Cuisine of Ios Island for gourmets. Places for dinner - best restaurants

You can find all the traditional Greek dishes on Ios. Despite the fact, that it is not the biggest island of the Cyclades, there are a lot of taverns. However, there are many catering establishments in Greece and they are always full of people. It is caused by the fact that locals love to gather together with friends and family in taverns. They drink local ouzo or retsina, which is usually served chilled.

You can also try local beer and wine or metaxa cognac and grappa. There are more than seventy sorts of wine on the island. In case you feel bad after a long night, try patsas soup, it will restore your health. Scientists suppose that it was created in Constantinople.

If you want to try the food, cooked according to the oldest traditions, look for taverns which are far from touristic spots. They are visited by locals and owned by the same family for several generations. Owners of these taverns cook for local citizens, using recipes of their ancestors. You can find «speciality» food in menus at Ios taverns. It means that these dishes are made according to a recipe, used by Hellen people. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

You can find horiatiki or village salad in every tavern. Locals never call it a Greek salad. It is usually made of olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, onion and cheese. The salad is not always seasoned with oil, but you can find a bottle of olive oil on the table and add it to your dish. Don’t pass by tzatziki, a local yoghurt salad with cucumbers and garlic. It is usually used as a sauce to pita or mutton.

Souvlaki is a popular fast food on Ios. It was initially made of beef or pork, but now you can find souvlaki with chicken, seafood or vegetables. It can be found in psarotaverns. Moreover, you can try giro, souvlaki in a pita with vegetables and fries. However, there are different meat dishes on Chios. For example, paidakia is delicious grilled lambs or moussaka, a layered dish made with minced meat, egg-plants and potatoes with bechamel sauce. Pastitsio is a baked pasta dish with ground meat and bechamel sauce. Don’t pass by dolma, a dish made of grape leaves and stuffed with meat. Stewed meat stifado is a very delightful dish too. Be sure to try kokoretsi. It is a Greek lamb delicacy. Local soups are also very delicious. Avgolemono is a classic soup of chicken broth, egg yolks and lemon juice. Fasolada is a traditional Greek soup made with white beans. Kakavia is a traditional fish soup.

Fish dishes can be found in psarotaverns. You can find fish and seafood dishes here. Oysters, mussels, octopuses, squids are very popular on Ios. Moreover, you can buy a fish and ask to cook it in a tavern. Be careful when ordering a dish. There can be «k» or «kat» indications in front of the name of the dish. These indications show that the dish was made of frozen imported fish. Fish is stewed, fried and boiled here, so choose what you like most. Don’t miss the chance to taste local octopus and taramasalata on Ios. As a whole, local desserts are more eastern than western. The most popular are baklava and lokma. Keik me giaourti is a honey cake with yoghurt. Galaktoboureko is a traditional Greek pie. These two desserts are considered to be heavy food and Greeks usually eat it in winter. Coffee and juice are common soft drinks on the island. But tea is used only as a remedy for a cold.