Skala

After sunset, we walked back through Oia with everyone else in search of some dinner. It was still on the earlier side, starting to get more crowded now that the sun had set, but we were able to get a table at Skala overlooking the caldera without too much trouble. We had spotted this restaurant on some of our walks through Oia earlier and were glad to finally get to try it.

The first thing to arrive was the bread, which from the receipt, it looks like they didn't charge us for. We thought that maybe this was the time when we finally realized that we could turn it down, but from other pics, it looks like we ate it. It clearly didn't make too much of an impression on us, and we can't even remember what was in that little sauce cup. (Why didn't we take notes?!)

We started off with some wine from the Sigalas winery located in Oia (€4 a glass, all pricing as of six years ago). We got one glass of Assyrtiko (a dry white wine) and one of the Ean Rosé (their dry rosé wine, which looks kind of red in the photo). We don't remember much about the wines, and we're also not very good at describing wines anyway so there's not much missing from our recap about these.

We started out with the fava, pureed yellow split peas (€6.50), which was topped with some onions, olives, and capers. It was pretty hard to go wrong when ordering fava in Santorini, as it was so good everywhere, and this was no exception. We planned to order it everywhere since this special kind of yellow pea was only really cultivated in that area. So delicious and Skala offered a pretty good portion size too. Since then we've been able to order something similar from other Greek restaurants in the US, but none of them ever compared to the ones we had here in Santorini.

Along with the fava, we got one of our other favorite dips, the melitzanosalata, traditional eggplant salad with garlic, onion, parsley, vinegar, oregano (€4.50). We can get good versions of this at home, but the smoky eggplant and all the fresh vegetables in Santorini just made this even better. This had an ever-present but not overpowering smokiness to it, and the overall texture was rich and creamy.

We also got two main courses. One was baked fresh cod fish with olive oil, fresh tomato and vegetables (potatoes, onion, garlic, parsley) (€14). The fish was flaky and tender, and you could tell it was caught that day. The added vegetables gave it a good balance and freshness as well as being filling because of the potato.

The other was soutzoukakia, cumin flavored meatballs baked with tomato sauce (€10) which was served over a rice pilaf. We love meatballs, perhaps M a little more than A, but we both do love them. These were very tasty. Cumin is a spice we both love, and they added a very unique flavor to the soft meatballs. The tomato sauce was fresh and tasty. Everything we had here just felt fresh and clean because we're guessing that everything was freshly picked relatively close to the time they were cooked.

Our dinner at Skala was quite good, probably better than our taverna lunch, and it cost less than lunch too. Perhaps had we known more about the scorpion fish we might have had a better meal for lunch, but we at least had a really good dinner. We were pretty satisfied with dinner, but unfortunately when we left, we had a bit of a craving for cookie ice cream (well, at least M did) and there was nothing like Milkato to be found in Oia. We settled for a cookie ice cream bar from the little market on the way back to our hotel (which we don't remember too much about). After that, it was back to our hotel to end another great day on our awesome honeymoon.

Skiza

Looking back at our time in Santorini years later, it feels like we didn't really do that much while we were there. Before getting there, we had grand plans of visiting the black sand beach, maybe a red sand beach or a vineyard too. But after riding in the taxi from the port to Oia and not liking the twists and turns of the road thanks to our driver, we decided to just relax and take it easy and spend most of our time in Oia. We also realized that we were just really, really, really tired. We loved our visits to Athens, Mykonos, and Naxos, but we had also traveled a lot in each of those places. In Santorini, we ended up just napping a lot, trying to get in as much rest as possible before we had to rejoin the "real world."

So after our visit to Ammoudi, I think we took another nap during the afternoon, or otherwise just rested in our mostly ant-free new room. We headed back out in the late afternoon to stroll some more of Oia, and decided to get a snack from a little cafe window on the main pathway called Skiza, choosing some sort of cheese pie.

Six years later, we honestly don't remember much about the pie itself (no idea if it was better than the breakfast pies or not), but we must have generally liked it or we would probably remember not liking it. (Assumptions like this are not how we like recapping things, but can't go back in time to create notes!) Mostly though, we remember this little dog that kept following us after we bought the pie and trailed at our feet as we ate the entire thing, hoping for crumbs to drop (or maybe for a bite). This wasn't an uncommon sight in Santorini, but we didn't mind. Although we didn't feed it any of our pie, we didn't feel bad about that since there were stray food bins for dogs all around the town. In fact, at one point, A pointed out the bin to the dog. The dog walked over, looked into the feeder, and then immediately walked back to look at our pie (and us). Guess it didn't want that.

After our pie, we joined the crowds to catch the sunset, which was supposed to be most spectacular from Oia, and it was the best one we witnessed while we were there. Once the sun had set, it was time to get some dinner and close out our first full day on the island.

Sunset Taverna

Somehow it's already mid-May, which means we're coming up on the six year anniversary of our honeymoon in Greece. Sadly we've not finished recapping that, so getting back to that...

Our first full day in Santorini started off stressful (dealing with the ants but luckily they were able to move us into another room in the villa; less scenic but less pests), but immediately improved after getting some pies for breakfast. After the pies, we wandered around Oia for a bit, just taking in the sights (lots of weddings, stray dogs, and ants, but also pretty buildings and the caldera) before heading for the (very long) staircase that would take us down to the water and the small port area called Ammoudi. We figured that we would just relax a bit by the water, explore the town (we thought it would be bigger than it was), and have some lunch.

There were a lot of steps and they took far longer than we thought, and they were also covered with donkey droppings everywhere, especially as we got closer to the bottom. We were pretty happy when we finally got to the port and didn't have to walk on the steps anymore. After looking around the port a little bit, we picked a taverna that had tables steps away from the water and decided to go there for lunch. The meal started with the usual bread (€2 six years ago), which was fine but we don't remember it being anything special.

We also got the horiatiki salad (€7.50), lots of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and onions topped with feta cheese. We loved getting salads in Greece because all of the produce was just so fresh since everything was local.

We also got the tomato keftedes (€7.50), something we had previously read was a Santorini specialty. They were basically fried tomato patties, and we learned here that this was definitely something we wanted to get more of when we were in Santorini, especially if you couldn't really find them elsewhere. There was just something about the flavor, probably from all the fresh, local tomatoes they were made with, that made them so unique and so good.

Along with our vegetable appetizers, we got some freshly grilled fish (€29.25). A picked out the fish because M trusts him to do this. He picked out a skorpion [sic] fish because the workers said it was local. What they didn't mention was that it was a trash fish that was mostly just used in stews and not eaten whole like we were asking for. After reviewing the prices, he was happy to see that it was a moderately priced fish and not one of the more expensive fish types. (Whole fish could get really expensive at some spots in Greece.) He picked a medium sized one and asked them to grill it (and again, they never mentioned until later that that was not how it was usually prepared). As with all fresh fish grills we had gotten in Greece, it was a simple salt, pepper, olive oil, and herb grill with a lemon wedge on the side.

The fish wasn't bad, but it definitely wouldn't be our first choice if we were to ever do this meal again. A remembers that certain parts of it had a bit of a bitterness to it, and those could be the parts that were closer to the poisonous spines that this fish is known for. Thankfully neither of us got sick from eating this, but it's possible that those parts of the fish would have been left out if it were prepared in a stew. Otherwise the fish was a fairly standard flaky white fish, maybe a little firmer than the other ones we had gotten.

Overall, our meal here was nice. It was a great location on the water, the food was solid, and the weather was fantastic. A also got a frappe since he had fallen in love with them on this trip. The only real downside was that there was a very rude and loud family dining at the restaurant at the same time who seemed like they might have been from one of the many cruise ships that were docked in the area that day. They yelled at the staff about a simple mistake they made in a dish, and they were just generally so loud, what people usually think of as stereotypical loud Americans. They also seemed completely clueless about the geography or even where they were, and somewhat (loudly) proud of their ignorance, reinforcing more negative American stereotypes. Not the restaurant's fault though, and we felt pretty bad for the staff.

After relaxing in Ammoudi a little longer after our meal, we ended our time there by taking a taxi back up to Oia because we didn't feel like walking back up the donkey poop-filled stairs. There were also even more donkeys on the stairs after lunch so we could only imagine the fresh batches that would be awaiting us if we walked up. If you're going to Ammoudi, beware of the donkeys!

Passaris Nikolaos

We began every morning in Santorini the same way - with pies. On the pedestrian walkway into the heart of Oia, there was a small bakery that we passed by every day, and every day, we got some pies. I think we had read somewhere in our research that the bakery was really good, so we figured that would be a good spot for breakfast, since this was the one hotel on the entire trip where breakfast was not included.

The bakery's name appeared to be Passaris Nikolaos (if I am converting correctly from the Greek letters), and they were certainly popular. We aren't early morning people, no matter what time zone we're in (maybe someday that'll change), and by the time we got to the bakery in the morning (and it was still morning), there was never that much left. We were able to get some pies every day, but there were always some unavailable because of the demand.

One of the pies that we really liked (and I only know this because I see that we have photos of this pie on multiple days) was this special cheese pie. It reminded us a little bit of the one from Ariston in Athens, but that one was a little better, if we remember correctly this many years later.

We got a bunch of different types of cheese pies from the bakery over the few days we were in Santorini, and couldn't tell you at this point the names of the different ones or how they differed, but we definitely liked them for breakfast.

We didn't only get cheese pies though. We tried other pies including some with vegetable fillings. Unfortunately we couldn't tell you which pies we got on which days or any details, and we really wish we had written something down, but we've learned for the future. All we really remember is that we liked the pies.

One of the things we liked a lot about Greece was all the savory pies that you could get as snacks, whether you were in the city or the islands. There were pies everywhere. That's not as easy to do at home, especially for savory snacks, which is part of the reason we treasure the Greek bakery in our neighborhood. We love Greek pies!

Nectar and Ambrosia

We had high hopes for Santorini, since so many people described it as an absolute dream destination, but adjusting to the island, even in the spring when it wasn't as busy, was tough after our wonderful time in Naxos. It was much more crowded, there were so many more people, and we could feel the frenzy in the air that just wasn't there in Naxos. Add in a motion sickness-inducing taxi ride from the ferry, sudden cold and windy weather, and parades of ants everywhere, including right outside our cave studio, and we weren't the happiest people on the island.

We tried to make the best of it, and spent our first afternoon exploring the village of Oia in Santorini. Our hotel was in Oia, and it was supposed to be the most picturesque part of the island. It was definitely nice wandering the narrow streets, and the landscape of Santorini, especially the caldera, was breathtaking, even under the thick clouds. We had wanted to watch the sunset but considering the clouds and then the rain that started to fall, we just gave up for the day and decided to grab dinner. We picked Nectar and Ambrosia, a place we had on our list (I don't remember where we heard about it - maybe Chowhound?), which has apparently closed sometime between our 2011 visit and now. We didn't make advanced reservations, but since we were eating relatively early on Greek time and most of the tourists were trying to catch whatever sunset there was going to be, it was pretty empty.

We started off with some wine, choosing a local white wine made from grapes grown in the Cyclades. The winery was called Atlantis, and we got a blend of Assyrtiko, Athiri, and Aidani. Assyrtiko is a grape that is indigenous to Santorini, Athiri is indigenous to Rhodes, and Aidani is another grape indigenous to Santorini. The wine itself was similar to the retsinas we had in Athens as Athiri grapes are used a lot in those, but aside from that we don't remember a lot about it.

We started off with the Santorini Island Fava, which was a fava puree with caramelized onions, local capers, and pita triangles. When we had done our research in advance, one of the things everyone said you had to try in Santorini, as far as spreads, was the fava, as it was a local specialty. For our first dinner in Santorini, we knew we had to try it, and we were not disappointed. Fava spread is thicker than hummus but it has such a deep and unique flavor. It was a great start to our meal.

For a starter, we also ordered the Santorini Salad. If it's not already obvious, our plan was pretty much to order anything that sounded local, whether it was a specific dish unique to Santorini or, more likely, ingredients that were locally grown. This salad had small island tomatoes, cucumber, olives, capers and caper leaves, and green peppers on a bed of green leaves with Santorini Chloro soft cheese, balsamic vinegar, and Greek olive oil. (Thank goodness for photos of the menu when you don't have notes.) Everything was extremely fresh, and similar to when we were at Lefteris on Naxos, you could just taste the difference when the ingredients were local. We don't remember a lot about the cheese, but we do remember that everything in this salad felt and tasted so clean and fresh. You can really tell when food didn't have to travel far before being prepared.

For the main course, A got Nectar's Oven Lamb, which was lamb stuffed with manouri cheese and Florina peppers with herbed potato puree and rosemary sauce on the side. The sauce was very rich as it was made from stock (most likely lamb), and it paired very nicely with the roasted lamb. The lamb itself was cooked very well and was very tender. A doesn't remember much about the cheese, but he does remember that the potato puree in the rich sauce was quite delicious and the perfect complement to the lamb.

M's choice for her main course was the Santorini Moussaka, described as "white Santorini aubergine/eggplant layered with country lamb, beef, and pork, topped with a yogurt creme and red paprika accent." Moussaka is basically comfort food, and this was a very good version of it, even if it was a little bit fancier than your normal moussaka. It was rich and heavy, but that was to be expected.

The meal ended with a digestif that neither of us really remembers. This seemed like a fairly common practice in the Greek Islands though, as we got the same treatment (digestif) while in Naxos as well. All in all, we had a nice dinner at Nectar and Ambrosia. We had a little bit of sticker shock though, having just come from much more affordable Naxos. Here our entrees were around €18-19 with our appetizers coming in around €8-9 (and this was the pricing 5-6 years ago), while in Naxos our dishes were more around this appetizer price. The cost of being in a tourist haven, and also at what seemed like one of the nicer restaurants in the area! We did enjoy our dinner though, and strolled around Oia some more afterwards, as much as we could take since it had gotten pretty cold. After that, it was back to the hotel for a stressful night with the ants that we had realized were also all over our room, so invasive that we considered changing hotels if we couldn't get another room that was ant-free. At least we had a nice, filling dinner before having to deal with that.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2011

Another year in the books, another year of good eats. It's always hard to narrow down all the good food we had over the past year to 10 memories but I think in the end I'm usually happy with my choices (see last year's favorite food memories here). After making some difficult cuts, I came up with the following 10. Looking over the list for some overall trends, some things were not a surprise (not many desserts or sweet items on the list) but some things were a surprise (not much from food fairs or food trucks). So, here's my 10 (in no particular order):

1. Crab toast from ABC Kitchen


We went to ABC Kitchen for our anniversary dinner this year (wedding anniversary, not the other 4 we celebrate). We got the crab toast with lemon aioli and it was fantastic. The toast was crunchy, but not too hard to bite. The crab was light and flaky, and full of flavor. The lemon aioli tied it all together with a nice light creaminess. We would definitely get this again. I know we didn't blog about it, but ABC Kitchen is a fantastic restaurant committed to local and organic ingredients and we highly recommend a visit (or more than one).

2. Santorini salad from Anemomilos


In May, we went on our (delayed) honeymoon to Greece and had a fantastic time. On our last day in Santorini, we were seeking a long leisurely lunch before heading to the airport, so we went to Anemomilos, a hotel just down the block from where we were staying, and ate at their outdoor restaurant. It was fantastic, a little cheaper than the touristy places in the heart of Oia and it had really delicious food.

We went for a "greatest hits of Santorini" sampling at lunch, getting the Santorini salad, fava spread, dolmades and tomatokeftedes (fried tomato balls). The salad was incredible. Santorini is known for their cherry tomatoes, and this salad consisted of tons of cherry tomatoes along with cucumbers, green peppers, red onions, capers, and a local Santorini cheese. The salad was light, refreshing, fresh and fantastic. It's been over 6 months since our trip but I still can't stop talking about how good it was.

3. Mushroom pie from Ariston


We previously blogged about our love for the pies at Ariston, a small but popular bakery in the heart of Athens. While the signature cheese pies were great and all of the vegetable pies we tried were also tasty, the mushroom pie stands out for its buttery crust and rich mushroom inside. I think any visit we make to Athens will include a trip to this excellent bakery.

4. Aushak from Ariana Afghan Kebab Restaurant


This year wasn't the first time we have had the aushak from Ariana, but this particular time is such a vivid memory. Aushak is an Afghan dish of boiled dumplings filled with leeks and spices, topped with yogurt and a spicy meat sauce. It's always tasty when we get it but this time was special. It was a Friday night and I had just been released from the hospital about an hour earlier, having been there since Tuesday morning when I was admitted with an extremely high fever and severe allergic reaction to antibiotics. I had survived for a week on mostly mediocre hospital food and had very little appetite (rare for me, even when I'm sick). I decided I wanted something small when A ordered dinner and got the appetizer size of the aushak. It was amazing. I loved the intensity and diversity of the flavor and the spices, and I felt like a real person eating real food again. I also felt like my sense of taste was more sensitive after so many days of no flavor food that I noticed every nuance in the complex flavors, and I felt more aware of what I was eating than I had for a long time. I will always remember this meal for being the first moment when I knew that I was on the road to recovery.

5. Bulgogi slider by Danji from Taste of Korea truck


We still haven't been to Danji (always crowded). But in the spring, the Taste of Korea truck spent a few weeks on the road giving out food from Korean restaurants in the city. I went on the first day when they were serving Danji's slider (despite just having a piece of my eyelid cut out and barely being able to see; the sacrifices I will make for good food). Danji's bulgogi beef slider (also on their regular menu) consists of the bulgogi, spicy pickled cucumber, and scallion salsa on a buttery slider bun. It was so good. I really hope we can try to get to the restaurant this year.

The slider from Danji is also representative of one of my favorite general food memories of the year - free stuff! I love all the opportunities for free food in the city, especially since sometimes it introduces you to things you've never had before, but might love (like the Danji slider). Over the past year, I've gotten for free (and clearly have not blogged about them all): sliders, cupcakes, hot dogs, ice cream, whoopie pies, dumplings, iced tea, Asian rice bowls, Turkish tacos, Korean tacos, pizza, a panini, energy drinks and a French sampler platter. One huge trend this year has been discounts and deals (with the proliferation of Groupon, LivingSocial, Scoutmob, Gilt City, Google Offers, etc), and what discount is better than free?

6. The Haribo section at Edeka


I wasn't looking forward to the end of our honeymoon, but I was definitely looking forward to the Munich airport, which we planned to explore during our layover. We had an excellent meal at Airbrau, the beer garden in the airport, and we also took part in one of my favorite activities in other countries - visiting the grocery store. Since we were in Germany, I was hoping there would be lots of Haribo candy, since, as I mentioned last year with the Smurfs, I love Haribo. I was not disappointed in our visit to Edeka, and in fact, there was more Haribo candy than I could have ever imagined. (I had not yet seen the video of the factory store in Bonn.) I was able to get a tub of smurfs, sour mangoes, juice-filled gold bears, all variations of gold bears, jelly beans and so much more. I completely lit up when I saw the giant Fruchtgummi sign and row after row of my Haribo favorites.

7. Stuffed vegetables from Cafe Lefteris


Our favorite place on our Greek trip was the island of Naxos. A little quieter and less touristy than the other places we visited, we really felt like we got more of a sense of the island, its culture and its people. (I put this list in no particular order, but Naxos comes up a lot in this second half.) One day we drove all over the island and visited the town of Apiranthos, thought by many to be one of the most beautiful towns on the island. We had also heard about a great place to eat called Cafe Lefteris. Once we finally found it, we stopped in for an early dinner filled with delicious fresh vegetables. Naxos is one of the most fertile islands in the Cyclades, and you could tell how fresh the vegetables were. One thing we love about Greek food is taking something that is really simple and just making it so well. This was the case with these stuffed vegetables, the special of the day. Fresh vegetables stuffed with rice, simple but incredible.

8. Loucoumades from Regina Rose Amat


On our way to Apiranthos, we stopped at two other small towns, Halki and Filoti. In Halki, we ventured into the town square and got a snack from Regina Rose Amat - loucoumades. Loucoumades are Greek donut balls with honey, cinnamon and sugar. These were sweet, delicious and the perfect snack.

9. Mercimek kofte from Antalia


Earlier this year, a new Turkish place opened near my office called Antalia. The second time I ordered from them, I decided to get mercimek kofte (red lentil patties). I thought they would be fried patties, but instead they were a cold appetizer of mashed lentils. The lentils are mixed with scallions, parsley and pepper salsa, and served with lettuce, tomato and cucumber. The combination was so good that I have gotten it every time I've ordered from Antalia since then. It's an addiction.

10. Naxian potato salad from Meze Meze


Another thing Naxos is known for is its potatoes. I'm not really sure what makes a potato a "good" potato, but there was just something about the potatoes we ate in Naxos at Meze Meze, a restaurant near the harbor in Naxos Town/Chora, that was just better. At our first dinner at Meze Meze, there were potatoes everywhere. We got fresh Naxian fried potatoes with kefalotiri local cheese, the octopus special which also came with fries and a Naxian potato salad. The Naxian potato salad consisted of boiled potato, tomato, pepper, onion, caper, olives, oregano, and xinomizithra local cheese. It was incredibly tasty and, as I said, something about the potatoes in Naxos was just better than other ordinary potatoes.

It's probably obvious that the majority of my choices came from our honeymoon, but the food we had was incredible and made such an impression on me. I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring!