50 Fun Facts About Greek Food

Under EU rules, real feta is sheep's milk optionally mixed with up to what proportion of goat's milk?

The name has been a protected designation of origin since 2002 and is limited to cheese made in mainland Greece and Lesbos.

In Greece itself, an authentic gyros is traditionally made with which meat?

The name means 'turn', a direct translation of the Turkish döner; lamb and beef versions are mostly a foreign habit.

Around Athens and in southern Greece, a souvlaki skewer is commonly called what?

The word means 'little reed' or 'little straw'; souvlaki itself comes from souvla, a skewer, borrowed from the Latin subula.

Which vegetable is mixed with strained yogurt and garlic to make tzatziki?

The word travelled into Greek from the Turkish cacık, and the dip is the standard sauce for souvlaki and gyros.

The traditional Greek horiatiki salad differs from foreign 'Greek salads' by lacking which ingredient?

The proper version is tomatoes, onion, feta and Kalamata olives with oregano, imagined as a farmer's breakfast.

The modern Greek moussaka, with its bechamel top, was created in the 1920s by which chef?

He was French-trained, and his surname is now a Greek synonym for 'cookbook'.

Besides ground meat, moussaka is usually based on which vegetable?

Potato-based versions exist too, and the Turkish and Egyptian dishes of the same name are quite different.

Pastitsio, the baked pasta and bechamel dish, originated in which Greek island group?

The name comes from the Venetian pasticcio; the islands spent centuries under Venice, which is why their cooking leans Italian.

Spanakopita is a filo pie filled with cheese and which vegetable?

A version without cheese or egg is eaten during Orthodox fasts; the cheese-and-spinach one is strictly spanakotiropita.

The paper-thin pastry filo takes its name from the Greek fyllo, meaning what?

The modern ultra-thin form was perfected in Ottoman palace kitchens by the 15th century; supermarket filo only arrived in the 1970s.

Ouzo is a dry aperitif flavoured with what?

The first distillery opened at Tyrnavos in 1856; add water and the clear spirit turns cloudy white.

Retsina owes its distinctive flavour to what?

Ancient Greeks sealed amphorae with Aleppo pine resin to keep the air out; barrels made that unnecessary by the 3rd century, but drinkers had grown to like the taste.

Metaxa, the amber Greek spirit created in 1888, is a blend of brandy and what?

Founder Spyros Metaxa came from a family of silk merchants; the brand was sold to Rémy Cointreau in 2000.

Tsipouro, the pomace brandy of Thessaly and Epirus, was said to be first made by 14th-century monks where?

A version of the same monastic spirit flavoured with aniseed eventually became ouzo.

Frappé coffee, the foam-topped iced Nescafé drink, was invented in 1957 in which Greek city?

It shares the modern breakfast table with Greek coffee, mountain tea, koulouri and bougatsa.

Kalamata olives take their name from a city in which region of Greece?

Within the EU the name is protected, so the same almond-shaped purple olive grown elsewhere is sold as 'Kalamon'.

Mastic, the aromatic resin used in sweets and liqueur, traditionally comes from which island?

The droplets are called 'tears'; Hippocrates recommended it for digestion and bad breath, and the Byzantine emperors made its trade a monopoly.

Greek fava, the yellow puree served as a dip, is made from what?

Despite the name, no fava beans are involved; the PDO version uses seeds of Spanish vetchling grown only on one volcanic island and its neighbours.

Assyrtiko, the crisp white grape grown in basket-trained vines on volcanic ash, comes from which island?

Many of the island's vineyards are ungrafted and centuries old because Santorini is described as phylloxera-free.

Fasolada, sometimes called the national food of the Greeks, is a soup of what?

The modern version uses tomatoes and white beans, both New World plants, but the dish traces back to ancient Greece.

Avgolemono, the sauce and soup base, is made by whisking broth with what two ingredients?

The name literally means 'egg-lemon'; the starch from rice or orzo cooked in the broth helps keep the emulsion from curdling.

Magiritsa, the soup eaten right after the Paschal midnight liturgy, is made from what?

It uses the innards removed from the lamb that will be roasted the next day, and breaks the 40-day fast of Great Lent.

Taramasalata is a meze made from what?

Cod, carp or grey mullet roe is beaten with bread or potato, oil and lemon; the good stuff is beige, and the pink colour in shops is dye.

On which day of the Orthodox calendar do Greeks traditionally eat taramasalata with onions and lemon?

Clean Monday opens Great Lent, and its meatless, bloodless table of shellfish, roe dips and lagana bread is a national picnic day.

Skordalia, the thick garlic puree, classically partners which dish on Greece's national day?

The base can be potato, walnuts, almonds or soaked stale bread; the name is a pleonasm of Greek skordo and Italian agliata, both meaning garlicky.

Kleftiko, slow-roasted lamb sealed in paper, is named after the klephts. Who were they?

The bandits cooked meat in covered pits so no smoke would give them away; the word shares a root with kleptomania.

Saganaki, best known as fried cheese, is named after what?

Any dish cooked in the little pan qualifies, including shrimp and mussels saganaki; the flaming version is a North American habit.

Halloumi, the squeaky grilling cheese served all over Greek menus, actually originates from where?

Under EU and US trademark law only cheese made there can carry the name; the UK is its biggest importer.

Kokoretsi, the spit-roasted Paschal favourite, consists of seasoned offal wrapped in what?

An identical dish is attested in Byzantine cuisine under names such as plektin and koiliochorda.

Loukaniko, the Greek sausage, is typically flavoured with fennel seed and what?

The name descends from the Roman lucanica sausage of Lucania and has been used in Greece since at least the 4th century.

Dolma takes its name from the Turkish verb dolmak, meaning what?

The wrapped kind is strictly sarma, but colloquially dolma covers both; the dishes spread across the whole former Ottoman world.

The word meze, for the small dishes served with ouzo, came into Turkish and Greek from which language?

It meant 'taste' or 'relish'; the custom of snacks with alcohol goes back to Byzantine tavernas and medieval Arabic naql.

Loukoumades are deep-fried dough balls soaked in what?

The same sweet was recorded in the 13th century as luqmat al-qadi, 'judge's morsels', and the Greek name comes via Arabic luqma.

Galaktoboureko is filo pastry wrapped around what filling?

Unlike a mille-feuille, the custard is baked inside the pastry rather than added afterwards, then the whole thing is soaked in syrup.

Melomakarona, the honey-soaked Christmas cookies, are traditionally made with which fat?

They are the egg-shaped, walnut-topped partner of the sugar-dusted kourabiedes on every Greek Christmas table.

A vasilopita, the New Year's Day cake, is baked with what inside it?

Whoever finds it gets the year's luck, much like a Western king cake; the name means 'St Basil's pie'.

Tsoureki, the braided sweet bread, is most associated with which holiday, when it is baked with red eggs?

The Easter version is called lampropsomo; the dough is often scented with mastic or mahleb.

Glyko tou koutaliou, the fruit preserves offered to guests, are traditionally served how?

Almost any fruit will do, and sour or bitter ones like unripe walnuts, quince and citrus peel are especially prized.

Bougatsa, the Greek custard pastry, shares its Roman root panis focacius with which Italian bread?

Its modern form was born in Serres and Greece's second city, where specialist shops called bougatsadika sell nothing else.

The koulouri sold from street carts in Athens is a bread ring coated in what?

It is the Greek cousin of the Turkish simit and the Byzantine kollikion.

Loukoumi, the Greek version of Turkish delight, is famously produced in the Cyclades and which mainland port city?

Patrina loukoumia have been made since at least the 19th century, and the sweet is marketed abroad as 'Greek delight'.

Diples, the fried, syrup-dipped pastry ribbons served at weddings and New Year, come from which region?

They are essentially angel wings that have been dunked in honey syrup and dusted with walnuts and cinnamon.

So-called Greek yogurt is thicker than ordinary yogurt because most of what has been removed?

Straining means more milk per pot, so it costs more to make; in the UK 'Greek-style' is thickened instead of strained.

The first Greek cookbook was printed in 1828 on which island?

The island was the young Greek state's commercial hub at the time; a century later Tselementes's 1930 guide became the national kitchen bible.

Ancient Greek cuisine was founded on a 'Mediterranean triad' of which three products?

Legumes mattered just as much to ordinary diets, and meat was rare; the frugal norm made lavish banquets a status symbol.

The syssitia, compulsory shared meals for men and youths, were a feature of which two ancient Greek societies?

The other great institution was the symposium, the all-male drinking party that gave Plato and Xenophon their dialogues.

In 2013 UNESCO added Greece to its Intangible Cultural Heritage lists for what?

The listing is shared with Italy, Spain, Morocco, Croatia and Portugal, among others.

The word baklava was first attested in English in which century?

It arrived in 1650 as a borrowing from Ottoman Turkish; the pastry's ultimate origin is still argued over from Central Asia to Byzantium.

Dakos, the Cretan salad of barley rusk topped with tomato and cheese, uses which type of rusk?

The rusk is soaked, then topped with chopped tomatoes, crumbled feta or mizithra, oregano and olive oil.

Melitzanes papoutsakia, stuffed eggplants topped with bechamel, are named after which objects?

Papoutsakia means little shoes, a nod to the shape of the halved, filled eggplants.