A spontaneous weekend lead me to a full blown gastronomical meal up in the mountains where the mythical Zeus lies embedded. Here’s how to eat with the Gods:

Hop on a bus from Istanbul. Never mind if your original plan is to be in Alexandrapolis, just pay the bus driver an extra 50 euros, to get to somewhere you have no clue about. Then check into an internet cafe and read (and find your accommodation). Discover that you’re in the second largest city in Greece, welcome to Thessaloníki.

Ask the locals. Ask your hotel receptionist even though he looks like he has buried someone in one of the dogdy rooms. We did, and he told us to make our way to Mount Olympus. An hour later…

Pink peppers on feta cheese, chickpeas and some luminous greens

Grandmother’s cheese pie is a Greek tradition

Rabbit with mavrodafmi wine & almonds, vinegar, daphne, black pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg

Deer in chocolate sauce with xinomavro, pepper, cinnamon, clove, cumin & homemade cocoa pasta

Patsavouropitta (traditional treacly), served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce

Book a table at Mount Olympus signature restaurant and discover divinity.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 9:41 pm and is filed under art on my plate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.