The old minaret adjacent to St Nikolaos church is a perfect reminder of the way the East met the West in the town I made my home, Chania, Crete, Greece.
The photographs I post all help to tell a part of a longer story that focuses on the town and its citizens, whether they are living there now, or have made their home in other parts of the world. As a newer resident, by writing about the town in this way, I am trying to put some order into the chaos that I seem to be confronted with.
Thursday 9 July 2009
The beautiful colours of a sunset by the harbour in Hania
Just got back. Great island although we ate best at home in the villa. Crete is great except for the food I'm afraid. There is a sameness to all everywhere we went. The fresh produce to cook with though is brilliant. The smaller villages of Maza and Alicampos are treasures !
about dining out experiences in hania, i also find that the food is the same everywhere, usually based on traditional meals, with a sense of commonness to it. this is why going out for lunch or dinner isn;t a dining experience here, but more of a social occassion. the locals are likely to order something to eat that they know well and cook at home.
the fresh produce you can buy and cook with is nearly all locally produced, and as long as you buy/bring along your chinese sauces and indian spices, you'll be able to create international cuisine like the one you might be used to in canada (if that's what you really want from a holiday in crete...) instead of eating all the local specialities like marathopita, boureki, hohlious, etc. maybe cretan food is too unrefined and rustic for people who are used to such a wide range of foreign cuisines readily available to them (they don;t cook them themselves) that they cant understand why some people would want to eat the same food over and over again.
Happily for us we eat unrefined at home so cooking was a treat with all the fab ingredients. The local grocery store had local stuff including some out of this world feta from Rethmyeon. Another treat was going down the hill to the local bakery at 7 am and picking up croissants, bourekia and galatoboureko.heaven !
there you go, the food was good after all, and if you eat unrefined, you can enjoy the taste of the fresh ingredients in their natural form cretan cooking is actually quite unrefined - everything (and i mean everything, right down to the sea salt) depends on the quality of the fresh ingredients
What a great sunset!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful harbor view! Great shot of the lighthouse! Regards from EAGAN daily photo
ReplyDeleteReally beautiful colors, even the red shorts.
ReplyDeleteBut that walk is awfully close to the edge.
You caught the atmosphere and the light on the lighthouse very well.
ReplyDeletePink & Perfect!!
ReplyDeleteAloha-
Comfort Spiral
Nice shot :-)
ReplyDeletegorgeous!
ReplyDeleteJust got back. Great island although we ate best at home in the villa. Crete is great except for the food I'm afraid. There is a sameness to all everywhere we went. The fresh produce to cook with though is brilliant. The smaller villages of Maza and Alicampos are treasures !
ReplyDeleteabout dining out experiences in hania, i also find that the food is the same everywhere, usually based on traditional meals, with a sense of commonness to it. this is why going out for lunch or dinner isn;t a dining experience here, but more of a social occassion. the locals are likely to order something to eat that they know well and cook at home.
ReplyDeletethe fresh produce you can buy and cook with is nearly all locally produced, and as long as you buy/bring along your chinese sauces and indian spices, you'll be able to create international cuisine like the one you might be used to in canada (if that's what you really want from a holiday in crete...) instead of eating all the local specialities like marathopita, boureki, hohlious, etc. maybe cretan food is too unrefined and rustic for people who are used to such a wide range of foreign cuisines readily available to them (they don;t cook them themselves) that they cant understand why some people would want to eat the same food over and over again.
Happily for us we eat unrefined at home so cooking was a treat with all the fab ingredients. The local grocery store had local stuff including some out of this world feta from Rethmyeon. Another treat was going down the hill to the local bakery at 7 am and picking up croissants, bourekia and galatoboureko.heaven !
ReplyDeletethere you go, the food was good after all, and if you eat unrefined, you can enjoy the taste of the fresh ingredients in their natural form
ReplyDeletecretan cooking is actually quite unrefined - everything (and i mean everything, right down to the sea salt) depends on the quality of the fresh ingredients
Thanks for sharing this post and the comments and most of all the beautiful sunset...a visual Delight..Loukoumades
ReplyDeleteReminds me of Kyrenia.
ReplyDelete