What to eat in Crete? If you love trying new recipes and cuisines and want to live an unforgettable culinary experience, then Crete is the place to be. Cretan cuisine, which is part of the famous Greek cuisine, which is also part of the healthy Mediterranean cuisine, is distinguished and traditional. It is tasty, creative and includes a variety of dishes, made from pure products of the blessed Cretan earth. In the restaurants of Heraklion, Chania and the villages around them, you will eat delicious seafood as well as appetisers and main dishes with meat and vegetables.
Don't leave Crete without trying the signature cheeses of the Cretan villages. They are made from sheep or goat's milk and are produced in harder (like graviera) or softer varieties (like pichtogalo or myzithra). The most popular dish in Crete, a combination of salad and appetiser, is dakos. Barley rusks, which are soaked in water or olive oil to get softened, are topped with fresh tomato and cheese, feta or myzithra. Salt, oregano, pepper and Cretan olive oil give dakos an excellent taste. Fried snails (chochlioi) is a dish that you can find not only in French but also in Cretan cuisine. Fried with flour and hot olive oil, doused with wine and sprinkled with wild rosemary, chochlioi is a special delicacy you should not miss. If you want something more familiar, you can try the Cretan cheese pies (kaltsounia), filled with Cretan cheese, sprinkled with rosewater and topped with honey, combining the sweet with the savoury.
Try also lamb with stamnagathi, a recipe that many awarded restaurants serve. Stamnagathi is a wild green vegetable with extraordinary taste, which has become trendy in Greece lately. The lamb is sautĂŠed is hot olive oil and accompanied with stamnagathi and a sauce of fresh lemon. Gamopilafo, literally means the rice of weddings, is traditionally served in Cretan weddings. It is a deluxe risotto with meat, lemon juice and butter from goat's milk. In thin slices and cold, is served the smoked pork (apaki), which you can find only in Crete and is an amazing ingredient of salads and sandwiches. Part of the Cretan cuisine are of course the drinks that are offered by the hospitable Cretan people. Raki or tsikoudia is the local version of the famous Greek brandy, tsipouro. It has no anise or herbs, unlike ouzo, is drunk from shot glasses, with no water added, and Cretan people usually accompany raki with mezedes or dakos. Enjoy your food!