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Nowadays you can expect to find most common foods
that you would find in your own country on Crete. You will however
not have the wide choice that you would get in a large supermarket
in Europe. Products that are imported specifically for foreigners
will generally be a fair bit more expensive. Alcoholic drinks are
well represented and quite cheap but foreign wines are very difficult
to find, so bring your Bordeaux with you!
Now that this is covered, let's have a look at Cretan foods and
drinks, particularly the "specialities". On the whole do
not expect fancy foods here, traditional life on Crete is very simple.
Olive oil
Crete has about 60 olive trees per inhabitant so olive oil (the only oil traditionally
used in cooking) is one of the staple foods. A family of four will easily
use a litre a day if not more. A good restaurant must use good oil, the rest
of the cooking comes second. Most people have their own supply of oil (60
olive trees per inhabitant, remember?) or buy from each other but of course
you can buy oil in the supermarkets. Buy extra virgin oil, it will often
be written in English on the labels. If you are considering buying some really
good olive oil to take back with you, it is best to buy from a producer,
not because it is cheaper (which it is) but because you can find some really
good oil. Where? I am not going to divulge my supply - I think that I have
just found the perfect one after years of searching - and have it plundered!
If you go around and eat at a place where you find the oil especially tasty,
compliment them on their oil and ask nicely if you could buy a little bit
of it (a few litres is a little bit). This is, I guess, the best way to strike
lucky. Another place where you could look is the covered market in Hania:
there are some good oils to be found there and you might be able to get a
taste before buying. There are no big price differences between the best
oils and poor quality ones and as a rule they cost around 4 Euro per litre.
Cheese
You will be able to find a reasonable variety of cheeses in the supermarkets
but there are only a few types of Cretan cheeses, listed below:
Graviera: the name is a loose rendition of the
word "gruyere" and it is a little similar. This is
the standard hard cheese and being of local production, there
are many types and tastes. Taste before buying.
Myzitra: a fresh cheese made of ewe's milk.
It can also be made of goats milk (in which case it is called "katsikithia")
or mixed milk. This is the standard fresh cheese. A good goat's
one will taste like these expensive French "chèvre
frais" that you can buy in good delis, at a fraction of
the price.
Anthotiros: from the words "anthos" and "tiros" meaning "flower" and "cheese" it
is a very mild, soft spring cheese made when the sheep pastures
are still full of flowers. The closest cheese that I could compare
it to is mozzarella although it is quite different.
Paximadi
I list it because it is an unusual staple food but it is not necessarily something
that you would want to take back from your holiday as a present to someone:
paximadi is the hard dry bread (it is baked, cut in slices and baked again)
that peasants take to the fields and soften with a little water and olive
oil. It will keep forever.
Herbs
The first thing that always strikes me whenever I step off the plane on Crete
is the smell of herbs, especially thyme, oregano and marjoram. The whole
island smells of herbs and is covered in them. Buy a supply before you leave
the island, they will be fresh and cheap. A few herbs are also found only
on Crete, like "diktamos" or Cretan dittany (which is supposed
to have all sorts of medicinal properties).
Honey
Crete has been an important honey producer for a good few thousand years (it
was a main export item to Ancient Egypt) and the honey is very good, especially
the thyme honey. You can find honey in all the shops but it is better (and
a little cheaper) to buy it loose from a producer. The honey from Omalos
is quite famous.
Meat
Not something that you would take back with you of course, but I would just
like to mention that the meat here (at least the local production meat) is
supposed to be as good as it was in Northern Europe some decades ago, before
industrial animal husbandry became the rule - this is according to an old
German butcher who was here on holiday and told me so. Particularly noteworthy
of course is lamb and goat's meat although they are not as cheap as one could
think.
Fish
The Mediterranean is very overfished so do not expect masses of cheap fish.
There is good fresh fish but it is expensive. The best place to buy it is
in the covered market in Chania.
Local drinks
Ouzo is NOT at all a Cretan drink, so don't bring that back as a Cretan souvenir!
The local "hard drink" is called "raki" or "tsikoudia" and
is distilled from what is left over from pressing grapes (there must be a
name in English for that stuff but I don't know it), so in fact it is the
same as the Italian grappa. It is a pretty strong, pretty clean alcohol,
meaning that you'll get drunk on it really quick but will feel halfway human
the next day. It is a little difficult to buy because it is mainly home-produced.
The bottled stuff called 'raki' or Cretan raki" in the supermarkets
is pretty awful and no Cretan would touch it. It is also expensive compared
to the Euro 3,50 or 4 per liter that you would pay elsewhere. Here again
the same rule might apply as when buying olive oil: if you come across something
that you like, ask very nicely if you could buy a bottle of it.
A very rare variation of it is called mournoraki and is distilled from mulberries.
It is very strong but quite nice. Almost impossible to buy.
Cretan wine is mainly
home-made and rarely bottled. Traditionally there is no such thing
as red or white wine. The wine is a golden brown colour with a fairly
high alcohol content (13 - 14%) and more akin to port or sherry.
Whether you like it or not is very much a matter of taste and of
course a matter of where you drink it. It is cheap and you may be
able to buy it by the liter in your local shops or café. Taste
before buying because it can be very good or very bad.
Fruit and vegetables
Although this is changing most of the fruit and vegetable that you will be
able to buy is "what grows here when it grows". Something of a
strange experience for many of us who have become used to finding everything
all year around in the supermarket. It means that the choices can be limited
but it also means that what you will buy will be cheap and fresh and certainly
not wrapped in plastic!
A good place to see what is on offer is at a local street market in a city.
There are markets on several
days of the week in Chania (in different streets) but the nicest one is probably
on Saturday, just ask any local where the market (called 'laïki' in Greek)
is located.
One unusual vegetable commonly eaten here goes by the generic name
of "horta" which literally translates as "grass".
This covers all sorts of wild (nowadays some of it is cultivated
as well) green stuff, generally bitter tasting, boiled until tender
and served with a liberal dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of lemon.
This is peasant food par excellence: healthy, tasty and free although
if you buy it at a shop some of the more interesting types (stamangathi
for example) can command substantial prices because of the work involved
in its collection and cleaning.
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