatriciana and the classic risotto Milanese. Both were superb. The risotto, served in a shallow bowl with a wide lip, was the color of wet marigolds, swirled with veal juice which added a discernible depth of flavor (not that the risotta wasn’t rich and perfectly al dente to begin with). The Amatriciana was playful: served forth with each piece of perfectly cooked rigatoni upright in a filled circle on the plate, wrapped in sauce, with three strips of crisped pancetta, all pink and white stripes, jutting out like flags. I wish there were more pasta on the plate, especially for the 18 euro price tag, because it was delicious.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We shared a main course, the osso buco, which comes osso-less! Oddly, I thought this was the weakest dish because deboning deflated the anticipation of drama that is inherent in more typical presentations. The potato puree that accompanies the osso buco is something I aspire to in my own kitchen: so smooth it’s almost liquid, but with not even a hint of gumminess. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Next, came dessert: the panna cota is a study in contradictions but opposites, after all, attract. The cream was silky with evident body, served in a parfait-like glass, and topped with a crunchy granita of frozen espresso. I couldn’t get enough of either. In the chocolate pave I thought the contrasts were a little untamed, the dense opulence of a delicious chocolate ganache whipped by a very tart mango sorbet. I wanted more harmony. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">One detail that remained with me all night: just as heels do make a woman’s legs prettier, so do proper plates give an aesthetic boost to the food. Fuga’s plates are all white and expansive but in a way that embraces each dish. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Kudos. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Athens Area: Centrally located, just above the Megaron Mousikis (Athens Concert Hall) </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Décor: Expansive and uplifting, with a great view of the modern city below </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Service: Excellent </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Wine List: Italian, French and Greek wines dominate the list </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Prices: 50-70 euro without wine. Our bill for two came to 171 euro with a bottle of Ktima Merkouri, one of the least expensive (Greek) reds on the list. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">AddressL Vas. SOfias & Kokkali 1, Central Athens </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Tel. 210 7242979</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Open daily from 8 p.m. til midnight</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-68960710881820767602011-01-17T03:47:00.000-08:002011-01-17T03:47:42.415-08:00Jimmy and the Fish<link href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CDiane%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><o:smarttagtype downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/" name="PlaceName" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/" name="PlaceType" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype downloadurl="http://www.5iamas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype downloadurl="http://www.5iamas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/" name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><style>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15.8333px; font-weight: normal;">Right after Easter and a week of languishing on the <st1:placetype st="on">Island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">Longevity</st1:placename> (Ikaria) I came back to <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Athens</st1:place></st1:city> still in vacation mode. I wanted to bask in the feeling of being a tourist in my adopted city, so, together with family freshly arrived from abroad, we headed to the trap of all tourists, Mikrolimano, and to an old standard bearer of sea-view cuisine, Jimmy and the Fish. This, of course, after driving past more than a few waiters with menus in their hand, out on the traffic-clogged quay, saying things like “Fis [sic] for giou]” and “kam een, ouee park.” The parking, it turns out, is a cooperative affair shared between all the restaurants along the water, since the guy who took my keys asked me which restaurant I’d be at. One thing I was glad for: we were the only “tourists” at Jimmy’s. Everyone else seemed as Greek as could be, folks who know the place, might be regulars, and come not only the view of docks and yachts but also for more than decent food in a place that’s survived the waves for nearly two decades.</span></h1>
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Jimmy doesn’t serve up the most innovative fish cuisine in town (that’s the domain of stars like Varoulko and <st1:place st="on">Milos</st1:place>); rather it serves up an accessible menu of greatest hits that pair well with gregarious conversation and a good bottle of Mantineia Tselepou, which is what we had with dinner. The menu is big and most of the fish offerings are frozen, but at least they are honest about it. The starters include a wide array of classics, such as marinated anchovies (gavros), sea urchin salad, seafood salad, grilled octopus, classic feta-stuffed squid and more. We tried the classic fried squid, which were fresh not frozen that day and very good—crunchy thanks to a thick batter coating and very tender within. They come served with remoulade. One non-fish thing we sampled was actually not that great, even though it’s simple enough to make: grilled pleurotus mushrooms. They had a slightly bitter aftertaste and were a little rubbery. But the grillman did a great job on the fresh sardines, butterflied and boned and served with a generous topping of slightly charred onions. I can eat that any time. </div>
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Two cooked dishes we tried were above average but far from haute: the risotto with saffron, salmon roe (brik) and langoustines was toothsome and too fluffy to be thought of as a proper risotto, more pilaf than risotto to these taste buds. The ravioli stuffed with seafood and ricotta was better and more comforting, recalling memories of fun meals in nonseaside locales like <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>’s Little Italy. The portion was very generous, the filling tasty, the sauce a little too thick but not bad. </div>
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Here ended our cruise of Jimmy’s menu, without a dock stop at the panacotta, brownies, tarte tatin or crème brulee that are in the dessert section of the menu. </div>
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The service here is a little gruff, the waiters a little rough around the edges without being outright rude though, kind of like sailors on their best behavior in some exotic port of call. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13.1944px; font-weight: normal;">Cuisine: Fish and Seafood</span></h1>
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<o:p>Athens Area: Mikrolimano, Piraeus, about 40 minutes from downtown</o:p></div>
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<o:p>Decor: Maritime classic with a great view of the sea and fancy yachts</o:p></div>
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<o:p>Service: A little rough around the edges</o:p></div>
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<o:p>Wine list: Greek and reasonably priced</o:p></div>
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<o:p>Prices: 45-55 euro a person</o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.1944px;">Address: Koumoundourou 46, Mikrolimano, <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Piraeus</st1:place></st1:city></span></div>
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Tel: 210 412 4417</div>
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Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-81813821103381898872011-01-17T02:40:00.000-08:002011-01-17T02:41:14.997-08:00Kiku<br />
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I know it might seem out of sync with the times to be writing about one of the city’s most expensive restaurants, but I can justify it by saying that we ate very well and voted for treating ourselves during the holidays to something a little chicer than a neighborhood taverna.</div>
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A night out at Kiku, in the hands of master sushi chef Τανάκα Μινόρου, who has been with the restaurant since its inception more than a decade ago, is the guarantee a lovely meal, filled with classics and not-so-classics of Japanese cuisine.</div>
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The restaurant hasn’t changed much since it opened, despite a recent change of hands. The same pared down, minimalistic design in basic beiges and blacks characterizes the space. The sushi bar is still a favorite place to sit. Even the waitstaff is more or less the same. I hadn’t been here in years but recognized the waiter.</div>
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Everything we sampled was beautifully and artfully presented, starting with a simple plate of edamame (soy beans) and fleur de sel. The miso soup had finesse, too. I loved the totally over-the-top Sino-French concoction known as Hakko Unagi Foie Gras, a delectable combination of smoked eel and seared foie gras in the form of pressed sushi. The lavraki with spicy mayonnaise won me over, too, especially since this is usually the kind of dish I avoid on sushi menus anywhere. The assortment of sashimi (riceless pieces of raw fish) was perfect and perfectly fresh. The rolls had flavor profiles you could actually discern. The dish that sparked my interest, especially since I love a version of it made by Greek chef Christoforos Peskias at P-Box, is the eggplant with miso. It was soft and pillowy—as close to comfort food Japanese style as you can get without serving a bowl of steaming noodles. Miso works incredibly well with grilled eggplant.</div>
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Blackened cod is a de riguer dish on high end Athens sushi menus as well as on a few non-sushi menus (like Kuzina’s in Thiseon). This was very simple, well-grilled, and tender. The miso sauce worked in subtle ways here. Next, just for fun (!), we ordered the grilled rib-eye with chili sauce and kolokythakia. Rare, juicy, beautifully plated, this was a dish after my American meat-eaters heart.</div>
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Desserts were delicious, even the cliché dish of fried ice cream, which here was delicate and light. My favorite was a toss up between the sesame crème brulee and the chili-spiced warm chocolate cake.</div>
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Kiku is definitely a treat, typically for steeper pockets than mine, but I relished every bite.</div>
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Cuisine: Japanese sushi and contemporary Japanese food</div>
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Atmosphere: Subtle, civilized, elegant</div>
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Service: Excellent</div>
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Wine List: Excellent, with a good selection of Sake</div>
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Prices: 60+ euro a person</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px;">12 Dimokritou Str., Kolonaki, Athens. +30 210 3647033</span></span></div>DineOutAthenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05159984676313769493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-7317884853129908762011-01-17T01:55:00.001-08:002011-01-17T01:55:55.952-08:00Kollias Fish Taverna on Syngrou Ave.Many fish-loving Athenians have been a fan of Tassos Kollias and his heartfelt taverna in the boondocks of Piraeus. Kollias was the place to venture to for a foodie excursion: the fish was always fresh (and Greek), the meze fare excellent and convivial, the atmosphere delightfully kitch with seafarers’ chatchkas everywhere, and every meal punctuated by the neighborhood’s roving accordion and clarinet players who kept Kollias on their must-go-to list.
But Kollias has moved up in the world, to a neighborhood that is fast becoming a restaurant hotspot, thanks to the newly minted Onassis Cultural Center, on Syngrou Avenue. In the vicinity, three pricey fish tavernas already compete for business: Thalassinos, Kollias, and TTT.
His move to a grander space was bold, especially in these hard economic times. Many of his signature elements are in tact here, just redesigned: an open kitchen, a display of mezedes, and an expanded display of all the fresh, wild fish he has built his reputation on over the years. He doesn’t work with farmed fish. So, you might find a large, wild red mullet, as we did the night we went; or a bowl full of spinialo, a unique, rare preserved shellfish from the Dodecanese island of Kalymnos, that was a sponge-fishermen’s staple in the months they spent at sea. His seafarers’ chatchkas are still around, there are just fewer of them in the new space, which is light and airy, pared down, but still infused with the owner’s warm and friendly energy.
The fresh fish is amazing here. On our recent visit, about two months ago, we were privy to some rare species of Aegean fish: the tiny sparos, a kind of sea bream; Those oversized wild mullets I mentioned above, which he grilled to flaky nirvana, and a small snapper, sauteed perfectly.
His meze fare is less elegant and far less elemental than the simply prepared fish. Here, Kollias loses a bit of restraint, confusing ingredients and getting stuck on a few motifs, such as rolls. Not sushi rolls, but rolled up eggplants stuffed with mussels and cheddar, hardly a Greek combo and one that detracts from what is basically a good idea. He rolls up strips of roasted red Florina peppers, stuffing them with crabmeat, the delicacy of which gets lost under the briny flavor of the peppers. He rolls up filleted sardines and anchovies, stuffing them with herbs and various other things; These work better, especially for ouzo and tsipouro (Greek eau de vie). I loved a plate that wasn’t all rolled up: squid ink orzo with cuttlefish and pomegranate seeds. The sepia (cuttlefish) was as soft as butter.
Kollias dessert menu tends towad the overwrought, a common thread in many seafood restaurants in Athens. Syrup-infused seker pare biscuits with deliciously gummy mastiha-flavored ice cream are an all-time classic here.
Kollias: Syngrou Avenue 303, right across the street from the Onassis Heart Center
Tel: 21- 9408620
Service: Excellent
Prices: 35-55 euro a person with wine
Wine list: very good prices on a very large selection of Greek wines
Atmosphere: homey and cozy despite the size
Open for lunch on weekdaysDineOutAthenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05159984676313769493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-49839406878701096032010-12-21T04:37:00.000-08:002011-01-16T07:51:16.271-08:00To Ouzeri tou MitsouCan misery be fun? That is the question when you set out for an Italian restaurant of some repute in downtown Halandri, a well-known suburb north of Athens, on a rainy Wednesday night, after having called just a few days earlier, only to discover that in the course of 72 hours said restaurant has gone out of business. Hmm. Where to go with two girlfriends for a final tipple and some tidbits before we all separate for Christmas? It was then that I remembered the lines, out the door, indeed, on most Saturdays when I happened to pass by a tiny hole in the wall right behind the main church on restaurant row in Halandri. The place: to Ouzeri tou Mitsou, a narrow, old-fashioned taverna with old-fashioned clientele: older guys with worry beads and retsina and cigarettes clustered in small groups, a few oddly modern couples, replete with pierced body parts and tatoos and chemical hair, and then us, three young-at-heart middle-aged ladies out for an easy meal and some wine-induced cheer.<br />
<div class="yiv2039346766msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;"></span></div><div class="yiv2039346766msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I know this sounds strange, but this little ouzerie is, well, pleasantly miserable! I mean sooo simple and basic, with service and a menu to match, recalling the innocent, taverna-stuffed days of my youth. The food was fine. Decent fava (yellow split pea puree) come served warm (how to tell decent fava: it should be creamy and not pasty, and, yes, it is best served slightly warm). A classic plate of boiled zucchini came boiled to just the right point where al dente meets softness. The saganaki (fried cheese) was totally old-world style, encased in a thick batter before it hits the fryer, properly oozing within, with no extraneous “creative” additions that sometimes embellish but also sometimes mar the pure pleasure of indulging in artery-clogging food. Horta (greens) came as horta should: soft and pillowy and deep green, with a good dousing of our national treasure, olive oil, generously soaking it. Lemon on the side, of course. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;"></span></div><div class="yiv2039346766msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We had the bakaliaro skordalia (fried cod with garlic dip), which was not an abridged version! Plenty of garlic in a dense, textural bread-based skordalia (garlic dip), the old-fashioned kind. A plate of fried small shrimp that were plucked out of the waters of Evia earlier in the day or week were more medium-sized than bite-sized and so needed to be purged of their heads before eating. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;"></span></div><div class="yiv2039346766msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Mitso’s Ouzerie is a simple, rustic place, fitting, perhaps for these times, when we still want to go out, but just can’t afford to! I am beginning to long for the foamy days of yore when fava was infused with truffle oil and bakaliaros-skordalia was just a name open to interpretive cooking! </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;"></span></div><div class="yiv2039346766msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Cuisine: classics meze dishes to accompany with ouzo<br />
Athens Area: northern suburbs<br />
Decor: narrow, old-fashioned taverna, a bit rough around the edges but pleasantly retro<br />
Service: ok<br />
Prices: 12-15 euros a person<br />
Address: </span><span lang="EN-US">8, </span><span lang="EN-GB">Eleftheroton square, Halandri, tel.: 210 6840229</span></span></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-15684196800074381792010-12-21T04:26:00.000-08:002011-01-16T06:32:29.374-08:00ManiMani<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"><br />
We had guests in town and wanted to go somewhere fashionably…inexpensive. ManiMani turned up on my radar screen, a place I’ve wanted to return to after visiting it when it first opened a few years ago. I am always interested in places that showcase the cuisine of a particular region, in this case the dry, majestic southern Peloponnese, known for its exquisite olive oil, meagre but essential cooking, and tough locals.</span> <br />
<div class="yiv1786982170msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">There is definitely a lot more from the Mani on the menu today than there was a few years back. Singlino (cured pork in olive oil), talagani (a lovely grilling cheese from Messinia, in the Pelop.), various local pastas, and more are among the ingredients that crop up all over the menu. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Orange</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"> and lemon, so important in the flavor palette of the southern </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Peloponnese</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">, grace many dishes. The space, an old house near the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Acropolis</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Museum</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">, is lovely, well preserved, and simply but pleasantly appointed, the kind of space most of us can easily fantasize living in. </span></div><div class="yiv1786982170msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Despite the numerous things in its favor, ManiMani disappointed us a little. The main reason has to do with where the emphasis is in the kitchen and on the menu: making the plates look impressive but not tending as carefully as possible to the actual flavors in each dish. A trilogy of cold dips (fava (yellow split pea puree), tyrokafteri (spicy cheese dip), melitzanosalata (eggplant salad)) comes in annoyingly small portions. Ditto on the trilogy of saganakis (fried cheese), one with haloumi cheese, one with talagani cheese, one with manouri cheese. There were four of us, and it wasn’t enough to go around. Looked good, though! The homemade ravioli filled with chard, myronia(wild chervil), kafkalithres (Mediterranean hartwort) and served with feta cheese sauce seemed anemic. I expected a really flavorful filling and a pungent sauce and what I got were a few insipid half-moons barely filled with greens and a sauce where the cheese had either been left out or was so little that it was indiscernible. The greens salad with a round of grilled manouri cheese, served as an upright cylinder, looked great and tasted fine. </span></div><div class="yiv1786982170msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">We ordered three mains. The rooster with noodles was very salty, and that noted from a palate that adores salt. I liked the fried salt cod a lot, although I thought there was a little too much going on on the plate between the bed of greens and the various inter-flowing sauces in different colors. The lavraki (sea bass) with fennel cream was perfectly pan-seared, crisp and tender; the fennel cream could have had more personality. </span></div><div class="yiv1786982170msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">We skipped dessert but indulged in two bottles of wine. </span></div><div class="yiv1786982170msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">A little refinement is what ManiMani needs. If they achieve that, customers will come a-running, mani-mani (in greek this expression means quickly)…</span></div><div class="yiv1786982170msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="yiv1786982170msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Cuisine: Specialties and inspirations from the Southern Peloponnese</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Athens Area: Athens neighborhood (Acropolis metro station)</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Decor: simple, cozy, Greek</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Service: good</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Wine List: good</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Prices: 25-35 euro a person</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Address: 10, Falirou str., Koukaki, tel.: 2109218180</div></span><br />
<div class="yiv1786982170msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-58823538660698702732010-12-21T04:10:00.000-08:002011-01-16T07:16:41.031-08:00Hatskar<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-GB">Cheap but not chic, delicious but not beautiful. These are the words I’d use to describe Hatskar, a small family restaurant in the northern suburb of Maroussi that serves very good, homemade Armenian dishes. </span></span> <br />
<div class="yiv829582484msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-GB">The waiter calls out to the chef after I ask him a question: “Mama, what’s in the pasous dolma (bean-stuffed pickled cabbage)?” Mama, the chef, is a kerchief-clad, plump very good cook who personally brings over the dish. We enjoy every bit of it. </span></span></div><div class="yiv829582484msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-GB">Hatskar refers to a cross carved into wood. The restaurant is small, bright, and very plain. If there were a few cozier touches and a little less light the space would be much more pleasant and would do the food, which is delicious, justice. If it looked better, I'd even recommend a taxi ride north, for those adventurous and curious diners who want to taste the ethnic places that local love.</span></span></div><div class="yiv829582484msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-GB">The menu is filled with dishes that were new to me. For example, lahmatzoun, the paper-thin small round pies typically topped with spicy ground meat, here come in the well-known version but also in another with spinach. The hatzapouri is an open-faced cheese and yogurt pie, which was very good. I loved the garlicky ground-walnut-filled eggplant rolls, which were so filling it seemed they had meat in them. The pickled cabbage dolmades filled with mixed beans came as two large rolls in a light tomato sauce. They were very good. So was the Armenian chicken salad, with mushrooms, pomegranate seeds and walnuts, dressed in a mayonnaise sauce. It was surprisingly light. The Armenian kebab, ground meat pressed around a long skewer, came with ample raw onions and chopped tomatoes and a generous portion of the very thin flatbread that also came in the beginning, with a spicy red pepper dip. </span></span></div><div class="yiv829582484msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-GB">I don’t know if I would come back here to enjoy a lingering meal but I’d certainly order out because the food is real, homemade, delicious, and cheap. The Armenian wine we tried, Areni, wasn’t exactly the Caucasus Cabernet, as our enthusiastic waiter promised! Sip a beer instead.</span></span></div><div class="yiv829582484msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">Cuisine: tasty homemade Armenian dishes<br />
Athens Area: northern suburbs<br />
Decor: small family restaurant, bright and plain<br />
Service: ok, the waiter was very enthusiastic!<br />
Cava: ok<br />
Prices: 12-15 euros per person<br />
Address:<span lang="EN-GB"> 40, Irinis Ave., Pefki, tel.: 210-8064770, 210-6126823</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-20892260419185421582010-12-21T04:02:00.000-08:002011-01-16T07:20:48.922-08:00Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino<div class="yiv2084427581msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">If your'e near the Acropolis and wise enough to steer clear of most of the area's tourist traps, then head to this cozy little Italian place that local Athenians love. The last time I visited this restaurant was with a good girlfriend many years ago. It had just opened, she had just gotten back from </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Italy</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">, and we were both in the mood for a long talk over something easy, with good wine to match. The most recent visit was also with a good girlfriend, neither of us having just returned from pasta land, but dreaming about going.</span></div><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino, right around the corner from the Acropolis train stop, is the perfect restaurant for the times: very reasonably priced, warm and cozy, just the right size, relatively quiet, with a menu that is mostly pasta and other favorite Italian fare. Why doesn’t anyone every get tired of eating Italian food? </span></div><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">The waitress is also the owner, a sweet, enthusiastic guide to the best things on the menu. The service was a tad slow. “Everything is made to order,” was the excuse. Everything we ordered was worth waiting for: An interesting bruschetta (grilled bread) topped with mozzarella, anchovies, tomatoes, oregano and olive oil, worked, despite what I thought might be disparate ingredients; the curly red lettuce salad with fresh mushrooms came embellished deliciously with pine nuts, raisins, parmesan and a tasty dressing; The spaghetti with olive oil, garlic and pepper was perfectly seasoned, a simple dish that speaks tomes about the good Mediterranean Diet, with just the right amount of heat to satisfy this spice-loving palate. My dining companion went for one of the specials, spaghetti like me but with a delicious sauce made with salt cod and tomatoes. Dessert was a choice of classics like tiramisu and crème brulee and more. We opted for a light, lovely lemon cream, the perfect end to an easy, comfortable dinner. Wines: the list is small and well-priced, with a handful of good Italian wines, too, including a Valpolicella and a Barbera d’Alba. We went with the restaurant’s own bottled </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Nemea, a classic red from the Peloponnese, which was just fine. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Cuisine: mostly pasta</span></div><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Athens Area: downtown Athens (Acropolis metro station)</span></div><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Décor: Cozy, a little dark</span></div><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Service: Friendly but a little slow</span></div><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Cava: Small but good</span></div><div class="yiv2084427581msonormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Prices: 25-35 euro a person</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Would I come back: Si, si, si</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;">Address: 13, Porinou str., Makrygianni, tel.:</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt;"> 2109211801</span></div></span>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-71009550009969804242010-11-17T06:12:00.000-08:002011-01-16T06:33:06.542-08:00Varoulko<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><b><br />
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<div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">Crisis time may not be the ideal season for visiting one of </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">Greece</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">’s finest and priciest restaurants, Varoulko, but a friend was taking me to dinner and offered to take me there. How could I say no? It had, indeed, been several years since I had savored the foods of one of my favorite chefs, Lefteris Lazarou. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">Lazarou has stayed steady by Varoulko, the restaurant he began as a small, humble fish place in the boondocks of Piraeus and elevated to a temple of haute seafood cuisine, moving the restaurant once within Piraeus and then again during the Athens boom years to the Hotel Iridanos on Piraeus Street. Now, in addition to his role as chef, he has become the avuncular presence on one of this food season’s spate of food tv shows, Master Chef. The guests even try to emulate him in their own cooking “styles”. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">TV has done him good, businesswise. On a Monday night, typically the toughest restaurant night in any city, Varoulko was packed and the crowd was decidedly casual, with more than a few 30-somethings in T-shirts. Is this the power of TV boosting business? I would think so.</span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">The food, as always, was accomplished and refined and clearly portrayed a chef at the height of his technical skills. Some things worked better for me than others. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">The first dish looked like a minimalist painting and paean to feminine-masculine balance: a neat straight row of overlapping slices of golden, fresh botargo on the left side of the dish countered the soft vanilla-cream sphere, roasted tomato bed and parmesan cracker on the right. Despite its beauty, for me the components seemed like mere neighbors with no real relation to one another. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">The next dish though was redeeming and it was Absolute Lazarou at his Absolute Best: fish soup. Not just any fish soup but an intensely flavored dark reddish brown “essence” of the sea that came even more alive when you swirled a thin phyllo cigar into it and tasted the saffron cream in the bowl’s center. It was delicious and a siren’s call to his more sensual food of meals past. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">Next came another great-to-look at dish that also had notes from the past but of a different order. Years ago, when the chef was cooking one summer near the marina in Piraeus, I sat in awe as he presented me with delicate strips of filleted sardine that had been adhered to a thin slice of bread and fried to perfection, all this served with eggplant cream. It’s a dish I’ve seen reverberate all over the city by others, but found it again on his current menu albeit “gourmet-ified.” Bream replaced the sardines, the eggplant cream stayed on, and the whole thing was tied together, sort of, with a raspberry sauce. It was great to look at but a little odd. I am not a great fan of confusing dessert flavors with savory flavors, but I know this is a trend now. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">We loved the fish keftedes with Lazarou’s barbecue sauce, a fun, easy, comfortable dish that countered the austerity of some of the other plates. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">Our meal ended with another redrawing of the boundaries between sweet and savory. Dessert. This was a delicious, smooth, richly flavored chocolate olive oil mousse with vanilla ice cream, served with a very salty cracker and an arugula leaf. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;">Maybe I just didn’t get it. </span></div><div class="yiv19155678msonormal" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Cuisine: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">creative haute cuisine (fish and seafood) by a well-known chef</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"><br />
Athens Area: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">Athens neighborhood</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"><br />
Prices: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">60-80 euros per person</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"><br />
Address: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">80,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">Pireos str.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">tel.: 2105228400</span></span></span></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-89362848118763509632010-11-17T05:49:00.000-08:002011-01-17T03:53:00.942-08:00Ta Tria Asteria (Three Stars)<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><br />
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">I had almost forgotten the pleasures of a good kebab—not something I, personally, indulge in too often—until a recent visit to one of Athens’ oldest (and best) kebab places, Ta Tria Asteria, reminded me of how delicious one could be. I remember first visiting this place, on Plastira</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">square in Nea Smyrni, sometime around the mid 1980s. That a restaurant can change generational hands from parents to kids, renovate so that it looks young and fresh and modern, and yet serve forth the same high-quality food consistently well for more than two decades is a feat worth lauding. I can only think of a very few such restaurants in </span><span lang="EN-US">Athens</span><span lang="EN-US">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">No surprise then that the place was packed. Despite that, the service was excellent, so much so that, when we got lost after making a wrong turn in the area, they actually sent a kid on a motorbike to come and guide us to the restaurant. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">The room is understated and contemporary, done up in beiges and woody browns, with pictures on the walls, a neutral design that somehow conveys warmth. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">The menu is as large today as it was in 1986, a kind of who’s who of mezedes and kebabs with something for everyone. A waiter still brings out a large tray of meze offerings, appealing to both eye and belly. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">We started with an excellent, very basic politiki melitzanosalata (eggplant salad) that was dense and smoky, with not a trace of bitterness and no seeds. Next, we sampled another eggplant dish: thick slices of fried eggplants, with skin, each piece so thick it was like a little cup. These were topped with what is described on the menu as ketchup. Could it be? Maybe. The sauce was very plain and basic and could have used some flavor. I liked the idea and the presentation. Next, we bit into triangular slices of lahmatzoun, thin pieces of baked pita topped with a dry, flavorful ground meat mixture. The lahmatzoun was very good, especially if you sprinkled it with some of the dried tomato flakes, raw onion and lime that are on the plate. A small plate of spicy red pepper and tomato salad came next, which was terrific.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">I NEVER eat kokoretsi (skewered, grilled mixed innards) unless I have personally known the animal who gave away his innards for our pleasure. Here it’s a house special and I felt compelled to try it. No regrets. It was clean and as gentrified as kokoretsi can be. I did, however, save my favorite, the buttery, crisp pita kaisarias (pie with pastourma) that I remember as slightly larger from years ago, as the last of the mezedes. It was a tiny bit underbaked, but delicious. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">We moved with full awareness of how many calories we’d already consumed onto the main course kebabs, opting for the kasserlit kebab, a long twist of ground meat and kasseri cheese wrapped around a skewer, grilled, then slipped off. This was garlicky and tangy and wonderful, especially with the standard side of raw onion and roasted tomato. The fine bulgur-tomato pilaf that comes with it is tasty. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">Could we leave without cutting into a crisp round of shredded wheat pastry (kataifi) hiding a layer of mild cheese, sprinkled with pistachios and doused in an aromatic syrup? No way. I am talking about the kunefe, which I can still remember from 20 years ago because the first time I ever had it was at Tria Asteria. It’s even better today. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US">Three stars for The Three Stars! Bravo. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">Cuisine: Some of the best kebabs in town and a whole array of politika specialties </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">Athens area: Nea Smyrni<br />
Decor-Atmosphere: fresh and modern, warm and neutral<br />
Service: excellent<br />
Wine List: good<br />
Prices: 20-30 euro per person<br />
Address: 1, Melitos str.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"> & 77 Plastira str., Nea Smyrni, tel.: 2109358134</span></span></span></span></div>
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</span>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-4930312830383452442010-11-17T03:45:00.000-08:002011-01-16T07:26:36.162-08:00The Prime Grill<span lang="EN-GB">Dinner with my daughter, all of 17, is becoming increasingly more interesting. We actually set out for a new burger place in </span><span lang="EN-GB">N. Psychiko</span><span lang="EN-GB">, a northern suburb, but upon parking outside and looking in, we had little desire to go. Instead, we ended up across the street at the Prime Grill, on what has become a restaurant-heavy crossroads (Places include: Piperia, Far East, a good souvlaki place, the burger joint, within 100 meters of each other). I hadn’t been here in a few years and was glad to come back, for a decent steak and a pretty good burger.<br />
</span><span lang="EN-GB"> Prime Grill is one of many steak houses that opened in </span><span lang="EN-GB">Athens</span><span lang="EN-GB"> when the country still felt like it was on an up-hill course, when meat, the de facto food of affluence, was on everyone’s mind! Greeks still lean toward the carnivorous, but maybe with slightly less frequency now that lentils have become part of the working-man’s weekly diet again.<br />
</span><span lang="EN-GB"> Prime Grill has a simple, accessible menu. We liked the sautéed mushrooms, which were light (translation: no cream!) and flavored with tomato and tarragon. They were cut chunky and cooked al dente. Other appetizers included the increasingly talagani, the popular, mild cheese from Messinia in the Peloponnese, which is best served grilled; grilled haloumi and vegetables; keftedakia (meatballs), and pretty good Greek fries, a little heavy on the salt but crunchy.<br />
</span><span lang="EN-GB"> I really was in the mood for a burger, a good representation of which is not the easiest thing to find in Athens. I ordered the barbecue burger (other options were the texas double, a pizza burger with tomato and parmesan, and the </span><span lang="EN-GB">New York</span><span lang="EN-GB">, with cheese and bacon). The bbq burger had bacon, too, lots of it, which definitely helped give the meat the necessary fat to make it juicy. (I removed it before eating, conscious of my diet, heart, and middle-aged middle.) The sauce was commercial bbq sauce, but the whole thing was just fine. My 17-year-old, whose appetite is impressive, managed to savor every last bite of veal chops (brizolakia apo moscharaki), which were cooked as she likes them, medium. (No one in this food critic’s family dares eat a well-done steak!) We shared a spinach-arugula salad, which was a little limp and very wet from too much dressing. The house red was quite nice. I refused to buy the kid a beer, though!<br />
</span><span lang="EN-GB"> All in all, we had a pretty good meal here, low-key, medium priced, and totally competent. The service was friendly and accommodating.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cuisine:</span> burgers and grilled meat<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Athens area:</span> northern suburbs<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Decor-Atmosphere:</span> simple<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Service:</span> friendly and accommodating<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Prices:</span> 25-35 euro a person<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Address:</span> 46, Adrianiou str., Neo Psychiko, tel. 2106753934</span>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-13373393731760486912010-10-11T03:52:00.000-07:002011-01-16T07:31:14.027-08:00Polly Maggoo<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">A small menu—15 items in total—that includes offbeat items such as liver, snails, trahana (pebbly pasta with a sour taste) and kavourma (spiced, preserved pork, beef or buffalo) is a sign that someone in the kitchen has a point of view and is willing to stand by it. Indeed, the kitchen master behind the stove at a relatively new, small, hip place in Metaxourgio, Polly Maggoo, is good at what he does: cooking up haute fare with flare and a sense of grounding. </span></span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Polly Maggoo is a not-so-classic French restaurant in a totally Greek neighborhood in the historic heart of downtown Athens. The décor is simple, almost bland, I’d say, but the food shines. If you are new to Athens, the area is worth discovering.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">The best dish we had was the simplest: a plate of perfectly cooked al dente lentils in a tangy mustard vinaigrette that comes capped with a perfectly poached egg. The snails are of the French persuasion, shelled, that is, so you don’t have to hassle with them, and served in a tasty tomato-herb-garlic sauce. I learned something I didn’t know before about the charcuterie of </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Greece</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">: that Drama produces pastrami, which here comes in thick, wide slices partnered with soft, warm goat’s cheese over a generous bowl of salad greens. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Main courses apparently were limited, as evinced by the fact that four out of six of us ordered the same plate, a beautifully prepared fresh cod fillet served with warm potatoes, capers, and parsley. Aioli, a kind of garlic mayonnaise, is served on the side. It was very good. The saffron-scented fish soup, not unlike a bouillabaisse, was also very good. I was tempted by the pennes with spicy kavourma, capers and cream but the summer’s lingering heat got to me and it seemed too warm for such indulgences. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">Desserts we bypassed altogether, not for the lack of them but for the good of our waistlines.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"> Would I come back to Polly Maggoo: O, yes, gladly. </span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cuisine: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">French but simple</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Athens Area: </span>downtown Athens<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Decor-Atmosphere: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">a little too minimal for moi</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Service: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">a little slow, with just one waiter in the room</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wine List: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">good list with reasonable prices</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Prices: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">30-40 euro a person</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Address: </span>80, Leonidou & Salaminos str., Metaxourgio, tel. 210 5241120</span></span></span></span></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043615351924565242.post-55453828863184715982010-10-11T02:33:00.000-07:002011-01-16T06:46:59.983-08:00To Kalosorisma tou Antoni<span style="font-size: 100%;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-weight: normal;">The prospect of savoring a goat-meat makaronada/pasta on a pleasantly chilly night sent me from the comforts of my apartment to the fringes of Kifissia, Athens' well-known northern suburb. Destination: a large, pleasingly busy (it was a Wednesday night) restaurant called to Kalosorisma tou Antoni, which, roughly translated, means "Antoni's Welcome." The building, at first sight, set me aback. It looked like an 'exohiko kentro' (sprawling, family taverna), the kind of place you take your inlaws on a Sunday afternoon or hold the reception for a christening. But the garden is alluring. It is filled with heavy, white, metal furniture, lots of greenery, and waiters from a slightly passe era. The service at this high-end taverna, which morphed from a longstanding humble place called Spyro's in Kypseli, a downtown neighborhood, into this northern suburb hot spot, was impeccable. Antoni, of course, was there, as gracious and friendly a host as could be, with the consummate outgoing personality of a good restaurateur.</span></b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;">The food was very good. No fancy fare here is to be found here, just straightforward home cooking with absolutely NO attitude. Our meal started with a simple medley of boiled vegetables, including runner beans, ambelofasoula in Greek, cooked as a cold salad with whole zucchini (a Greek summer classic). The portion was generous and nicely laid out on the platter. The dish needed a little salt, but so did most things we sample. I liked the homemade zucchini pie, the filling of which was more like a soufflé of zucchini and cheeses than a pure medley of veggies and herbs. I liked the idea that they have “palikaria” on the menu, an ancient dish of mixed beans and grains from </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;">Crete</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;">, which dates back to the ancient offerings of grains during harvest fests. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;">The main courses were very good, too. A generous, homey dish of that goat-meat makaronada consisted of a chunk of tender shank, meat falling deliciously off the bone, thick tube spaghetti and coarsely grated myzithra cheese, a common hard, whey cheese that Greeks use like parmesan. We loved it. The stifado (stew with whole small onions) of wild boar, hunted at the very civilized Farma Fotiades (Fotiades Farm) in </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;">N. Greece</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;">, was deceptively light, the onions cooked to perfect sweetness, still whole, and not too caramelized. The tomato sauce was a little lighter and looser than I like it to be in this classic Greek dish. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;">Dessert was on the house: excellent vyssino (sour) cherries strained for liqueur and spooned over mastiha ice cream and a dark, rich, unctuous, chocolate mousse. The watermelon, while sweet, was totally overpowered by them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;">We would gladly enjoy another welcoming meal at Antoni’s. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Cuisine: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Greek classics at their best</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">(Greek Cuisine Award for 2009)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Athens Area: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">northern suburbs</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"><br />
Decor-Atmosphere: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">nice decor, but the garden saves it all</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"><br />
Service: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">very good</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"><br />
Wine List: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">ok</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"><br />
Prices: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;">A little steeper than I anticipated, at around 30-35 euro a person (with house wine)</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">Address: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">41, Georgiou Lyra str., Nea Kifissia, tel.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">210 8017869 , 210 8018457</span></span></span></div>Diane Kochilashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03448065216267804274noreply@blogger.com0