Greek Regional
“The region is the dish's surname.”
Chef Dimitra
Chef Dimitra (Δήμητρα) is the Chemist of Memory, a Greek cook who came to food from the laboratory and stayed to keep it from disappearing. She grew up in her mother Sofia's Thessaloniki kitchen, where her grandmother Despina, a refugee from Constantinople in 1922, made Politiki kouzina her first language, then earned a PhD in organic chemistry from Aristotle University before a decade as a research chemist. At a great-aunt's funeral in Epirus in 2003, she found that the old woman's recipes existed nowhere but in her hands, and that night the chemist became an archivist.
Now she documents Greek regional cooking region by region from her Thessaloniki kitchen, keeping a dated notebook and a mailbag of recipes sent by home cooks she credits by name, because she doesn't invent Greek food, she finds it, tests it, and writes it down. Her philosophy: "The region is the dish's surname."
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
7 recipes
The layered oven dishes, the food of Sunday and celebration. Moussaka and pastitsio in their tall Athenian bechamel form, stuffed papoutsakia, veal giouvetsi with kritharaki, Cyprus's own makaronia tou fournou, Crete's wedding gamopilafo, and the Politiki atzem pilafi cooked in lamb broth. The region is the dish's surname.
19 recipes
From the daily loaf to the holy table. The everyday village horiatiko and a prozymi sourdough, Crete's chickpea eftazymo and barley rusks, Cyprus's arkatena, the sesame koulouri of Thessaloniki, Lenten lagana and Cycladic ladenia, and the festive breads, tsoureki, the Politiki vasilopita, christopsomo, lambropsomo, Cypriot flaounes, and the liturgical prosforo.
14 recipes
The Greek cookie tin that never empties at the holidays and never quite empties the rest of the year either. Christmas melomakarona and kourabiedes side by side, Smyrna's stuffed finikia, Easter koulourakia from the mainland to Cyprus, the Lenten oil-and-must cookies of the fasting calendar, island almond amygdalota, Chios mastic and Symi rosewater, Corfu's peppery biscuits, Cretan raisin stafidota, coffee-dunk paximadakia, and jam-latticed pasta flora. Named by region, the real version, written down.
19 recipes
The Greek cup through the day. Ellinikos kafes from the briki and the summer frappe and freddo, the mountain and island infusions, warm winter salepi and rakomelo, and the old non-alcoholic celebration syrups, soumada, visinada, and the Corfu and Dodecanese refreshers.
9 recipes
The cooked Greek morning. Strapatsada and Peloponnesian kagianas (eggs folded into summer tomato), the baked island omelets sfougato and Andriot froutalia, and tiganites, the small fritters finished with honey and sesame.
8 recipes
The festival and name-day doughs, fried in deep olive oil and finished with honey. Pan-Hellenic loukoumades, Peloponnesian diples and Maniot lalangia, Cretan xerotigana, Ionian svingoi, the Politiki touloumbes the refugees carried west, and the Cypriot fried pockets, shiamishi and pourekia me anari.
16 recipes
The hot side of the meze table. Pan-fried saganaki, Cycladic tomatokeftedes, courgette and island chickpea fritters, the fried-fish plates that built the ouzo table, salt cod with skordalia, calamari, Thassos octopus fritters, and the rolled things, dolmadakia yialantzi above all. Named by region and built on good olive oil, sheep-milk cheese, pulses, and the fasting calendar.
15 recipes
The festive red meats, roasted and grilled. Kleftiko sealed and slow-baked, the Easter spit lamb (arni sti souvla), Crete's antikristo staked toward the fire, paidakia and kontosouvli off the coals, kokoretsi, and beef brizoles.
11 recipes
The cold meze table. Yogurt-and-cucumber tzatziki, smoky melitzanosalata, whipped taramosalata, the spicy northern tirokafteri of the Politiki refugees, Santorini fava, garlicky skordalia, and Mykonos kopanisti. Built on sheep-milk dairy, cured roe, pulses, and good olive oil.
12 recipes
The phyllo-and-syrup bakery case, region by region: baklava and kataifi from the City, ekmek and saragli of Asia Minor, Thessaloniki's bougatsa, trigona and kopenhagi, and the regional sweets of Epirus, Cyprus and Mani, the Ottoman-palace phyllo inheritance made Greek.
12 recipes
The wrapped street tradition. Pork and chicken gyros off the spit, souvlaki and kalamaki off the skewer, the bifteki pita, and the City's kebab, all rolled into warm pita with tzatziki, tomato, onion, and fries. The wrap, not the plate.
14 recipes
The everyday roasts and the festive birds of the Greek home. Gourounopoulo crackling from the village spit and psaronefri in mustard and wine; Cyprus's coriander afelia, Mani's pan-fried tigania, the autumn quince braise, and Macedonia's Christmas pork with prunes. Then the Sunday birds: lemon and oregano chicken, the tray roast with potatoes, chicken giouvetsi, kokoras krasatos over hilopites, the stuffed Christmas turkey, and high-summer chicken with okra. The region is the dish's surname.
10 recipes
The real Greek salad table, named region by region: the village horiatiki as it's eaten at home, Crete's barley-rusk dakos, boiled horta and the prized stamnagathi, summer vlita, beetroot pantzarosalata under skordalia, a Lenten black-eyed pea salad, and the cabbage slaws, plain lahanosalata and the pickled politiki salata of Constantinople.
12 recipes
The sauces that carry the cuisine. Avgolemono done so it sets like silk instead of scrambling, the besamel for the baked classics, the spiced meat and tomato sauces under pastitsio, ladolemono and ladorigani for grilled fish and meat, Corfu's savoro, and the pickle jar.
17 recipes
The pie that defines a region. Famous spanakopita and tiropita beside wild-greens hortopita, the meat pies of Epirus, Constantinople's boiled- phyllo water pie, island cheese pies, and the crustless batter pites of the mountains. Handrolled phyllo and country dough both.
22 recipes
What the Greek coasts and islands actually cook: whole fish baked plaki and grilled with ladolemono, octopus in wine, stuffed squid, shrimp and mussel saganaki, the Politiki mussel pilaf, and Corfu's bianco and savoro.
9 recipes
The accompaniments to the roast and the grill: lemon-oregano oven potatoes and Cyprus's coriander-shaken antinahtes, the rice pilafs from spanakorizo to Cypriot bulgur, and the fried eggplant and peppers that share the meze table.
14 recipes
Greece's broth pot, from the legume floor to the avgolemono family: white bean fasolada, lentil fakes, Sifnos revithada baked overnight, kotosoupa and kreatosoupa avgolemono, youvarlakia, sour trahanas, Cypriot louvana and trahanas with halloumi, Cretan ospriada, the fishermen's kakavia, the family psarosoupa, the winter patsas, and Easter's magiritsa. The region is the dish's surname; the fasting calendar fills half the pot.
21 recipes
The sweets a Greek house offers a guest. Glyka koutaliou, whole fruit set in syrup, from sour cherry to Cyprus watermelon rind; the three halvas; ancient sesame pasteli; Syros loukoumi and Zakynthos nougat; creamy rizogalo and Constantinople's kazan dipi; and the mastic-and-salep ice cream of the Politiki kitchen.
15 recipes
The Sunday pot, and the braise that gives the category its name: kokkinisto, the reddened stew. Beef and chicken kokkinisto, Smyrna's soutzoukakia, Easter kapama, pearl-onion stifado and its Lenten octopus, the egg-lemon fricassee and pork with wild celery, lemony moschari lemonato, the Venetian Ionian's sofrito, pastitsada and bourdeto from Corfu, Cretan tsigariasto, the Politiki tas kebab, and Pelion's spetsofai. The region is the dish's surname.
10 recipes
The syrup-soaked cakes of the home oven. Semolina ravani, walnut karidopita, orange portokalopita, yogurt cake, the meatless-day fanouropita, and the Sifnos honey-and-cheese melopita.
15 recipes
The daily face of Greek cooking: vegetables and pulses cooked down soft in olive oil until it pools glossy on top. Fasolakia, briam, gemista, gigantes plaki, and the seasonal ladera, the backbone of the fasting table. Good olive oil, and patience.
10 recipes
The Orthodox fasting kitchen as its own system, the dishes that live by the calendar rather than the category. The oil-free Clean Monday octopus and the monks' tahini soup, lentils and rice, Cypriot louvia, Corfu's tsigareli, the koliva offered for the souls, and sweets with no egg or milk in them. This is nistisima, older than the word vegan, and it is the deepest plant-based tradition in the Mediterranean.
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