|
Cuisine
Rich, traditional, imaginative, showing the influence of Italy just opposite, the cuisine of Corfu is a treat for all the senses. The traditional dishes that require a dictionary to explain –pastitsada, sofrito, savoro, bourdeto, etc. – may no longer be made according to Granny’s recipe, but they are still served everywhere. With fine restaurants featuring Italian and international cuisine, fish and seafood and a few ethnic notes for variety. Corfu’s restaurant landscape offers both quality and abundance of choice.
Wine
The natural environment, completely at one with the local varieties of grape that flourish here, has created a wide ecosystem in which the conditions for viniculture are practically ideal. So it is hardly surprising that the sun drenched isle of Corfu has a wine-making tradition that goes back many years.
Most popular wine types in Corfu:
Kakotrigis: Quite a few grape varieties in the Ionians have black, red, and white variants, and one of particular note is the kakotriyis of Corfu. As with white kakotriyis wines, one should seek the Ano Lefkimi red wines of Koulouris winery for youth and fragrance, and the Grovino red of Vasilakis in central Corfu for age and oak and even some finesse. Kakotriyis is joined with Petrokoritho in Theotoki Roppa rosé. All of these wines promise the tourist hedonistic enjoyment with Corfu’s meat-and-macaroni pastitsada. An engaging, dry, lightly flavored white wine. This wine is widely produced.
Petrokoritho: A dry red (brousko) wine, a product of Sinarades village.
Fraoula: A strong heavy red wine. A table grape which, even though it does not belong to the usual wine-producing varieties, is in fact used to make wine in many households.
Moschato: Cultivated with particular success in the region of Strinilas on Pantocrator. It yields a particularly fragrant white wine.
Martzavi: A dry mellow wine made from dark red grapes with heavy taste, known as black Corfiot wine. Other varieties which complete the wine map of Corfu are the "rozaki", the "pheidia", the "kokkinomousitsa:, the "xipleko", the "Arkadino", the "Koryianitis", the "Afioni", the "Agoumastos", the "alepoura" and the "Pinpiniola" - grapes which are usually mixed during production with those mentioned above.
Local Products
Kumquat: Small Asian citrus fruit introduced to Corfu by the English agronomist Merlin and now the island’s trademark. You will find it preserved as a liqueur, candied, chocolate-coated etc.
Mandolato: A kind of nougat popular throughout the Ionian. Made with honey, almonds and meringue, it is commonly described as “the candy of children and of the poor”.
Mandoles: candied almonds.
Nouboulo: Smoked pork fillet. Usually prepared in the winter in villages to be ready for eating at Easter.
Sykomaida: Pastry made with sun-dried prunes, ouzo, black pepper and sometimes must. Made in the villages, it can be found in the winter at the open-air market as well as in some central grocery stores in town.
Tsitsibirra: Ginger beer. Soft drink made from lemon juice, ground ginger, water and sugar ripened in the bottle, without preservatives. It was initially made for the British Army and is now produced in small quantities by a small family concern.
Glossary of food
Bianco: Fish stewed with lemon, garlic and pepper, but no tomato (bianco is the italian word for white).
Bourdero: Fish stewed in a tomato sauce with hot peppers and spices.It is generally made with scorpion fish or cod, but octopus or eels may also be used.
Pastitsada: Cockerel or baby beef in red sauce stewed with pepper and spices. Traditionally served with acaroni. The most popular corfiot dish.
Savoro: Fried fish (preferably red mullet, whitebait or goby), with a sauce of vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, garlic and currants.
Sofrito: Beef frizzled with garlic, vinegar, parsley and pepper.
Tsigareli: Wild greens sautéed with garlic and pepper.
Poutigka: Pudding. Christmas sweet of British ancestry.
Tsaletia: Fried pastries made with commeal, orange and currants, sprinkled with sugar and drizzled with honey or petimezi.
|
