Athens Culinary Tours
Athens culinary tours are among the food walking tours
offered by an unusual company, Culinary Backstreets. Their food tours are not
in the obvious cities like Paris and London, but in more interesting foodie
destinations, such as Istanbul, Tbilisi, Mexico City, Shanghai, Naples... and
Athens, of course.
Culinary Backstreets started their tours in 2009, and one
look at their website shows they're no ordinary tour company. We got absorbed in
the stories they tell, the features they write, their interesting online shop
and the projects they support. Take a look at The Syrian Kitchen in Exile, for
one fine example.
Culinary Tours of Athens
So what kind of walking tours have they come up with for Athens? We haven't yet sampled these ourselves but we are definitely going to on our next visit to Athens. But how to choose from these:
Our Pick of the Athens Guides
This tour lasts 5.5 hours and they describe it like this: "We’ll visit an old-school dairy bar and a hidden gem of a loukoumades joint. We’ll sample souvlaki, and a kebab made according to a recipe brought to Athens by refugees from Constantinople.
"The walk will explore the hidden seafood eateries of the stoa, the arcades that are among downtown Athens’ most unique architectural features. There will be artisanal cheeses and honey and even a few sips of homemade spirits, accompanied by an unforgettable bite in the center of the main fishmongers’ market."
There are two Plakas. There's the main tourist Plaka with
its souvenir shops and so-so restaurants competing for your custom. And then
there's the Plaka the locals know, where you'll get a more authentic taste of
Athens. Among many other things, this tour takes you to one of the city's best
bakeries, to sample some real Greek coffee, to visit a food shop in the
'village' of Anafiotika, see behind-the-scenes at a tradesmen's canteen and
finishes at one of the oldest patisseries in the city.
This one lasts 5.5 hours and obviously takes place every Sunday. As they say: "Sunday is traditionally a day of leisure for the average Greek, dedicated to two important aspects of life: food and family. Most Greeks enjoy the largest meal of this day at lunchtime, sharing it with an extended family that usually includes children, cousins, grandparents and aunts and uncles."
The tour starts with a fresh-baked koulouri near the wonderful Sunday morning Monastiraki flea market. Then: "There will be a good Greek coffee and breakfast’s second course: thick strained yogurt with honey and nuts alongside hosaf, a dried fruit and spice compote that’s a specialty of the Pontic Greeks exiled in the 1920’s from Turkey’s Black Sea region."
To prove that this is an authentically Greek experience, it includes two lunch stops! The first offers grilled lamb chops and hand-cut fries in a family-run taverna, followed by a longer visit to another taverna where Greeks head for lunch with their families. Here you can expect Greek comfort food like dolmades and soutzoukakia.
Don't miss this visual tour of Athens with photos by Donna Dailey of Greece Travel Secrets.
Other Athens pages
Greece Travel Secrets tells the history of the classic Greek dish tzatziki, with a recipe for making your own yogurt and cucumber dip.
Greece Travel Secrets gives its choice of the best hotels in Athens from budget and moderate options through to 5-star luxury choices.
Athens Airport hotels include the luxury Sofitel at the terminals, Holiday Inn near the airport, and others close by like the Hotel Pantheon.
This drive around Attica offers visitors high hills, beach resorts, small villages and classical sites like Marathon and the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.
Athens is a top vacation destination. The Greece Travel Secrets Athens guide has information on hotels, museums, Athens airport and all the best things to do.
Antonis Maroudas is a Zakynthos winemaker who lives on the 'wine road' and is one of the people who make Zakynthos.
Corfu’s special cuisine includes dishes like sofrito and pastitsade and the chance to try ginger beer and kumquats.
Corfu olives are an important part of this Greek island's economy, with an estimated 3-4 million trees producing olive oil of exceptional quality.
Information for travelers on Corfu Food and Drink including restaurants and tavernas, Corfiot specialties, desserts, wine and other Greek drinks like ouzo.
The First Corfu Beer Festival took place in Arillas in North West Corfu and celebrated the beer of Bavaria and of Corfu, in the Ionian islands of Greece.
The Greece Travel Secrets guide to tipping in Greece from two Greece travel experts, including when to tip, what to tip and when not to tip.
This beginner's guide to Greek architecture explains how to tell your Ionic from your Doric columns, and what to look for in temples and Byzantine churches.
What is Metaxa? Metaxa is an amber Greek spirit combining brandy made by distilling wine, sweet wine from Samos and a secret recipe of Mediterranean botanicals.
Raki is an alcoholic drink made with distilled grapes and anise, and popular in Greece and other Mediterranean countries, including Greece’s neighbour Turkey.
What is a Greek Salad – a Greek Salad is made up of tomatoes, cucumber, onions, green pepper, olives, and feta cheese.
Greece Travel Secrets reveals the history of the classic Greek dish, moussaka, as well as providing a recipe for you to make your own.
Greek ouzo is an aniseed-based aperitif made all over the country but especially on Lesbos, tasting like a Greek pastis or arak and usually drunk with water.
The Greece Travel Secrets guide to Greek grape varieties to help you know which wines to choose when dining in restaurants or buying wine in Greece.
Greek food and drink is a highlight of any visit and Greece Travel Secrets brings you info about food and drink from all over Greece, from Athens to Zakynthos.
Greek feta cheese is the most popular cheese in Greece, usually made from sheep’s milk, with a soft texture and salty taste and used to top off a Greek salad.
Greek alcoholic drinks include distinctly Greek drinks such as ouzo, Metaxa, retsina, raki, tsikoudia and tsipouro, but also Greek wines and Greek beers.
Greece Travel Secrets explains the long history of the Greek dish of dolmades, or stuffed vine leaves, which goes back to ancient Greece, and provides a recipe.
Visiting Santorini wineries is a popular activity on this Greek island in the Cyclades, whose volcanic soil provides a distinctive terroir.
There are lots of flights from Athens to Santorini as well as a ferry service from Piraeus, with flights to Santorini leaving from Athens International Airport.
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