Food - eating out

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Food - eating out

Some tips on eating out.

I rarely these days have a meal in a taverna that I do not enjoy. That is perhaps partly because I know which dishes to choose. I remember on my first visit to Greece eating (or, rather, not eating) a lukewarm slab of moussaka swimming in oil.
Look for tavernas where local people are eating.
When buying oven-cooked foods, be wary of the last few portions of a dish in the display / cooking pan. If it is high season and a busty taverna, these remnants may well be fine. In a less busy place at a slack time of year, these remnants may be elderly and not in the best of condition.
If you doubt the freshness of the ready cooked food on offer, ask for something grilled. Grilled food should be freshly grilled. Lamb chops, pork chops, sprinkled with oregano and served with a chunk of lemon, make an excellent main course. Or fish, fried or grilled.
In some places fish is very expensive. In small islands 'fish' is whatever is in that day's catch and reasonably priced. In bigger places you buy fish transported from elsewhere, and buy the fish by name and weight. 'Gopes', a sort of bream, is a fish I regularly eat. There are three or four to a portion.
fish soup. If you are offered "fish soup" check what is on offer. Fish soup may be what it sounds like, a bowl of fish soup. Or it may be a bowl of fish soup with a separate plate of fish. Once before I realised this I ordered "fish soup" thinking it would be a starter and a main course. The waiter arrived with a bowl of fish soup, a plate of fish, and a plate of another main course. People around were amused and commented that I must be very hungry!

The fish served with the fish soup is often served cold - the soup itself is usually piping hot. I suspect that the fish and soup are all cooked together and get cold. When a "fish soup" is ordered a bowl full of soup is heated and some fish (unheated) put on a plate and served with the soup. When I get some fish soup I quickly deal with the contents of the plate. I cut the vegetables (usually potato and carrot) into small pieces and add it to the broth. I flake off pieces of fish (leaving the bones on the plate) and dunk that into the fish soup and stir. I find that this heats the formerly cold vegetables and fish with out overly cooling the soup.

Chips with everything.