Delicious Food Experience for Two, in Athens!

I spent a few days in Athens some time ago, trying to get to do a bit of sightseeing too in between business. As a Tinggly Ambassador, I decided to have a Tinggly experience of a Delicious Food Experience for Two, in beautiful Greece.
More: http://www.tinggly.com/gourmet-experiences-gifts

Getting in contact with the Tinggly personal, I sent an email including the necessary info for me and the friend of mine that would share the experience, getting a reply in less than 10 minutes with all the necessary details of where, how and when this experience would take place!

Our appointment was on a Saturday morning at 9.30 a.m., downtown Athens, at the University bus stop to meet our touring guide. She was on time for our Tinggly tour downtown and explained to us that we would have the chance to get to know a few tasty habits of the people of Athens too, as well as many of the local delicacies they enjoy daily!

The tour was on foot and lasted for about three hours with many stops at various shops to try out something new so time flew by without feeling any fatigue. We started out towards Aiolou Street and our very first stop was at an outdoors salesman of “koulouria”. Koulouria are famous Greek bread-rolls of special aniseed dough, covered with sesame seeds. It’s the most popular on foot breakfast for Greek pedestrians, ideal with a cup of hot-coffee to go! Our guide bought a koulouri for each one of us and we went on.

While at Aiolou Street, we also made a stop at the church of St. Theodores, one of the oldest churches in the city of Athens and from there straight to Krinos, five minutes away. Krinos is another special stop at Aiolou Street. Here is the older “Loukoumades” shop of Athens. Loukoumades is another traditional and very popular delicacy of Greece.

Small balls of deep-fried fluffy dough, served in a rich overlay of honey! It’s a tasty and rich breakfast, ideal with coffee, one of the tastiest ones you ever tried out!

We enjoyed our loukoumades and coffee  at Krinos, famous for its secret recipe of the best loukoumades in Athens!

Our next stop was the Varvakios Market, the largest meat market in Athens. We looked around the small meat shops, one next to the other, with large meat pieces hanging in open sight while the salesmen advertise loudly their goods and prices, so unusual to foreigners but a familiar folklore look to Greeks. 

Within the meat market we stop to a tavern, called Hepyrus. We tried out here a traditional plate of the Greek cuisine of spinach and rice cooked with olive oil, along with a glass of red Greek wine. The tavern was very clean, with great cuisine and the most traditional atmosphere!

From the meat market, we went to the sea market section of Varvakios market, then the vegetables and fruits section where we got the chance to try out Greek olives, famous for their quality and unique taste!

Our next stop was to meet the spice and pastrami at one of the oldest stores of the kind in Athens, the “Arapian”! Spice lovers will discover little treasures here!

We carried on with a stop at “Peri Lesvou” (about Lesbos island), a very old traditional groceries shop. Here we got the chance to try out feta out of the barrel (feta is the famous Greek white cheese, created with goat and cow milk), raki (strong greek spirit drink) as well as masticha liqueur, created with the unique tree gum extracted at the Chios island and famous for its digestive abilities.

Our tour went on towards the small picturesque square of Psyri! Our stop here was at a very beautiful store called “Psyri’s Thessaloniki”. Here we tasted the famous Greek bougatsa, traditional pie of fluffy thin endless layers with sweet cream or cheese feeling, exceptionally delicious and very popular in Greece! We loved its taste!

Our tour ended at this little square with the final stop for the famous Greek souvlaki, the street fast food of all Greeks! We enjoyed it with pita and couldn’t get enough of its fantastic taste!

This was the end of our Delicious Food Experience for Two in beautiful Greece!

A tour to remember, full of exciting new tastes!

Once again, Tinggly didn’t disappoint us with a unique experience around the Athens traditional corners and an introduction to Greek traditional tastes.

A unique experience I recommend to all !