Bustling with energy.
I ordered a cherry tomato salad (roughly five euro) with sour mizithra (soft white cheese).
Mizithra cheese, often made with sheep or goat milk, is common in Greece and is similar to ricotta.
The salad came with a generous handful of cherry...tomatoes, kritamos, capers, and olives.
The olives were dehydrated, like a salty version of slightly larger raisins. They were cured to have the bitterness inhibited, so as not be overpowering, but characteristically present.
Kritamos is a local Greek vegetable. Mysterious, slender leaves the color of green olives, draping like long fingers from a stalk somewhat like that of a grape. It had a fragrance between that of an olive and that of lemon zest. Idiosyncratic, yet harmonious with tomato. Stands out it were topped onto the tomato, like scaffolding, giving the salad a visually appealing structure.
Buried underneath the tomato were hidden chunks of carob rusk. The carob is produced in southern parts of Europe and is a legume, a bean that in color resembles chocolate, which is at times replaced with carob in food from health food stores. The carob is at times ground into flour and made into rusks, as in our case. With a soft fragrance between that ofbread and chocolate, the carob crumbles were in large pieces roughly the size of cherry tomatoes. They were lightly sweetened to begin with, and became even more so after the balsamic vinegar used for seasoning the salad seeped into it.
Contrasting well with the carob rusk was the white, creamy mizithra with which it came. Texture was light enough to be not greasy, but thick enough to stand as something substantial on its own. Characteristic to mizithra cheese is the smell of goat milk from which it is made, though in this case it was rather gentle, and thus would be still appealing to even those who are not too fond of goat cheese.
Additionally I ordered a Greek coffee (roughly 4 euro), which was served in a classic silver cup, with complementary lukhoumi.
Greek coffee is similar to Turkish coffee. Originating in the 17th century, Greek/Turkish coffee is finely ground coffee that is boiled and frothed into a robust shot. What's considered a drug this coffee was even at one point banned in the Ottoman Empire.
Robust as it was, the bitterness as gentle as that of an unripe banana. The coffee was filtered just enough such that a thin layer of ground coffee still floated on top, like foam, but more grainy. It smelled faintly of wheat. Coffee was strong, but gentle. I finished the coffee sooner than I should have, discovering more ground coffee murking at the bottom, sliding like thick cocoa paste as I moved the cup.
Lukhoumi, also known as Turkish delight, was served along with the coffee. Also originating in Turkey in the 17th century, Lukhoumi is made with sugar, starch, and water and is often flavored with rosewater, as mine was. The transparency and pink hue were especially appealing.
From presentation to taste, everything was amazing.
Definitely visit.More