Local Delicacies

[ubuysa]

Too many local delicacies here to name, Cretan food is very varied, but here's a starter list (in no particular order)....

Dakos - Cretan barley rusk with feta and tomato, dripping in Cretan olive oil
Dolmades - vine leaves stuffed with rice
Souvlaki - pork, chicken, lamb or sometimes veal on a skewer and grilled
Gyros - chips, tomatoes, onion, feta and kebab pork or chicken
Pita gyros - gyros wrapped in a pita
Keftedes -meatballs, usually in a tomato sauce
Tsimoulia - local wild greens (harvested by hand in the mountains) with eggs
Tyropitakia - cheese filled pies
Tigania - pork in a wine sauce
Loukaniko - local Cretan sausages grilled

These are all served as mezes and are small portion size-wise. Typically you'll order a bunch for a table of people and everyone will share. If you're still hungry when they're gone you order some more. Each of the above costs about €4 to €5 each.

Once you're accepted as a local any visit to any bar or taverna where you order something alcoholic will usually include a free gyros or similar meze. At a local bar we use a lot we get a gyros with every singe round we buy. You can have a great free lunch just by buying two or three beers (at €3 for a half litre bottle).

 

[AgentCooper]

Pie and Bovril is a must at football but if you get lucky there may be Stovies on offer as well. One of the best is in the clubhouse at Peterhead FC.

My gran's corned beef stovies were legendary. I was a professional chef for six years but my stovies just aren't the same. I miss that woman.

 

[Stephen M]

It is almost impossible to get traditional food that is as good as home made stuff. A much missed friend of ours in Stenny was famous for his Clootie Dumpling.

Sam was an amazing character and had the very dubious honour of having been one of the youngest soldiers to have been on the front line in the Korean war.

 

[Stephen M]

Think there are varieties of Black Pudding the world over and have never tried one I did not like. The Stornaway is great, although being from the West Country I like the version with gert lumps of fat in it.

Another really nice one is Kölner Blutwurst.

 

[Stephen M]

A simple but very enjoyable dish I like in Köln is Bratkartoffle with some fried spinach on top then topped with a fried egg.

 

[Martinr36]

Not sure if this is a West Country thing but faggots are great as well, a sort of haggis but without the oatmeal. They have to come from a proper butcher, once tried supermarket ones, Brains, they were disgusting, basically stale bread and sawdust bound with glue.

Many years ago before i was vegan & spent a fair bit of time caving in the mendips, one of the local cider houses, The Hunters Lodge Inn at Priddy, used to do a superb bowl of faggots with mushy peas and a chunk of bread

 

[Stephen M]

Many years ago before i was vegan & spent a fair bit of time caving in the mendips, one of the local cider houses, The Hunters Lodge Inn at Priddy, used to do a superb bowl of faggots with mushy peas and a chunk of bread

Sounds great, although best thing with faggots and peas is scrubbled potatoes - boiled potatoes well broken up but not completey mashed with a rich onion gravy.

 

[CMP01]

I think Baxter's make a canned version, DO NOT try it. Make it yourself or try it at a restaurant.... if we ever get to go restaurants again.

Agreed. Done right it's damn good, as good as Chowder or Gumbo from various parts of the US but the Baxters one, while among the better canned soups itself, is a poor try compared to the proper stuff.

 

[CMP01]

Sounds great, although best thing with faggots and peas is scrubbled potatoes - boiled potatoes well broken up but not completey mashed with a rich onion gravy.

Nice word, scrubbled. Never heard it before though, is it a regional thing?

It instantly reminded me a bit of how my old mum does chips. Spuds get sliced, boiled a bit then drained and knocked about about a bit and into the oil. Soft inside, crispy out and kind of feathered around the edges is the outcome. Gert lush!
I forget the term but scrubbled is for me what the sound would be of her doing the tater tossing part of that.

Into the vocab it goes then.

 

[Snuggles]

I don't know if I would call it a local delicacy but It's very popular where I grew up at least.

Smoked kippers with scrambled egg and black pudding in a toasted wrap with a touch of hot sauce for breakfast.

Certainly, gives me some get up and go once or twice a week. All the cafes used to sell it but I don't see it so much any more which makes me sad.

 

[Bigfoot]

Nice word, scrubbled. Never heard it before though, is it a regional thing?

It instantly reminded me a bit of how my old mum does chips. Spuds get sliced, boiled a bit then drained and knocked about about a bit and into the oil. Soft inside, crispy out and kind of feathered around the edges is the outcome. Gert lush!
I forget the term but scrubbled is for me what the sound would be of her doing the tater tossing part of that.

Into the vocab it goes then.

That is also the best way to cook roast potatoes, preferably using goose fat.

 

[CMP01]

That is also the best way to cook roast potatoes, preferably using goose fat.

Ah yes, totally. My mum is also a boss when it comes to roasties too. Same method.

Only person I know that does the same and as well (almost anyway) is my gf's mum.

 

[CMP01]

I don't know if I would call it a local delicacy but It's very popular where I grew up at least.

Smoked kippers with scrambled egg and black pudding in a toasted wrap with a touch of hot sauce for breakfast.

Certainly, gives me some get up and go once or twice a week. All the cafes used to sell it but I don't see it so much any more which makes me sad.

Kippers, with or without scrambled egg, is fine fare (but then I say that about any decently sized and satisfying meal, I'm simple like that lol) though it's been a very long time since. That was kind of my step-grandfathers thing and he passed almost 20 years ago now.
Not so keen on the black pud though tbh.

On the subject of scrambled egg though (and I love any kind of egg done all ways except hard boiled) I'm also nuts about a really good blue stilton or gorgonzola piccante. I often throw some scrapings of those into a scrambled egg near the end of cooking for a really nice and different flavour and kick.

Other foods that make my day are sushi, rollmop/pickled herring, gherkins and sauerkraut (my more recent German ancestry comes out for the last three)

 

[Bigfoot]

Kippers, with or without scrambled egg, is fine fare (but then I say that about any decently sized and satisfying meal, I'm simple like that lol) though it's been a very long time since. That was kind of my step-grandfathers thing and he passed almost 20 years ago now.
Not so keen on the black pud though tbh.

On the subject of scrambled egg though (and I love any kind of egg done all ways except hard boiled) I'm also nuts about a really good blue stilton or gorgonzola piccante. I often throw some scrapings of those into a scrambled egg near the end of cooking for a really nice and different flavour and kick.

Other foods that make my day are sushi, rollmop/pickled herring, gherkins and sauerkraut (my more recent German ancestry comes out for the last three)

The ultimate smoked fish has to be smoked salmon - both hot smoked and cold smoked, which are quite different from each other. Smoked salmon is a great match for softly poached eggs and hollandaise sauce - my usual Christmas Day breakfast.

Stornoway Black Pudding is excellent. It goes very well with hand dived scallops. The west coast of Scotland has excellent sea food, much of which used to be sent to Europe. It easily rivals anything you can find in France. Langoustines cooked in water from the sea loch they were caught in has to be tried.

 

[CMP01]

The ultimate smoked fish has to be smoked salmon - both hot smoked and cold smoked, which are quite different from each other. Smoked salmon is a great match for softly poached eggs and hollandaise sauce - my usual Christmas Day breakfast.

Stornoway Black Pudding is excellent. It goes very well with hand dived scallops. The west coast of Scotland has excellent sea food, much of which used to be sent to Europe. It easily rivals anything you can find in France. Langoustines cooked in water from the sea loch they were caught in has to be tried.

You had me at smoked salmon and seafood. Eating sounds good up there.

Now, would you believe it... I'm Berkshire born and bred (a hive of scum and villainy known as Slough in fact) and currently live just over the border in Surrey... fair enough if not far enough lol, but... I've never been to Scotland even though I lived much closer to it (County Durham, which I loved) for a whole year. I never had the right opportunity at the right time despite being right there next door, just one of those inexplicable things. Everybody I know has been to Scotland. For shame I guess, as we're hardly the biggest country to travel across, but my future plans will only take me westwards, to Somerset, for the foreseeable.

 

[Bigfoot]

You had me at smoked salmon and seafood. Eating sounds good up there.

Now, would you believe it... I'm Berkshire born and bred (a hive of scum and villainy known as Slough in fact) and currently live just over the border in Surrey... fair enough if not far enough lol, but... I've never been to Scotland even though I lived much closer to it (County Durham, which I loved) for a whole year. I never had the right opportunity at the right time despite being right there next door, just one of those inexplicable things. Everybody I know has been to Scotland. For shame I guess, as we're hardly the biggest country to travel across, but my future plans will only take me westwards, to Somerset, for the foreseeable.

I am originally from the coast, but moved to Scotland in the late 1990s, having first visited in the 1980. Before my move, half my work involved travelling to Scotland, so it wasn’t a difficult move to make. We have the best and the worst food imaginable in Scotland.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I was up in Edinburgh for New Years in 2003 but the celebrations were cancelled due to high winds.

Didn't seem to make the blindest bit of difference to anyone, no one got upset, ended up in a bus shelter in the middle of town with loads of other revellers drinking, and singing songs. Met a beautiful young lady. It was one of the best nights of my life. Literally a hurricane happening around us and didn't phase anyone.

Unfortunately I must have drunk a bit much as spent about 24 hours afterwards being violently ill in my mates flat and then had to make the 12 hour train trip back down South whilst feeling like absolute death. Still didn't put a negative on the trip though, incredible night.

 

[Bigfoot]

I have been to Edinburgh a few times, but never for New Year. I did get to a Rugby World Cup quarter final to see Scotland vs Western Samoa, but had no chance of tickets for the semi final - Scotland vs England. The Stonehaven fireball festival is worth a New Year‘s Eve visit. I went in the mid 1990s. Up Helly Aa in Shetland is meant to be be a great show, but the ferry trip from Aberdeen in January is likely to be exciting. It has a reputation at the best of times, especially once north of the mainland, but a January storm would mean 12 hours of extreme discomfort. Stonehaven is the home of the Bernie Chipper, which claims to have invented the deep fried Mars bar.

 

[jamiephillips909]

Many years ago before i was vegan & spent a fair bit of time caving in the mendips, one of the local cider houses, The Hunters Lodge Inn at Priddy, used to do a superb bowl of faggots with mushy peas and a chunk of bread

My dad once convinced me that mr brains faggots were actually made of cows brains when I was halfway through eating a bowl of it

 

[ubuysa]

We went out to our favourite taverna last night for the first time since last October. Bars, tavernas and cafes only opened in Greece 5 days ago since the start of lockdown last November.

At our favourite taverna we get small mezes for free whilst you decide what you want to order....

This is octopus salad and a special tzatziki with paximadia (twice-backed barley rusk type bread - traditionally Cretan).

We finished that and still hadn't decided what to order so they brought us another free mezze...

This is a bit more octopus salad on their special tzatziki and merides (whitebait).

What did we eventually order I hear you ask...?

The near one is mine, veal in a mushroom and Mavrodafni sauce (Mavrodafni is a Greek port-like wine) with baked potatoes and a small salad (underneath). My wife's is chicken, I forget what sauce it has but it's with fried potatoes (underneath)

You get a free dessert at this taverna too...

A kind of creme brullee served with the traditional raki. The Cretan equivalent of grappa - it's a digestive aid, well they claim it is....