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Greek Village Cuisine
Greek cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine, sharing
characteristics with the cuisines of
Italy, the Balkans, Turkey, and the Levant.
Contemporary Greek cookery makes wide
use of olive oil, vegetables and herbs, grains and bread, wine, fish, and various meats, including poultry, rabbit
and pork. Also important are olives, cheese,
eggplant (aubergine), courgette, and yoghurt. Greek desserts are characterized
by the dominant use of nuts and honey. Some dishes use filo pastry.
Mezés is a collective name
for a variety of small dishes, typically served with wines or anise-flavored
liqueurs as ouzo or homemade tsipouro. Orektika is the formal
name for appetizers and is often used as a reference to eating a first course of
a cuisine other than Greek cuisine. Dips are served with bread loaf or pita bread. In some regions, dried bread
(paximadhi) is softened in water. Greek cuisine has a long tradition and its flavours change with the season and its geography. Greek cookery,
historically a forerunner of Western cuisine, spread its culinary influence -
via ancient Rome - throughout Europe and beyond.It has
influences from the different people's cuisine the Greeks have interacted with
over the centuries, as evidenced by several types of sweets and cooked
foods.
It was Archestratos in 320 B.C. who wrote the first
cookbook in history. Greece has a culinary tradition of some 4,000 years. Ancient Greek
cuisine was characterized by its frugality and was founded on the
"Mediterranean triad": wheat, olive oil, and wine, with meat being rarely eaten and fish being more
common. This trend in Greek
diet continued in Roman and Ottoman times and changed only fairly recently when
technological progress has made meat more available. Wine and olive oil have
always been a central part of it and the spread of grapes and olive trees in the
Mediterranean and further afield is not uncorrelated with Greek
colonization.
The Byzantine
cuisine was similar to the classical cuisine including however new
ingredients that were not available before, like caviar, nutmeg and lemons, with
fish continuing to be an integral part of the diet. Culinary advice was
influenced by the theory of humors, first put forth by the ancient Greek doctor
Claudius Aelius Galenus.
Byzantine cuisine benefited from Constantinople’s position as a global hub of
the spice trade.
Greek cuisine is very diverse and although there are many common characteristics
amongst the culinary traditions of different regions within the country, there
are also many differences, making it difficult to present a full list of representative dishes.
So book a table and try a Greek Village meal with us.
Call - 01905772936 Tex - 07586847882 Book Online - Reservations
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