Let’s Eat!

We don’t know much about Greek salaries or the cost of housing.
But, certainly food is much less expensive.

Eggs at the supermarket

just over $4.00/dozen

just under $2 for a ½ dozen

Lots of eggs at the farmer’s market (didn’t ask the price)

Eggs in Europe are usually not refrigerated in the stores.

Same in New Zealand.

Unlike the US, eggs are not washed/sterilized before being sold.

This keeps a protective layer called the “cuticle” intact which means they don’t need to be refrigerated to protect from bacteria.

Bright red Easter eggs started appearing in stores nearly two weeks beforehand.

Yes, they are edible; they are simply brightly colored hard-boiled eggs.

$40 at the grocery store will cover dinner, two lunches, beer, and some snacks.

$5.50 is certainly less than I pay for this exact product at home.

A double sleeve of Oreo’s is “family” size here and also only $2.

A bag of potato chips that would cost $4-5 at home is about $2.00 here.

This flavor of Ruffles is Serena’s fave and no longer available in the US.

Other snacks are also affordable. This set was under $7.

And the bin of “fish” crackers is considerably larger than the US version that Serena doesn’t

buy so often in the US now that the typical price is approaching $4.00.

We don’t have many coconut cookie options in the states so Serena searches them out when we travel. Both the coconut and chocolate chip are pretty good.

The fish crackers are nothing like ‘original’ Goldfish in the states but they will suffice.

Random aside - We found ‘original’ flavor Goldfish crackers in some of the shops when we were in Iceland.

The cost of dining out depends where you go and what you order.

But, in an everyday restaurant not choosing veal or a fancy steak, we generally pay

less than $60 for: ½ liter of wine, appetizer, two mains, and one dessert.

Fries and a Greek salad are common sides on every plate.

Everything is delicious (even the cheap stuff from a chain).

Chicken Souvlaki plate - $11

Two delicious and giant hamburgers with fries and two beers - $34

Two chicken souvlaki skewers w/ fries from a take-out “cafe” - $5.75

Two mains: Lamb chops & pork tenderloin (both with fries), a Greek salad with

a slab of feta (typical), ½ liter of wine, and enough tzatziki/bread to have a

lunch snack the next day - $60

Twice so far, we haven’t even been asked if we want dessert and we’ve been presented with free Ravani (orange semolina cake). One was delicious and the other not so much. Jeff ordered Baklava one night and, not to be left out, the waiter brought Serena a dish of yogurt with honey (a common dessert or breakfast item). Both were fantastic and the Baklava was huge (Jeff saved half for the next day). We have also been presented with after-dinner Limoncello twice.

A note about the yogurt. It is sooooo creamy, smooth, and delicious. We asked at a market and were told the 5% is the creamiest and the best yogurt is in bulk from the deli counter.

We bought some and it was amazing.

At home we eat Fage 0% but if we decide to make tzatziki or serve yogurt with honey for dessert we will use the 5%.

We don’t know much about Greek honey yet but we’ll let you know when we do.

Gelato is easy to find and we did have some in Athens but we’ve been saving our calories for all the other delicious foods. We had loukoumades (honey tokens) in Athens and Meteora. But the ones we found in Nafplio were the “right” ones.

Fresh fried “donut” holes swimming in honey and generously sprinkled with cinnamon and crushed walnuts.

We seriously don’t know how they make a profit on a 5 euro batch of loukoumades when there is a 1/3 cup of honey on them.

We have had a stove in most of our places so we have been cooking for ourselves a bit. This saves some money but also gets some actual vegetables into our diet. Despite what’s available at the Farmer’s Market, vegetables don’t seem to make it onto a restaurant menu in any significant way. We have done pasta or ramen/chicken/zucchini for dinner. Breakfast has been the same as at home: musli/granola cereal with fruit and yogurt for Jeff and hard boiled egg and maybe toast for Serena. Coffee of course for both of us. Lunches have been picnic-ish: cheese & crackers, spanakopita, Greek salad, bread or pita & tzatziki, or PB&J.

Bakeries are easy to find.

They sell parcels of delicious wrapped in phyllo dough. Some are sweet (like Baklava) and some are savory (like Spanakopita). Bougatsa can be either. A to-go parcel which is adequate as a light lunch will be $3-4.

Bougatsa

Cream (sweet), apple, ham & cheese, chicken & red pepper, potato, minced meat

The blue-circled Bougatsa is ½ and with a salad would be a fine lunch for two.

½ Bougatsa is $4-5 while a full Bougatsa (circled in red) would be twice the price.

Spanakopita (spinach pie) tastes pretty much the same here but the form is not the little triangle phyllo-wrapped pieces we see in the US. More commonly it’s a simple rectangle cut from a “casserole”. In a restaurant, the phyllo layers might be of the paper-thin variety but in a sidewalk bakery it’s likely to be thicker “country” style phyllo.

Cream Croissant - $3.65

Easter lunch/dinner

Lamb of course.

And, we’ll enjoy our red Easter eggs tomorrow.

View from our terrace Easter morning of the neighbors roasting lamb on a spit.

Certainly we have been drinking wine but more on that in a future post.

Fuel

The price of gasoline will sound expensive to people from the US. But most people don’t realize how much the oil industry in the United States is subsidized and we are sheltered from the true cost. The European market is not subsidized so this price is actually normal and reasonable. $7.57/gallon is what we paid at our first fill up.

Farmer’s Market in our neighborhood in Athens