a day and I’m happy to report that they are all good. We have now had the keftedes with spearmint as well as dill (not at the same time). I’d be hard pressed to say which one is better. If I make them at home I’ll probably do them both ways--and maybe try basil, which we did not have on Santorini but which seems like an obvious choice. Everywhere you go in Santorini, you’ll find little tavernas advertising and serving "traditional" Santorini food: tomato balls, tsatsiki, fried eggplant, saganaki, taramosalata, souvlaki, etc. And they are all pretty good. We didn’t have a bad meal the entire tim
e we were there. So what’s to judge? Some of the tomato balls were a little greasier than others. The mint vs. dill question. Zucchini or no zucchini? Hell, they’re all good. But we’re giving the Best Tomato Balls in Santorini (okay, among the dozen or so we sampled) to Santorini Mou, the place right near our hotel with the friendly owner who serenaded us newlyweds. That place is on my "must go" list for anyone who asks, as much for the experience as for the food. And they also have the best tomato balls. Why? They were the most tomatoey. Santorini is famous for its tomatoes and these really let the flavor of the tomatoes take center stage. As for saganaki: again, some are greasier than others. Some undercooked the cheese, so it wasn’t quite as gooey as hoped for. But hell, even "substandard" fried cheese is pretty damn good! And they were all pretty damn good! And then there is the saganaki at Metaxi Mas.
I read about this place on TripAdvisor when I went searching for saganaki online. The rave review of what the writer ca
lled "the best saganaki and runner up saganaki in all of Greece" convinced both Paul and me that it was worth the trip. For research purposes if nothing else. (Right.) It’s a bit off the beaten path, in a tiny hilltop village in the middle of the island (I think it’s the only place we ate that didn’t have a view of either the Aegean or the caldera). As we gleaned from the TripAdvisor review, you’ll see that Metaxi Mas’s saganaki is not your basic fried hard white Greek cheese. They have two varieties: of course we had both (on different nights).
The first was pan-fried feta cheese in pastry covered with sesame seeds and honey. Wow! It just melts on the plate and then in your mouth. An entirely different dish and one of the best things, Paul 
and I agreed, we’d ever eaten. We also had a barley bread appetizer with soft cheese and delightfully fresh tomatoes and capers (a Greek bagel with cream cheese!), Cretan cottage cheese pie that was quite tasty, a pomegranate salad (we’ve been eating lots and lots of salads in an effort to be virtuous--although the salads are so good in Santorini that virtue is pretty much beside the point) and the m
ost delicious, delicate lamb chops, which are, Paul reminds me to add, sold by the kilogram! Most of the chops were very slender things with just a bit of tender and not-very-fatty meat clinging to them. A few were more substantial. Paul declared (with a straight face) that it’s because the lambs walk around the mountains and one side becomes more developed than the other. (Hey, it’s a theory. Of course he’d made that up.) We had "Cretan jacket potatoes," which looked like plain sliced boiled potatoes but were sweet and creamy and anything but plain.
We went back to Metaxi Mas for our one-month anniversary dinner on Tuesday (June 28), and had the second saganaki: this one was a gruyere-type cheese in a crust. Also fantastic, but we agreed that the first one, with the melted feta, took the prize.
Speaking of potentially "substandard" saganaki, I actually made some of my own while we were in Santorini. We had a little kitchenette (basically a refrigerator, 2-burner hot plate, and a very few dishes and utensils) at the room, as well as a lovely little table on a patio, so we had breakfast in every day and also endeavored to have either lunch or dinner "at home" to save money (and calories). We’d bought some hard white cheese (don’t ask me the name of it) and we had some butter as well (no olive oil!), so I sliced up the cheese and fried it in some butter. We had no flour or seasonings of any kind (including salt and pepper), so it was just plain cheese fried in butter. It made a mess and it was delicious! (Paul: anything fried in butter is going to taste good, probably even cardboard. But cheese is better.)
It’s a good thing Italy is next on the agenda; otherwise we’d really miss the food in Santorini (probably will anyway!). In addition to the Greek specialties (Paul is also very fond of the taramosalata, the pink fish roe dip popular in Greece), we’ll miss the salads with their fresh fresh veggies (especially cucumbers--I'd not been much of a cucumber eater before, now I can’t get enough of them) and most especially, the fish: sea bass and sea bream, fresh caught, brushed with olive oi
l, served whole. Sweet and moist and so so good. Our last dinner, literally seaside at Taverna Katina at the docks below the village of Oia, won the prizes for best taramosalata and best fresh fish. A fitting end to a wonderful stay on a gorgeous island!
I will end with a short rant about shrimp. I hate to be a fastidious American (but there you have it), but what is it with serving shrimp whole and in the shell. Yes, I suppose it’s more flavorful that way--and yes, when you eventually get to eat it, it’s much sweeter and flavorful than "naked American shrimp." And the idea of eating shrimp fresh out of the water and tossed on the grill has its appeal. But here’s the thing: those shells are hot! And if there’s a way to peel them and cut off the heads etc. without burning your fingers, I haven’t figured out what it is. And of course by the time you’ve done that, they’re not hot any more. Let’s also not forget that the shrimp aren’t cleaned when cooked this way, so your choices are to do yourself or eat what is essentially shrimp poop. (Paul: shrimp poop is probably not like eating, you know, regular poop. Me: It’s poop.) I don’t know about you, but wiping my food’s butt before eating it is rather offputting.
And lest I’ve ruined all your appetites by that last rant, I will atone by including links to some of our favorite restaurants. I’m guessing the menus will have your mouths watering again!
Fish Taverna Katina, Ammoudi Port (below Oia)
No comments:
Post a Comment