Wintry Athens: Culture, Food, and Drinks
It was raining for 2 days, which was unfortunate, but quite necessary for the city. It also rained on Kea, but unfortunately we were not there to enjoy it… In any case, Athens was WON-DER-FULL!
It has become our custom the last few years to spend about a week in the Greek capital around the New Year’s holidays, usually and preferably before but this time after, the culprit being Neva and the neighbors’ hens: because Olga, the wonderful lady who babysits our 13-year old dog was unavailable in December, and also because our neighbors went on vacation to their village in Albania, so we had to babysit their hens. A very early riser, Aglaia would open the coop door in the morning, and I would close it in the evening for fear of the many rock martens that thrive in our area.
Our first Athens appointment was with our friend Manolis Papoutsakis, chef and owner of our most loved restaurant Pharaoh, newly included in the Michelin guide. Manolis got us to taste all his latest dishes, and as we ate and chatted with him 3 hours passed without even noticing it. Unfortunately, we were so much enjoying our food that we forgot to take more photos… We visited more restaurants the following days, as Aglaia will tell you, but Pharaoh is my absolute favorite!
We visited two archeological exhibitions, the first at the Benaki Museum with spectacular ancient golden jewelry from the Hellenistic and other historical periods. We also visited an exhibition at the Cycladic Museum dedicated to the Women of the Cyclades from antiquity to today.
Various periods were juxtaposed for comparison, which Aglaia did not quite appreciate, and admittedly the whole thing was a bit “loose.”
Part of the exhibition were the two clay exhibits from Kea, above. These extraordinary bronze age clay women statues found in Agia Eirini, on loan from our island’s museum, made the exhibit somewhat more exciting for us. They were probably the most interesting sculptures in the show, along with the colossal statue of a kore from Thera (Santorini).
Japanese & a meat-tavern revival (from Aglaia)
The no-frills Ekiben Kitchen, the very reasonably priced Japanese restaurant that I love, as well as Manari, the new hasapotaverna (meat tavern) some blocks down, are both creations of Ari Vezenes. The chef is also the owner of the eponymous creative Greek restaurant —dinner only— as well as Birdman, the Japanese food and drink bar on Syntagma.
Birdman is the first place José Andrés, the renowned Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded chef, visited when he came to Athens a couple of years ago. He seemed to have known about it before coming, and he introduced me to it! Tasting some bites there with José, I learned about Ekiben, a few blocks up the road. And this has been the first downtown restaurant I go to whenever I am in Athens.
People were talking about Manari, Vezenes’ new venture, a re-visited ‘traditional’ grilled meat tavern.
The four of us at the table ordered starters that included the grilled bread slices and horta (wild greens), hortopita (greens’ pie), and the not so traditional sliced, grilled liver, dressed with ‘tomato vinegar’ and thyme that we all loved!
We were not particularly crazy about the grilled chicken or the lamb kefte, maybe because we had too many starters.
And of course, let’s face it, we went shopping, and hey, shopping is not about buying things but I —what did you think— bought a semi-large Bluetooth speaker, and Aglaia got lots of spices at Evripidou Street. We also bought two types of honey —arbutus and heather— to taste with our guests. Thyme honey of excellent quality we find locally produced on Kea, of course.
Our favorite Bar (from Aglaia)
We usually ended the day at Heteroklito bar, in the center of the city, close to our hotel. Although the area is filled with spectacular rooftop bars that overlook the Acropolis, we like this idiosyncratic place that does not offer the usual and unusual cocktails you can find all over the world.
Mainly Greek, well-chosen wines are on offer by the glass, and the very few cocktails are created with Greek spirits instead of gin, as in the Heteroklito Spritz made with Paranga sparkling and Fi, a citrus-scented liqueur from Kythera.
And when we got back to Kea, Neva persistently did her welcome howl and then as we opened the fridge we saw again the tons of eggs we had collected while our neighbors were away. Now, again, we need to find more ways to use them because they take up too much space.
And yes, we know that they keep very well outside the refrigerator but I always wash them extra well because they are dirty or so I think —another point of contention in our 28 year-old marriage (+ 1 before=29 total), with our anniversary coming up in just a few days…
We LOVED Birdman last summer. Glad I’m in good company. Will have to try Eliben and your other recommendations next time. Thanks for sharing them!