This is one of the delicious contradictions of Athens. Located in one of the most touristic places, near the bus terminal for the Acropolis, this rooftop restaurant is nonetheless tourist-free. It opens late (after dark) and you need to take the lift to get to it. Minimal signage ensures it's patronised only by people who know it's there - theatre types, politicians and the society crowd.
The food is down-home Greek with an influence from Corfu, the owner's hometown, and the view of the Acropolis is magnificent.
Garivaldi 7, Athens, +30 210 921 5256
To read more, please visit gourmettraveller.com
By John Mangos
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The number of new enterprises (startups) in Greece has increased almost 10-fold in the period from 2010 to 2013, a survey by Endeavor Greece – a global non-profit organization supporting entrepreneurship - showed on March 20. The survey says that a total of 16 startups were set up in 2010, while the value of invested capital in startups soared from €500,000 in 2010 to €42 million last year, with a total of 30 startup businesses receiving investment capital.
The business of half of all the start-ups is connected to cell phone applications, such as the Taxibeat application used for booking cabs.
Endeavor Greece said capital from the Jeremie initiative – channeled through four funds (Elikonos, Odyssey, Open Fund and PJ Tech Catalyst) helped in the spectacular increase of startup businesses in the country. The results also showed that Greece-based investors accounted for 72% of new investments in 2013, while IT enterprises accounted for 50% of total investments in 2013.
If you visit Greece in the summer and stay a couple weeks there are two things that will happen to you if you are able to break away from the tourist restaurants and find yourself in the places the locals eat. The first thing is that you will eat the best tomato you have ever tasted in you life. Shortly thereafter you will eat the best melon you have ever eaten in your life.
It may be a karpoozi (watermelon) or it may be a peponi (honey-dew melon) but you will look at your wife or husband or child and say "I had no idea something could taste this good and not be bad for you."
For some reason vegetables and fruits taste better in Greece than they do elsewhere. There are many theories of course. Some say it is the absence of pesticides. I have a theory of my own. Greece is made up of mountains and valleys. The farms are in the valleys. The water rains on the mountains and washes minerals into the valleys. The more rich a fruit or vegetable is in minerals, the better it will taste. Of course I can't prove this and since many fruits and vegetables are now grown on large industrialized farms or even imported, without knowing what you are eating and where it comes from you have no way of knowing why it is good, or in some cases is not. Just because you may eat the best tomato or melon in your life during your stay in Greece does not mean that you will eat delicious vegetables rich in minerals at every meal at every restaurant. But I can say with confidence that those restaurants where the Greeks eat, great care is taken in choosing the fruits and vegetables that are served that day.
The Greeks eat seasonally. Take the horiatiki salata or as we call in the USA and other English speaking places, the Greek Salad or Greek Village Salad. Anyone going to Greece in the summer will find delicious horiaktiki salatas that consist of fresh ripe red tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cucumbers, olives, a big hunk of feta cheese, extra virgin olive oil, oregano and if you are lucky maybe some capers! Not at every restaurant of course. You could go to some tourist joint that serves tomatoes that are closer to green than red, a smidgeon of crumbled feta and one olive, topped with whatever crappy oil they got a good deal on. But I am talking about a good honest Greek restaurant. If you eat a horiatiki salata in season you will eat them for the rest of your life. In fact you will start a garden so you can have tomatoes like the ones you had in Greece. Another salad you may not be familiar with is the Cretan or dakos, which is like a horiatiki on top of a paximadi, which is a dried hard bread, though once the olive oil and juices soak in it is not hard for long. It is delicious and healthy too.
But what if you are not there in the summer? What if it is late spring or fall or winter and you order a horiatiki salata? You don't. In the winter months (winter meaning any season that is not summer) you would eat a lachano-marouli salata (cabbage-lettuce salad). Or a lachano-carota salata (cabbage-carrot salad). Or a plain marouli (lettuce) salata.
To read the rest of this post, please visit greecefoods.com
By Matt Barrett
