Gastronomic specialities in Crete: what to eat in Crete?

Welcome to this round of Crete specialities. No doubt: you'll enjoy yourself!

Crete is a land of beautiful products, simple and varied, which are still at the heart of the local terroir. Around the local vegetables, wild herbs, fish and white meats, Cretans make up gourmet and healthy dishes. Indeed, it is not for nothing that the famous “create diet” is associated with good health and longevity.

Cretans consume fruit and vegetables in abundance, prefer buttered olive oil and red meat fish. A diet that has proven itself, but that will also brighten your taste buds on your vacation!

Around local products, Cretan gastronomy is a weaving of Mediterranean influences. Discover the main specialties that you will have to eat in Crete.

To start well: the entrances and mezze

1. The mezze

In Crete as elsewhere Greece but also in the Middle East, tradition wants the meal to start with mezze . It is a set of small dishes to pick up, a little like them tapas en Spain . In Crete, we eat olives, tzatziki or of dolmas , these leaves of vines stuffed with rice.

2. Peasant soups

Traditionally, the Cretans were delightful of soups with cereals, beans and legumes from their crops. We find them with many variations in the current gastronomy. If you want to discover the most authentic specialties of Crete, these peasant soups are immanquable!

3. Sheets and slippers

Cretan cuisine declines a whole series of leaflets and slippers. These include: pitas or pites , name that refers here to leafy frands.

You will have the choice between kreatopita and meat, tiropita cheese or cheese hortopita Wild herbs. Don't miss, too, kalitsounia : tasty little cheese or herb slippers.

4. The dakos

Typically cretan, the dakos is another must in local peasant cuisine. In fact, it is traditionally used as a snack for farmers who leave in the fields or in the pastures. This is simply a barley biscott, the paximadia with tomato, cheese and olive oil.

5. ♪ hortas

In the register of the simplest and authentic specialties we eat in Crete, I ask for the hortas ! These varied wild herbs are picked in the middle of nature and cooked in boiled salad, with a net of olive oil.

6. The snails

Stop the ideas received: the French are far from being the only ones to appreciate the snails. In Crete, they were picked up in the first rains on the vineyards and the rocks. They are then tasted in different ways, for example cooked with olive oil and white wine or cooked in sauce.

Place to resistance dishes!

7. Meat stews

Even more than fish, white meats are at the heart of Cretan cuisine. The lamb, the rabbit and the goat taste in particular in stews. Examples include: stifado whose Cretan season is cooked with tomato sauce and a lot of onions.

8. Chicken pilafi

Chicken pilafi is a boiled chicken recipe with a tasty rice. The secret: slow cooking in a thyme broth, cloves and juniper berries.

The cherry on the cake: a lemon fillet and a generous piece of goat butter!

9. The souvlaki

The souvlaki is a very common Greek specialty in Crete. After having long marinated, pork or lamb meat passed to the grill and then climbed into a skewer. It is tasted on the thumb with a salad, potatoes or a good one tzatziki .

10. ♪ keftedes

Traditional washing dishes, keftedes are served in most Crete restaurants. These meatballs of a nut size are seasoned with a clever mix of spices.

11. Fishes

The fresh fish is of course one of the great specialties of Crete. In the market La Canée Maybe you'll let a local fish try to roast?

barbounia , or redt, is the most common on the island and cooks in different ways. We taste it for example kakavia the traditional soup of Greek fishermen.

12. Seafood

In the taverns of the coast, let yourself be tempted by the calamars and octopuses caught on site. If the first ones are often fried, the second ones are frequently offered in salad. You can also discover the amazing achinosalata , a typical urchin salad.

13. The stuffed vegetables

Let’s not forget it, vegetables are the basis of the Cretan diet. They are particularly fond of them, as shown in various Crete specialties.

Vegetarians will enjoy yemista , stuffed tomatoes and peppers with rice. When it comes to gourmets, it will enjoy papoutsaki , a gratin of stuffed eggplants.

14. moussaka

Although it is not specifically a specialty of Crete, the moussaka had to be included in this selection. The most famous Greek dishes, based on sheep, tomatoes and eggplants, are enjoyed everywhere on the island.

To perfect your meals...

15. Cheese

Since ancient times, Cretans have raised sheep and goats to produce cheese. The most famous is graveera , a hard paste sheep cheese. As for the myzithra , it is a fresh white cheese, which is often made of honey. Refined several weeks, it turns into anthotosis , a firm cheese with dark green crust.

You can also eat in Crete other typical Greek cheeses like feta and kephalotyri . It should be noted that cheeses often eat at the beginning of meals.

16. desserts

Sweet beaks will also find their happiness in Crete. In most cases, meals end around a beautiful plateau of fruit or honey yoghurt. But we also find sweets that will delight the greedy, like the baklava , oriental leafy with honey and pistachio.

Don't miss patouda , biscuit with olive oil and orange juice typical of the region. As for kalitsounia with fresh cheese, one of Crete’s great specialties, they enjoy serving as much as they enter.

Would you like a drink?

17. The raki or tsikoudia

Forget it orzo ! The raki Cretan, also called tsikoudia , is a true symbol of local hospitality. This water of life of grape marc, young and fruity, tastes accompanied by mezze . If you want to report a true specialty of Crete, nothing better than a bottle of raki !

18. The wines cremated

For millennia, Cretans cultivate the vine and produce tasteful wines. Today, there are no less than eleven grape varieties and wine tourism is gradually growing. For amateurs, following the wine route is a good way to visit the Crete outside the beaten paths.

19. Greek coffee

In Crete, coffee is prepared "to Greek" or "to Turkish". The water is heated directly on the ground coffee, in a narrow metallic pan placed on the stove. With small barleys, the tasteful drink is syrupy on the terrace of a café, at any time of the day.

Let’s not forget the condiments!

20. Olive oil

Cretan gastronomy is above all a simple cuisine centered on local products. It is difficult to find a speciality of Crete more emblematic than olive oil. With its 35 million olive trees and several AOPs, the island concentrates one third of oil production in Greece.

No doubt: you will find her about everything you are going to eat in Crete!

21. The herbs and aromats

Fresh and seasoned products: this is the secret of most Crete specialties. As we have seen, hortas wild are greatly appreciated on the island.

Scents of the oregano, sage and rosemary embalming paths and fine dishes. Crete is also the land of the dictame, a herb with multiple benefits, which is said even aphrodisiac...

22. Honey

Finish this list of specialties with one of the most typical products of Crete: honey. On the island, bees delight in a varied flora and a mild climate. They give particularly tasty thyme or pine honeys. They are tasted on a white cheese, in pastries, or in some sauces.

Not happy to be one of the most healthy in the world, Cretan cuisine is probably one of the most tasty! The local harvest and picking products will treat you throughout your stay. Dude raki with olive oil, you can even report some specialities of Crete at home to prolong a little holiday.