The island (history, nature, food…)
What to eat: the island’s food
Fresh fish, kakavia soup, lobster pasta, pies, samousades, thyme honey and olive oil: what to try.
Elafonisos cooking starts with the sea and goes on with whatever the fertile mainland opposite produces.
Fish and seafood
The island is known for its fresh fish: grouper, dentex, sea bream, red mullet and pandora. Try grilled or pickled octopus, cuttlefish, langoustines and lobster. The island’s speciality is kakavia, the local fish soup, while lobster pasta and prawn pasta have become visitors’ favourites.
Pies
Spinach pies and greens pies are made in every home. Look out too for tsaiti, a traditional Vatika pie with fresh goat’s cheese and mint that shepherds used to make.
Sweets
The island’s traditional sweets are samousades, something like baklava, and lychnarakia, a kind of fried pastry, both soaked in syrup.
From the land
Many islanders have fields on the mainland opposite. Try local tomatoes in a salad or on a rusk, and the onions and potatoes of Vatika. The island’s olive oil is fine, light and golden green, and its olives are cracked, scored or salted.
Thyme and the island’s other aromatic shrubs make an excellent thyme honey. Look out too for local rusks, such as eftazyma and the anise ones made for fasting days, and goat’s cheese.
