吃在希腊 Eating In Greece

来希腊之前我对希腊的食物并不是特别期待，因为中国菜和亚洲菜整体来说都比欧洲菜要更有味道，更丰富一些，而且2018年的欧洲之行，也没有很多特别让我惊艳的食品，所以以爱吃为好（到哪都特别关注吃）的我，并没有很期待能在希腊吃到特别好吃的东西。

Before coming to Greece, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to eating Greek food, because Chinese and Asian dishes are generally more flavorful and richer than European dishes, and nothing really changed that opinion after our trip to Europe in 2018. Not surprisingly, I love to eat good food and we pay special attention to eating wherever we go and I wasn’t really expecting to be eating anything particularly delicious in Greece.

来到希腊之后，发现这里的菜品虽然不是很丰富（也许是因为去的饭店大部分都是针对游客的）但是味道还是非常不错的，竟然给了我一个小小的惊喜 🙂 下面列一下我俩觉得还很好吃的菜品吧:

1. 烤类： 这里有很多烤肉类的，比如那种在其他地方也常见到的转炉烤肉，烤鸡肉串，猪肉串，烤鱿鱼，烤鱼什么的。和国内的烤肉不同，这里的烤肉不会加很多的各种调料，基本是腌制后就烤，更注重的肉或海鲜的本身的味道，添加着一点儿腌制调料的味道，肉吃起里也比较嫩，还是不错的。

2. 紫洋葱：我发现希腊的紫洋葱怎么跟水果似的？没有很重的洋葱味，吃起来还有点儿甜！这里吃烤肉，一般都会给配上一些西红柿和生的紫洋葱，一口肉配上一口紫洋葱真是绝配了！

But, after eating in Greece, I have found that although there wasn’t a lot of variety of dishes (maybe because most of the restaurants we went to were aimed at tourists), they were still very good, and it surprised me 🙂

Let me review the dishes that we both found to be delicious and worth mentioning:

1) Grilled food: As in other places, there are many barbecued meats here, such as barbecued or grilled chicken and pork skewers, grilled squid and other fish, etc. But contrary to barbecue in China, here in Greece they don’t add a lot of spices. It is basically just the grilled meat with a minimal amount of seasoning. They focus more attention on the taste of the meat or seafood itself, with just a little bit of seasoning added. The meat is relatively tender and very good!

2) Purple onions: We discovered how the purple onions here in Greece actually are more like a fruit! They don’t have a strong onion flavor and tastes a little sweet too! Grilled meat here is usually served with some tomatoes and raw purple onions. Taking a bite of meat with a bite of purple onion is a perfect match!

3. 沙拉： 希腊沙拉是比较有名的，但是我对那款沙拉并不感冒，因为里面有很多我吃不了的羊奶酪。不过我俩倒是发现了一款沙拉特别好吃，在好几个饭店都吃到了类似的，就是用一种醋和蜂蜜做沙拉酱，不同的饭店会在里面加不同的东西，比如小西红柿，开心果，无花果，石榴粒，葡萄干，苹果片等等，特别好吃。 酸酸甜甜的口味，配着各种蔬菜，或是坚果的脆感，或是无花果/葡萄干的糯糯的甜甜的口感，或是苹果片的甜爽的口感，真是好吃极了。

3) Salad: Traditional Greek salad is more famous, but I am not a fan of that salad because it contains a lot of goat cheese that I won’t eat. However, we both found a salad that was very delicious. We had a similar salad in several restaurants. It uses a vinegar and honey salad dressing. Different restaurants will add different things, such as cherry tomatoes, pistachios, figs, pomegranates, raisins, apple slices, etc. and are all particularly delicious. The dressing’s sweet and sour taste, with a variety of vegetables, crunchy nuts and the sweet taste of figs and raisins, or the sweet and refreshing taste of apple slices, made these salads unique and really delicious.

4. Mousaka， Wiki上翻译成“茄子肉酱千层批”，这个是一个传统的希腊菜，和意大利千层面很类似，不过这个会有土豆片，茄子，里面还夹杂着肉酱，吃起来会很有满足感。

4) Mousaka is a famous traditional Greek dish, which is similar to an Italian lasagna, but this dish uses potatoes, eggplant, and meat sauce with a béchamel topping. It was very good.

5. 意大利菜：我发现希腊人怎么很会做意大利菜？这里的意大利面比在美国吃的好吃呢？也许是在度假的原因？ 哈哈，总之在这里吃到的意面都没有让我失望。

5) Italian food: We found the Greeks are really good at making Italian food! The pasta here is definitely better than the pasta in the US. Maybe it’s because we’re on vacation? Haha, in short, the pasta here certainly did not disappoint me.

6. 各种蘸酱: 希腊人很喜欢吃土豆，饼/面包之类的，所以很多用来蘸土豆和pita面包的蘸酱，我俩在帕罗斯岛最后一晚吃到一款土豆泥加大蒜的蘸酱有点儿惊艳，由此决定开始尝试不同的蘸酱。

6) Various dipping sauces: The Greeks like to eat fried potatoes and pita bread with various dipping sauces. We had a mashed potato garlic dip on the last night in Paros that was so amazing we wanted to try different dipping sauces from then on.

记得10年前，我刚到美国，那时候我的味蕾还是纯中国的味蕾，PJG带我去了一趟墨西哥，我真没吃惯墨西哥菜，所以我愣是好几天没吃啥东西，哈哈。现在的我，已经开拓了我的味蕾，能够欣赏享受品尝的东西增加了很多很多，所以这次吃在希腊还是非常满意的。另外，还注意到一个小小的细节，希腊的服务员在客人点完菜以后，都会说谢谢，我的感觉并不是礼貌性的谢谢，而是他们真的感谢客人在那里吃饭。而且，这里基本上不用给小费，当然人家还是欢迎小费的，只有在米科诺斯岛和圣托里尼岛的时候，服务员拿出收费的读卡机时会问想要给多少小费。

I remember ten years ago, when I first arrived in the United States, my taste buds were pure Chinese. PJG first took me to Mexico but I was not really fond of Mexican food, so I didn’t eat anything for several days. Ha ha. Now I have opened up my taste buds, and the things I can appreciate, enjoy and taste have increased a lot, so this time I am very satisfied with eating in Greece. In addition, I also noticed a small detail. The waiters in Greece would say thank you after the guests ordered the dishes. My feeling is that it’s not just a polite thank you, but they really are thanking the guests for eating there. Moreover, there is basically no need to tip here. Of course, tips are welcome, but only in Mykonos and Santorini, the waiter would ask how much to tip when he took out their chargeable card reader.

Finally, I don’t forget to highlight a very delicious beef dish that we had in Athens. Although the photo above looks a bit like …. , haha, but this beef was really delicious. I don’t know what seasoning it is. The beef was very good but I couldn’t recreate it. Soft and tender, the eggplant puree on the left was one of the best things to eat in Greece.

其实最重要的是，吃，不仅吃的是食物，也是吃的环境，吃的心情，看着那广阔的蓝天，清澈的大海，迷人的希腊建筑，和非常友善的希腊人，这食物不好吃才怪呢？

In fact, the most important thing about eating is not only the food, but also the environment and ambiance. Dining under a vast blue sky, the shimmering sea, with charming Greek architecture, and the very friendly Greek people; How can anyone not enjoy the food?