Gastronomy

The Aegean cuisine is proud of its incomparable taste and quality flavours, many of which are registered with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). A cuisine with a common denominator of the single culture, the stone, arid land, moistened by the saltiness of the sea, sunburned and windswept, and crowned by its uniqueness, local varieties of vegetables and fruits, free-range animals and seafood. An experiential tour of the Aegean Cuisine will bring us one step closer to exploring the rich culture of this land.

The Aegean cuisine is full of authenticity. Complex, but clear, with tensions but without outbursts, with the stigma of Greekness, but, like any seafood cuisine, enriched with cosmopolitan elements. It is a lively cuisine, with deep roots in the culture of this land, but without staying still, allowing, strictly selectively, exogenous influences to evolve it.

It is based on a central backbone composed of fresh and incomparable taste, seafood, local meats from fine breeds and vegetables from unique varieties, delicious, anhydrous, and grafted with copious of sun.

But the most beautiful of all, is that on every island, the cuisine is so different that this heterogeneous approach to a similar gastronomic culture is surprising. Flavours with the same DNA, but so unique and special. The reason? The rare products grown by hard-working producers, carefully standardized by craftsmen, consciously cooked by traditional and modern cooks in cafes, tavernas and restaurants.

The cuisine of the Aegean offers generously, flavours with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), which cannot wait for you to discover them. Tomato and fava from Santorini, potatoes from Naxos, gruyere San Michalis from Syros, buffalo cheese from Lipsi, kopanisti from Mykonos, wine Malagouzia from Paros, Assyrtiko from Santorini, and local varieties from Rhodes, Kos, Leros, and Lipsi, all of them true experiences, that worth passing from… mouth to mouth. And there are many more rare delicacies that challenge you to explore them: Tinos artichoke, salted fish from Leros, melekouni from Rhodes, beans from Katavia in Rhodes, Andros volaki cheese and Milos pellets, Schinousa and Koufonisia wild goats, sitaka from Kasos and Karpathos, Kythnos macaroons, Anafi boiled cheese, Ios cheese, Kea and Kimolos sour cheese. The raw materials of this cuisine are the thyme honeys of Serifos and Sikinos, the gylomeni manouri cheese of Sifnos, the wild herbs of Folegandros and Heraklia, the Psimeni of Amorgos, the sun-dried octopuses of Antiparos, the xinomizithra of Donoussa, salt from Symi, and of course extra virgin olive oil from Rhodes.

Ingredients with a strong temperament, are transformed into dishes that are indelibly imprinted on the taste buds. Some of the most beautiful souvenirs of our place will be your taste memories, which are not easily forgotten: fluffy fruit, marvellous mostras, awesome meats in the hull, fur and fish savoury, fine-grained savoury pies and sweet and salty cheese pies, unrepeatable macaroons and honeydew pastels. So, how about a high-gastronomy experience so close to sea level?

 

European Region of Gastronomy

The South Aegean was designated as a European Region of Gastronomy in 2019.

Read details of the project: http://www.aegeangastronomy.gr/

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=U-6mvFythGs&feature=emb_title

The “Taste The Seasons” bidbook in video format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmsR00oO4Y4

 

The Aegean Cuisine initiative

The Aegean Cuisine initiative is a network of businesses in the islands of the South Aegean that aim to offer visitors the Aegean gastronomy experience. It was founded to utilize and exploit the wealth of Aegean gastronomy, highlight local products and wines, and to promote thematic tourism in these islands. It belongs to the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Dodecanese and Cyclades and is supported by a number of local stakeholders. We invite you on a journey in time to live the unique experience of flavours, scents and an introduction to our culture. While family ties between our islands are strong, each and everyone of them keeps its own cultural identity which is reflected in the gastronomic wealth of the Aegean Cuisine.

More than 300 certified restaurants in 50 islands of the Dodecanese and the Cyclades await you to visit them so that you can go back home with memories full of the Aegean experience. Visit the Aegean Cuisine Website: http://www.aegeancuisine.gr

 

 

Recommended Islands

Tinos

Tinos is known all over Greece, as well as abroad, thanks to the rich pilgrimage of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. However, this island, with its extensive and rich history in the art of marble sculpture, possesses many unique features: its villages, real masterpieces of architecture, the …otherworldly landscape of Volax with the round granite formations, the suggestive rocky hill of Xombourgo with the ruins of the castle, 600 artfully crafted dovecotes, 750 churches and chapels, an excellent network of old paths that cross the whole island, and magnificent beaches. Typical of Tinos is the fact that its villages, with their marble-paved squares, springs, and well-kept houses with their yards full of flowers, are inhabited almost all year long…

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Santorini

Santorini is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Greece that has gained international recognition while being the most beautiful and romantic place to visit. What Santorini brings to every visitor’s mind is the myth of the lost city of Atlantis, the Volcanoes [Palea (“Old”) and Nea (“New”) Kammeni], the famous Caldera and the stunning sunset of Oia town. Santorini is also well-known for the whitewashed houses of traditional Cycladic architecture, the prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri as well as Ancient Thera. It is also famous for the exceptional wines produced in the vineyards of volcanic land, its local products, its exceptional standards of hospitality -based on the fact that Santorini hosts some of the most luxurious resorts in Greece-…

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Mykonos

Since the ‘60s Mykonos has been a symbol of cosmopolitan and luxurious vacations and it is one of the most world-renowned Greek travel destinations. It is also famous for being a gay friendly destination. Hundreds of celebrities, members of the international jet set, artists, intellectuals, tycoons, ship owners and politicians have all strolled through the alleys of Chora partying till the break of dawn or they have moored their yachts in the island’s bays with the exquisite crystal clear waters, experiencing unforgettable moments. Some of the people that have visited Mykonos so far are: Marlon Brando, Grace Kelly, Richard Burton, Jackie Kennedy, Melina Merkouri, Konstantinos Karamanlis, Soraya, Liz Taylor, Rudolf Nureyev, Nikos Kavvadias, the great architect Le Corbusier, the designer…

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Naxos

Naxos: a small, independent world, right in the middle of Cyclades, at the heart of historical development, fertile, rich in history, abundant in ancient, Byzantine and Venetian monuments, full of customs, music and festivals organized all year long. A hospitable place welcomes you with plenty of frangrances and flavors of cheece, wine and vegetable varieties able to captivate the most discerning diners. “Naxos surpassed all the other islands in prosperity”. Herodotus, Pindar, Archilochus of Paros, as well as the great writer Nikos Kazantzakis have written about the beauties of Naxos. And god Dionysus gracefully raised a glass of wine to its health… The castle of Naxos Chora is unique in the Aegean and inhabited for centuries. The island’s aristocracy was…

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Paros

Call it cosmopolitan and you will be right. Call it famous in the Aegean, “birthplace” of water sports, gathering place for the young, favourite place of poet Seferis, and you will be right once again. Paros ignites people’s imagination since the pre-Historic times. Due to its abundant marble of high quality, it inspires artists. Due to the important religious monuments, with the most significant one being the pilgrimage of Panagia Ekatontapyliani, it attracts Christians like a magnet. As it used to attract the wanderers for six whole centuries, as well as the Venetians, the pirates and the Turks, today it attracts visitors from Greece and the whole world who enjoy its beaches, water sports with windsurf and kitesurf leading the…

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Patmos

The sacred island of Patmos is also known as the island of the Apocalypse and Jerusalem of the Aegean. A powerful, formidable energy runs through the alleys and gets mixed up with the fragrance of the pine trees and the warm and cold currents that caress you during your tour around the island. A tour where you can continuously gaze at the sea, catch sight of the white houses of the settlements and of the “kathismata” (small monastic units), discern the cruise ships, the islets, the Kastelli and the monastery that stands imposing in its sturdy wall, above Chora that deservedly claims the title of one of the most beautiful choras in the Aegean Sea. The powerful and famous throughout…

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Rhodes

Rhodes, the Island of the Knights, as it is called, has much to offer to its visitors and it is hardly surprising that its economy relies to a great extent on tourism, since it is a timeless destination. The Rodini park, the ancient Kamiros and the ancient Ialyssos, the Valley of the Butterflies and the Acropolis of Lindos with the temple of Athena Lindia are only some of the places worth to be seen by every visitor. The Colossus of Rhodes may not dominate the island’s harbor nowadays, but certainly the glamour of antiquity has also surrounded today’s Rhodes, which –at the crossroads of two major sea routes of the Mediterranean, between the Aegean Sea and the coasts of the…

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Kos

The fact that Kos is among the first ranks of the most popular Greek vacation destinations is not a matter of chance. Its antiquities, its monuments from the early Christian times and its medieval castles alone are enough to place the island among the top spots of that list. But the Asclepeion, the Nerantzia Castle and the Antimachia Castle are not the only reasons why the island is swarming with foreign (mainly north European) and Greek tourists every summer. Beaches with cosmopolitan flair like Tigaki, Paradise and Mastihari, green valleys with hot springs and its traditional inland settlements are also among the main tourist attractions of the island. But, once again, that’s not all there is to Kos. The high…

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