A taste of Crete

CRETAN NUTRITION – LOCAL PRODUCTS

OLIVES
Green crushed olives (tsakistes)
Black salted olives (pastes or alatsolies)
Pickled olives (xidates)

OLIVE OIL
The olive oil that is produced in Chania is virgin, has a dark golden-green color, a full taste and pleasant aromatic flavor and is also of high density and low acidity. It can be eaten both raw and cooked. It is consumption contributes to maintaining good health.

CHEESES

Anthotyros xeros (dried anthotyros)
It is a rather salty cheese, eaten plain as well as grated over pasta. It can also be turned into the delicious ladotyri (cut in cubes and packed in olive oil).

Anthotyros
It is made of either sheep or goats milk. It is a very tasty, soft, sweet and low fat white cheese.

Myzithra glukia (sweet myzithra)
It is made of either sheep or goats milk. It is delicious and light.

Xynomizithra (sour myzithra)
It is made of either sheep or goats milk. It is an excellent kind of cheese, very tasty but rather rich in fat. It can be eaten plain, or with paximadi (hard bread) in salads or as a filling in kalitsounia (traditional cheese pies).

Graviera
It is made of sheep’s milk or mixed with goats milk. It Is famous in all over the world.

Kephalograviera
It is like graviera but is aged more and therefore it is more salty.

Staka
It is the cream of the milk. When it is beaten, is produced the fresh butter with a high fat content.

Stakovoutyro
It is made from staka and very rich in fat.

Feta cheese
It is made from sheep’s or goat’s milk or a mixture of both. It is usually eaten in greek salad.

Traditional Yogurt
It is made of top quality sheeps milk and has a high content of fat that makes it delicious.

Ladotyri
All the cheeses like graviera,kefalograviera and xeros anthotyros can be turned into ladotyri. It is cut in cubes and put in virgin olive oil.

Malaka
It is afresh cheese and is used as a filling in the traditional pies kalitsounia.

CRETAN RUSK
There are many varieties of rusks that have many similarities, such as the cereals they are made of, their dry, hard, harsh texture. We have the following rusks: choriatika and eftazima, the barley, wheat and rye rusks, the sweet rusks and the very special bookies with their pleasant neutral taste.

CRETAN HONEY
The honey produced in Crete is golden, almost amber, of very good quality and without foreign additives. The bees are fed on thyme and other fine Cretan aromatic herbs.

AROMATIC HERBS
In Crete you will find a big variety of aromatic herbs and they have so many uses. Although most aromatic herbs can be used for cooking and medicinal purposes, sometimes the aroma is all you need.

The most famous herbs are the following: dentrolivano or rosemary, faskomilo (sage), diktamo or erotas, malotira, louisa

WINES
Crete is one of the special wine-producing areas in Greece. It has been known in the west for this very attribute. Crete;s climate and geological conditions help the grapes to grow up. Today, there are more than 20 varieties of greek grapes in crete some of tthem are red and some white.

Red grape varieties
Tsardana, Akominato, Kotsifali, Mantilari, Liatiko, Voidomatis, Gemira, Ladikino, Black Muskat

White grape varieties
Vilana, Thrapsathiri, White Muscat, Valaitis, Vidiano, Dafni,Dermatas, Romeiko

TSIKOUDIA
It is a clear alcoholic drink that is mainly made of the peel from the grapes, after the wine is produced. It is served in small glasses