After our terrible flight from NYC during an ice storm into Milan, then Athens (we missed our connecting flight, obviously), we were exhausted and cranky.  Exhausted from having to wait on the runway for 5 hours while we were “in line” to have our wings de-iced – I am fairly claustrophobic and needed to knock myself out in order to prevent a panic attack – cranky from the lack of real food during this time, and having our first day in Athens basically wasted.  We’d aimed to arrive around 2 pm, so we’d have had plenty of time to walk around and get a feel for Athens first, but instead we arrived closer to 7:30 pm and decided to just have dinner at a nearby restaurant mentioned in our guidebook.

This proved to be a wise choice; a short walk from our hotel and an extremely friendly proprietor made the experience complete.

We chose to start off with “taramasalata”, our first experience with such a dish (so we thought, but a quick peek at our trip to Turkish Kitchen proves otherwise).  (Taramasalata is essentially a fish roe spread.  At another place we went to, the proprietor came out and told us that it’s basically yogurt, potato and fish roe mixed together; sometimes they use bread instead of potatoes.)

This was by far the best version of this we had anywhere in Greece or Turkey.  Thick with the overlying flavor of the fish roe without being overpowering- we spent a good 15 minutes discussing the flavors, noting a hint of onion, but none of us guessed the potato ingredient (if there was in this dish, that is), we could not stop spreading our bread with this.  We almost filled up on it… but it was so good.  This was also the only place where it wasn’t pink; it was suggested that perhaps the quality of the fish roe or the kind played a part in that, but this was definitely the best we had despite or perhaps because it was different from the other places.  Delicious.  (I wouldn’t mind some right now…)

We’d read somewhere that grilled octopus was another traditional Greek dish, and so we ordered this.  Another great choice- it came almost like a salad, dressed with olive oil and fresh herbs along side hearty slices of tomatoes.  The octopus was grilled to perfection- not overcooked nor raw (though I’ve eaten raw octopus, which is spongy and briny tasting, yum), it had a slight bouncy chew to it (for those who’ve asked me what octopus tastes like… I am going to attempt to describe it) with a clean bite.  It’s hard to explain – it’s much like squid that has been cooked exactly right; not chewy so much as bouncy.  This was also a yummy beginning.

As we’d been told by a Greek native friend of mine, kebab is a traditional Greek dish, so HB ordered this as our first experience with kebab in Greece.  I recall that it was extremely tasty and we all liked it, but not much else.  This was the beginning of all the fries though- for some reason, wherever we went, they served fries with everything.  Not that I’m complaining, but it was interesting.

Unfortunately, being that it was quite a while ago, I do not remember what MD ordered, just that she liked it a lot.  I know I tried some and I know I liked it, but I just cannot remember what it was- it feels like it was lifetimes ago that we went.

I’d heard or figured out that lamb was abundant in Greece and supposedly fantastic.  I mention now that I do not like lamb in general.  I’ve made it once and even though it was good at the time, it still had that underlying gamey taste that I associate lamb with.  My brother has spoken of lamb that has no such gamey taste, and I always thought to myself, “So it tastes like beef?  I don’t get it… isn’t that what makes it lamb?”  But NO, I was wrong.  This lamb dish- kind of stewed but yet, not- was so tender, soft and delicious, still tasted distinctly like lamb but without that metallic lamb/gamey taste to it.  It was absolutely scrumptious.  I loved it.  I learned the next night at dinner that even the crappy restuarants can do lamb properly.  I’m not sure if it’s just the way lamb are raised here in the states, or how fresh they are, or what, but lamb in Greece was consistently delicious, a fact evidenced by the three of us, all non-lamb-eaters, chowing down on lamb nearly night after night after night.  Delicious.

MD and I, though stuffed beyond belief at this point, opted to try a dessert- an almond cake.  The dense cake was moist with a syrupy sugar concoction and was addicting, though not something I’d eat a lot of nor order on a regular basis.  I enjoyed my portion but not quite so much as MD.

Finally, satisfied, we trooped up to the roof garden to enjoy the view.

(Wow, I look so tired… and no, I’m not wearing heels.  They are just that short… I’m only 5’8, sheesh!)

Yes, that is indeed the Parthenon in the background.  We were very impressed with the fantastic view and walked happily back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep before all day sight-seeing the next day.  Later, we learned that there are great views of the Parthenon from all over the city.

Yvo says: Parakalos (please, in Greek), go here!  I realize most of my readers are in NYC, but when next you happen to find yourself in Athens, the food here was delicious and the service extremely friendly and delightful.  We didn’t have a bad dish out of the bunch and we all went home with fully tummies and smiles on our faces, despite being tired and grumpy.  This was definitely our best meal of the whole trip, and it wasn’t expensive, either (I can’t remember actual numbers right now, but I am positive we didn’t break 100€ for the three of us, which isn’t bad considering all of the food we got.  Delicious.
highly recommended

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Lamb kebab with pita, tzatziki

Grilled octopus, with our appetizer of taramasalata in the background

Pork schnitzel

Our first meal in Turkey was soundly disappointing, but we knowingly went into a touristy place.  Ah well.

Our mezze (starter) platter - hummus-ish, horse beans, stuffed eggplant, shredded chicken salad type thing, greens, and I forget what was in the center.  We liked this compilation quite a bit actually.

LanNa’s soup

Salad

LanNa’s fish – no really, there’s a few sea bass chunks in there somewhere.  It had a LOT of bones.

Shirley’s “Turkish” dolmades (stuffed grape leaves)

My handmade pasta with lamb

Best kofte (“meatballs”) in Istanbul, according to a Turkish friend

Salad with yummy beans

Rice pilaf

Kofte!!!  Soft, delicious kofte

Worst meal overall on vacation: in Ciceki Paseji (Flower Passage, literally) in Istanbul, in the Taksim district.  We sat in this crowded hallway like place, with cats roaming up and down (they were cute, actually), and the restaurant owners would insist you look at their menu and get very aggressive.  We randomly chose a place that had people in it, because they all boasted fresh fish, but the prices were outrageous- even more outrageous was that they show you this tray of “fresh” fish (they’re all dead at that point, of course, and just lying on a tray), and when you try to order it, you find out that it’s served whole (head, tail, both on, with bones).  Call us spoiled Americans- but even so, that’s not true; I’ll eat whole fish, steamed, at home, or in restaurants even and not flinch.  Asian restaurants.  Which are much cheaper than what they wanted (it was something like 20YTL per kilo of fish, and you had to buy the whole fish, and the turbot was HUGE- 2+ kg, plus it’s so simply prepared I just didn’t feel it was worth it, and not all of us wanted fish….).

Our mezze- broccoli-ish and horse beans

another mezze- stuffed mussels.  Where are the mussels?…

Salad

LanNa’s shrimp and garlic something or other

Shirley’s kebab something or other

Why all the pictures of one dish?  Because, you see, my friends, this is me eating fried lamb brain.  I swore I’d try it since I saw it on another food blogger’s site describing Greek food, after my friends decided we were going to Greece.  I didn’t see it on any menus in Greece, so instead I tried it in Istanbul.  The verdict?  Don’t eat it with a doctor next to you telling you “Trust me, I’ve dissected enough brains, it tastes like brain.”  Seriously, though, it’s kind of mushy, with no real taste of its own.  I wouldn’t say I disliked it but I don’t see any reason to go out of my way to get it again.  Kind of like how I felt about fugu (blowfish)… people eat it just to say “I ate that.”  Though not sure about the brain, that might be a cultural thing, though it really tastes like nothing to me.

An honest-to-goodness Turkish snack: a “simit”.  Something like a pretzel, but on the inside, at this particular place, fluffy like a croissant though less buttery.  These can be found on every corner being sold from a cart, and in cafes, sometimes cut open to serve a sandwich within.  We got this one- our inaugural simit from Simit Sariya (Simit Palace), and were very pleased, but annoyed the next day when we got one from a cart to discover it was rock hard and cold, much more like a NYC street-pretzel than we’d expected.

Though I didn’t photograph the rest of our meal (very normal, dive place, no big deal, though on the Asia side of Turkey), this was the only dessert we had in Turkey.  A chocolate pudding, essentially, though the top was sprinkled with finely chopped nuts and had a layer congealed on top, the pudding itself was extremely delicious.  We concluded that anything made with milk/dairy in Turkey/Greece (or maybe all of Europe) is better because it’s richer and has no FDA to regulate the pasteurization (if any) and therefore just tastes better.

Our last meal in Turkey was in the Grand Bazaar, at Havuzlu, which is mentioned in many guidebooks and, the proprietor proudly informed us, the New York Times (I bit back telling him exactly what I thought of the NYT and their restaurant reviews).  It was a bit hard to navigate towards, and is in a strange, less traveled portion of the Bazaar, but we found it after much cursing and pushing of other tourists.

Shirley’s “steak”

Kofte – not as good as the first place

I will have more formal reviews for only two places we visited- one in Athens, and one in Istanbul… coming soon.  For now, happy eating!!!

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