Since we are Cretans, we have tasted almost everything the Cretan cuisine has to offer. Mediterranean and authentic flavors using local products that will surely excite you!
Savory Dishes
Messaritikos Tzoulamas:You will find it in Messara from where it originated. It's a sweet and savoury pie filled with raisins, chicken or liver and rice.
Askordoulaki:
Bulbs served, either cooked or raw as a salad with olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice.
Kreatotourta (means meat cake):
A meat pie with boiled lamb or goat. Eaten during Easter at Chania.
Amanites:
Wild mushrooms, that are similar to pleurotus. Cooked either as a stew or battered and fried, served with lemon juice.
Antikristo:
The name translates to "across", indicating to the way of cooking which is across the fire. The meat is either lamb or goat.
Chaniotiko boureki
Fried pastry roll from Chania stuffed with zucchini, potato and feta or sour curd.
Lamb with spiny chicory:
Spiny chicory is really popular in Cretan cuisine. So you will be able to find it in a lot of dishes. Our favorite is "lamb with stamnagathi".
Amaties:
Intestines stuffed with liver and rice.
Skioufihta makaronia:
Cylindrical pasta, drenched with hot butter and topped with grated dried anthotiros.
Gardoumia:
Lamb belly rolled-up with intestines served with egg and lemon sauce. Traditionally served during Easter.
Chohlii (snails):
Cretans love snails, that's why we have many different recipes with them as the main ingredient. More specifically, other than "mpoumpouristi" (fried snails with vinegar and rosemary), you can cook them in a stew with tomato, potato and onion, or with "chontro" (sour frumenty).
Of course, other well known Cretan dishes are: "apaki"(cured pork inside vinegar), "ntakos"(bread rusk with grated tomato with feta and olive oil, also known as "koukouvagia") and "gamopilafo"(Cretan pilaf always served at traditional Cretan weddings). Cretans accompany every meal with "raki", a traditional alcoholic drink made from boiling the leftovers of wine making.
What about Cretan Sweets:
Koumbania:
bready dough balls that resemble doughnuts with honey.
Patouda:
A cookie stuffed with walnuts, almonds, sesame seeds, and rusk dipped into syrup.
Xerotigana or diples:
Xerotigana are fried and crunchy flowers. Made with flour olive oil, water and raki and drenched with honey cinnamon and sesame seeds. Diples have a similar recipe to xerotigana but they have different shape
Mamoulia:
Cookies stuffed with with walnuts, almonds and cinnamon.
Sfakiani pita:
Cretans call it "mizithropita". It's a fried pie resembling a thin pancake stuffed with a variety of soft cheese, always topped with honey. Raki is one of the key ingredients of the dough. A traditional dessert served everywhere in Crete.
Kalitsounia:
Small pies, stuffed with soft cheese. There are two varieties of kalitsounia: "Lihnarakia"( served with cinnamon and sesame seeds on top) and "Anevata"(resembling sweet cheese pies)
Of course in Crete you can find myzithra with honey and almonds, moustalevria(traditional pudding made from must) and spoon sweets (fruits preserved in syrup).
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