Day/Country #16 -- Akrotiri (Crete)

Akrotiri

Fast Facts:

Population: ~10,321

Belongs To: Greece 

Official Languages: Greek

Known For: The site of the tombs of  Eleftherios

Venizelos and his son Sophoklis, headquarters of

the Cretan Revolution.

Yes, finally, I have managed to line something up to cook, and this time I drew Akrotiri.

I must confess to some misunderstanding as far as Akrotiri is concerned as it turns out there are three of them.  One was an ancient Minoan City located on the island of Santorini whose ruins are now a popular tourist attraction; another is the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia that whilst located on the island of Cyprus politically belong to the United Kingdom; and the third is a peninsula on the island of Crete in Greece.

In my hurried google to find out what groceries I needed to pick up on the way home from work I stumbled upon some Cretan recipes and ran with those.  Only after I'd cooked did Mum point out that Akrotiri as it appeared on our list probably meant the miltary base, but seriously, how good can military food really be?  And besides, Cyprus is it's own country and will be visited in time anyway...so today we're off to Crete!

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek Islands (of which Akrotiri forms a small rocky headland).  It was once the center of the Minoan Civilization, arguably the earliest recorded civilization in Europe.  In more recent times Crete has come to occupy a large part of the overall Greek economy but retains its own distinct cultural elements, including poetry, music...and cuisine.

So, with this in mind I decided to try a suite of Cretan-style dishes that included a starter of grilled artichokes (from a bottle I confess), kalamata olives (okay, so not exactly Cretan olives), and olive oil.  For entree I made Cretan dakos; basically a cretan-style crustini consisting of crispy twice-baked bread (I oiled and re-baked some ciabata buns) topped with diced tomatoes, feta and fresh oregano.  Then for mains I did a trifecta of pilafi (rice boiled in lamb broth), Cretan green beans with tomato, and the dish I was most looking froward to: coriander & thyme-rubbed roasted pork served with a white wine, honey, lemon, currant and walnut glaze.  (I also served the lamb boiled with a lemon to make the broth on the side--mustn't waste good lamb!).

The result was a positively enormous meal (as you might imagine) the highlight of which was absolutely the pork.  The starter was super-simple and moreish, and the dakos was delicious.  Unfortunately the rice was bland and didn't have a great consistency (I was so busy doing everything else I'll admit to neglecting the rice), and even the green bean dish was fairly uninspiring.  Finally the pork...admittedly it was slightly overcooked, but the glaze made it, with an intense flavour that went well with the meat, but really was so good I was tempted just to pick up a spoon and eat the leftover glaze on its own.

For an accompanying cocktail Mum produced a stunner she's dubbed Akrotiri Sunrise, consisting of ouzo, cointreau, grenadine, lemonade and a dash of strawberry conserve. It tasted like licorice and strawberry jellybeans..and I don't normally like jellybeans, but it was delicious!

Rating (out of 5):

Cretan Olives, Artichokes & Olive Oil 4/5

Cretan Dakos_4.5/5 
Pilafi (Cretan Style Rice) 2/5
Cretan Green Beans 2.5/5
Cretan Pork with Currant & Walnut Glaze  4.5/5
Akrotiri Sunrise 4.5/5 (although Mum gave it a 0, I loved it! So I um, drank hers too...)