Taste
Be sure to try:
Green fava (split-pea purée) with local
olive oil; dried koukia (fava beans) cooked in oil and oregano; giouzlemedes (small fried cheese pies with home-made pastry). Kalloni sardines – the famous papalina, which are cured for just a few hours in newspaper and coarse salt. Also called Mediterranean sushi, it’s a big hit with visitors. Savory pies filled with greens or cheese and the omelet made with squash. Festival kiskeki – a dish served on saints’ days and at weddings, consisting of beef and wheat boiled together for many hours in a large cauldron. Lamb stuffed with liver, raisins and pine nuts; lamb yiaourtlou (in yogurt and garlic sauce); beef with quince; meat in celery sauce; meat with cauliflower or frikasé (with chopped greens, scallions and egg-lemon sauce); octopus grilled or braised in wine; and scallops with rice pilaf or spinach.
Stewed eggplant imam-baildi (“the
imam fainted”); zucchini blossoms stuffed with rice or cheese; fish baked with garlic and tomatoes; keftedakia (little meatballs) seasoned with ouzo and cumin. Hen stuffed with rice and chicken liver; charcoal grilled chops seasoned with bitter orange instead of the usual lemon juice; meat patties grilled in bitter orange leaves. Wild mountain dandelion greens (ask for the cooking liquid served as a beverage); boiled Savoy-type cabbage; stuffed grape-leaves in oil or egglemon sauce; sougania (onions stuffed with chopped meat and rice). Superb spoon-sweets (preserved fruit); rice pudding; baklavas; plantzeta (walnuts in syrup wrapped in filo pastry); loukoumades (deep-fried dough balls) with myzithra cheese; pancakes; macaroons; quince paste; and halva made with myzithra. Rusks from Agiassos, Anemotia, Filia and Asomatos.
make many trips in differents seasons to taste Mytilene olive oil, with its light texture and them all. refined flavor, is fittingly reputed to be among the best in Greece. Olive Oil Lesvos olive oil repeatedly wins prizes at inIn the 19th century and during the Industrial ternational expositions. Revolution, Lesvos supplied the European For many years the island has had factories markets with first quality olive oil. The ele- that use salt exclusively to process and pack gant French women of the salons bathed with fish products (sardines, mackerel, anchovies, perfumed pure olive-oil soap manufactured and tuna). Salt-curing gives fish extra flavor, in the soap factories on Lesvos. Mytilene’s aroma and crispness. Fish in this form must olive oil and soap producers and traders built be desalted and cleaned and then are served their mansions and estates in and around the with oil and vinegar. city, in Plomari and in Molyvos. They built their industrial facilities (factories, oil press- The island also produces its own mares, etc) based on distinctive architectural de- malades, spoon-sweets, noodle products, signs, and played a decisive role in the island’s and sauces in small factories and rural arts and letters as well as its social structure. women’s collectives, honey, baklavas, macaContact with Europe brought wealth and ex- roons, plantzeta (walnuts in syrup wrapped citing cultural influences, the impact of in filo pastry), Agiassos festival halva, and fresh “grocery” (ground sesame) halva. which is still visible.
38 Lesvos Guide