Local kitchen of Karpathos – The Specialties you have to taste

In Karpathos every visitor tastes the authentic and genuine flavors of the place. There are many family taverns that serve local dishes made from healthy and fresh ingredients that are worth trying while you are on the island for your holidays.

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1. Traditional dishes
  • Makarounes (handmade pasta): The most famous dish of Karpathos. Its shape is usually small cylinders (like a scoop), but it can also be seen as small, flat strips like tagliatelle.
  • Kolokithopoulia: Zucchini flower stuffed with rice.
  • Stuffed lamb with groat: Baked for about 20 hours in a traditional wood-fired oven.
  • Ofto: Goat stuffed with rice, liver and herbs baked in the oven.
  • Vizanti: Lamb or goat stuffed with rice and herbs baked in a traditional clay utensil.
  • Anterizia: Intestines stuffed with rice, chopped meat and spices. At first they are fried in a pan, then sewn and boiled in salted water and finally fried in a bit of oil.
  • Pseftomakarounes: Little cubes of dried bread boiled in salted water until they are soften.
  • Hondros: Broken wheat in thick pieces with meat and tomato. It is mostly served on weddings. On the festivals it is served with sauteed onion.
2. Pies
  • Kopeles: Pies with different vegetables depending on the season. In winter they use spinach and leek and in summer they use sprouts and zucchini.
  • Tourta (cheese pie): The dough is stuffed with mizithra (Greek whey cheese or mixed milk-whey cheese from sheep or goats, or both) and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
  • Gra: Pie with greens and thick dough which is baked in a tin baking tray in a wood-fired oven.
3. Sweets
  • Baklava: No it is not the same as the Turkish baklava. This is Cretan diples made of thin sheet-like dough that are fried in oil, dipped in syrup and served with grated walnut.
  • Sisamomeli: Sweet made of sesame seeds and honey. It is mostly served at weddings.
  • Moschopougkia: Dough in half moon shape, stuffed with nuts and served with powdered sugar.
  • Xilikopites: Very thin sheet of dough cut into squares, fried in hot oil and served with honey.
  • Spoon sweets: Made of quince, fig, grape and sour cherry.
4. Bakery products
  • Kousoumas: Little breads baked in a wood-fired oven until they become rusks.
  • Kremidokouloura: Spicy bagels, very crunchy, with lots of spices and lots of unions, sprinkled with sesame seeds.
  • Christopsomo: A bread dedicated to Christ specially made on Christmas. It is made with cinnamon, mastic, cloves and sprinkled sesame seeds.
  • Christokouloura: A salty bread dedicated to Christ specially made on Easter. It is made in an eight shape and they place a red dyed egg on the one hole of the “eight” before baking it.
5. Miscellaneous
  • Fresh fishes: Most inhabitants are fishermen. Do not hesitate to taste skarous, sardines, sargus and vlachous.
  • Sitaka: It looks like yogurt. It is made of sheep or goat milk depending the season. Producers allow the milk to sour first. They boil it 8-10 hours, stirring it constantly with a wooden stick until all fluids evaporate. The solid product that remains is called “sour” sitaka. If they add fresh milk in the sour one, before boiling, it is called “sweet” sitaka.
  • Cheeses: The most famous ones are the soft manouli, armotiri (very salty hard cheese) and meriari (made of goat milk).
  • Alohorta: Little greens that sprout among thorns on the mountain cliffs and eaten as salad.
  • Caper bud: The salted and pickled caper bud (called simply a “caper”) is used as an ingredient, seasoning, or garnish. Capers are a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine, especially Greek. The immature fruit of the caper shrub are prepared similarly and marketed as “caper berries”. Fully mature fruit are not preferred, as they contain many hard seeds.

Gastronomy tourism is considered a vital component of the tourism experience. Depending on what you’re looking for – good food, wine, olives, sweets, cheeses, or something else, Karpathos can satisfy everyone’s taste. After all you can learn many things about a place you visit by it’s cuisine.

And don’t forget that you can bring some goods with you back home. Read more about it at our article Traditional products of Karpathos.

Make your reservation at Akropolis Village on time.

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