Zakynthian Cuisine

Have you ever walked along the streets, hungry for an amazing meal. You can smell the aroma of cooking in the air, and don’t know where to stop to eat.

This is a problem many find on Zakynthos. The vast variety of amazing restaurants in each resort make it hard to choose where to go first and which Zakynthian dish to try.

I often just go for a ‘meze’ a mix of many little thing. Many restaurnts will have differnet mezes to choose from.

The staters in most places are to die for, from the fragrant tzatiki, garlic yoghurt dip with cucumber mixed into it, sometimes flavoured with dill sometimes with carrot too. Courgette balls another favourite, the mix of courgette, onion, herbs and tradional greek cheese mixed together and deep fried. Fried cheese – saganaki, with a squeeze of lemon juice. Prawn saganaki, prawns in a tomato sauce with fresh feta cheese. And of course you must have a ‘horiatiki salad’, with plenty of oil and vinegar to dress it, and some fresh bread to soak up the juices. My mouth is watering at the thought of all of this.

Then of course with move onto the main dishes. Meat is the biggest part of the Greek diet, although you can find some amazing fish and vegetarian alternatives.

You can usually find the grill lit and your favourite piece of meat being BBqed! From simple chicken to souvlaki, burgers, to steaks. Whatever takes your fancy you can get it grilled. Vegetarian options like stuffed vegetables, Briam (mixed vegetalbes in a tomato sauce) Pulses and lentils are all avalible too. Whole fish, squid, octupus and prawns are never far from the menu. Nearly always with some fresh chips.

Wash it all down with the local wines, from Callinco, Solomos or Grampsas winery, or try some of the local village wine for a treat.

If you have any room let check out the sweet menu. Although generally the Greeks will have some fruit after the meal, not a desert. That doen’t mean they don’t make amazing sweets.

Baklava, frigania, galaktaboriko, karidopita and kataifi, to name but a few. Most are very sweet with heavy honey/syrup. Try a little of each of them.

Kali Orexi as they say in greek. Good Appetite.