Ορεκτικά - orektika - appetisers

Notes: If you think all there is to a salad is lettuce / a salad has to contain lettuce... you’re so British: Horiatiki: the famous ‘Greek salad’ although the name means village salad in Greek. In the summer months it usually consists of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives and feta cheese. Ingredients can vary but the olives and feta is essential. If you don’t like olives / feta, ask for it without (you’ll probably still get the olives – just leave them). Tzatziki: can vary a lot (McDonalds it's not! ). Some places, some times, mostly yogurt with a hint of cucumber and garlic, other times/places a lot of cucumber and/or garlic. Dolmades: vine leaves stuffed with rice (mostly) but sometimes with rice and minced meat – if you’re a veggie you may want to check before ordering. May be served either cold or warm. Melitsano salata: mashed aubergine, served cold. Taramo salata: known in the UK as taramossalata, cod roe coloured with beetroot juice. If it looks more tan coloured than blancmange pink then it’s probably home made. Tono salata: varies a lot, sometimes just tuna flakes (with an olive), other times a salad of lettuce, onion, tomato with tuna flakes on top. Saganaki: a fairly modern American-Greek dish of grilled cheese, usually in batter or, possibly, breadcrumbs. The cheese used can vary, typically its kefalotyri, a hard white cheese, but it can also be …., a softer, stringy cheese like parmesan. Feta saganaki is usally labelled as such. Skordalia: pureed potato and garlic. Usually served cold, may be served warm. Elies: a small plate of olives in olive oil. Marouli: a plate/bowl of lettuce, sometimes with diced raw onion / raw onion rings. Lakhano kai carrota: sliced cabbage and grated carrots, served cold. Ntomata kai angouri: slices of tomato and cucumber. Loukaniko: Greek sausages, varies a lot, sometimes quite spicy. Horta: ‘greens’, part of the Greek staple diet, bit of an acquired taste if you’ve not been brought up eating it. Pantzaria: beetroot, usually sliced more thickly than in the UK, without vinegar and served warm, may be whole. Shrimp saganaki: grilled shrimps. Gavros: small fried fishes, served and eaten whole.

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