Travel and Food

The Best Thing I Have Ever Eaten While Travelling

The food is only part of why this stays with me.

You know what they call Greek Salad in Greece?

Salad.

Probably the same way that Chinese Food in China is just called food.

Anyway. Santorini. The top of an ancient volcano that pokes out of the Aegean Sea. 2012. But also maybe 2013. I’m going mostly on memories here so it’s possible some of the details are made up to fill in the blanks. Maybe I’ve just remembered things the way I want to remember them. We do that sometimes, no?

Santorini is probably one of the most popular of the Greek Islands for it’s stunning beauty that is complemented by the beautiful people that honeymoon there and the not always so beautiful people that are disgorged from cruise ships, who’s choices as tourists can’t help but have an impact on the place, economic and otherwise.

But fear not, if you are neither of those people. Santorini can still be enjoyed such that it gets under your skin and calls you back. Job one on arrival is to get yourself a scooter. I recall staying at a hostel in Perissa on the southeast coast of the island and they set it all up for me. With that method of transportation, you can see part of the island that is a bit less trodden by the great unwashed masses and cruise ship people.

And get to those places that are not in the Lonely Planet book. The sort of place at which you might look over and see Anthony Bourdain two tables over. And not filming anything. Just being there.

He’s missed, isn’t he?

Natasha MH wrote poignantly about him the other day, four years after his decision to shuffle off this mortal coil.

But I digress.

Let’s face it, feta cheese is the main reason to eat a greek salad, isn’t it? I can’t be the only one who has come to this conclusion. Tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, red onions, red pepper, a liberal sprinkling of lemon juice and a pinch of ground oregano are all well and good. But it all amounts to very little without a slab of feta cheese the size of a roof tile hovering on top, such that you get a bite of it with every forkful. Let’s not kid ourselves here.

But there’s Greek salad and there’s Greek salad. What was so great about this one? Why does it continue to be my personal gold standard for a travel and eating experience?

It’s the food, sure. But it’s the setting you eat it in that’s just as important, if not more.

It’s the point in your travels that you find yourself in at that moment. Is it the beginning and you are still all wide eyed, full of energy and wanting a piece of everything? Is it the end and you are exhausted and just want a minute of peace, away from people? Is it the middle and you have just found your feet and are getting into a real groove with it all?

For me, it was the latter.

But it could also be the owner of the establishment, Voula, who makes the food, talks to you about it and then is genuinely glad of your reaction to it.

I say establishment, but it’s the house where she lives and has built a deck to the side, with merciful shade and a chalkboard on the road that gives a hint at what’s inside. Just enough to whet your curiosity and park that scooter before an afternoon at Red Beach.

And again after it too. And again the next day. And the one after that.

It’s the garden where she grows every last bit of what you are putting into your mouth. It’s the sound of the sheep a little bit further away that are producing this incomparable salty, crumbly yet creamy cheese that you cannot get enough of.

It all tastes like nothing you’d get at a supermarket. It all tastes like nothing you’ve had before. It all tastes like sunlight.

You might as well have another Mythos to go with that, the day isn’t going anywhere. It could only be colder if it was frozen.

Anyone who has travelled a lot, or even just a bit, knows that occasionally meals will be disappointing. The vast majority will be average — which is disappointing in and of itself, especially when you were looking forward to it after thoroughly researching the reviews.

But now and again, you will find yourself in a place you didn’t know existed and that you probably won’t find on Google Maps or Yelp. And you will eat something that you know you won’t forget. So you savour. And you sit. And you order another one. And then come back the next day for more.

And ten years later you will write an article about it, because it won’t leave you alone, that moment.

I can’t remember the name of the place, or if it even had one. If I ever found myself on Santorini again, would I be able to find it?

Maybe I imagined it all. Isn’t that all we want from being out in the world?

I really do hope that you like what you have just read. If you want unlimited access to thousands of writers, consider a subscription to Medium. It will set you back $5 a month and if you use this link, then I get a slice of that and I’ll put it towards the purchase of a sheep farm so that I’ll never be without feta cheese again.