I will not digress into that other important drink category, the wonderful wines of Greece and the varietals which are used to produce them; Wine Business Monthly’s Lisa Shara Hall covers this topic in another article. Yet thinking about wine naturally leads me to thoughts about cheese.

Big cheese
Greece, FYI, is the biggest per capita cheese consuming country in the world (France is in second place). Much of this consumption, indeed, is in the form of feta, a cheese that has been in constant production for thousands of years. It is traditionally made by shepherds from unpasteurized sheep’s or goat’s milk, which is curdled and then left to drain in a special mold or cloth bag. Then it is salted and cured in a brine solution for a week or a few months. Because feta will dry out once removed from its brine, it is wise not to remove it from its bath. If it has already been removed, place it in a Tupperware container with some water and it will last far longer.

Throwing political correctness to the winds, I would like to note that the only real feta comes from Greece and possibly Bulgaria. The French and to a lesser extent the Dutch and Australians do make products that they laughingly refer to as feta. Trust me, they aren’t. But in any case, feta is as feta does. What is far more exciting is the wide variety - over 60 traditional types, many designated as PDO - of artisanal cheeses produced in Greece.

First there are the soft cheeses made from sheep’s and goat’s milk. These include anevato, (from Grevena in Macedonia) galotiri (from Thessaly) and pretza (from Zakynthos). Each has its own unique flavor and is blessed with a long shelf life and the ability to mix well with other ingredients, such as herbs or olives.

Then there are the hard cheeses – kefalotiri, graviera, kefalograviera, etc. – the best and most authentic of which are those that are properly aged and packaged in natural rind. Kefalotiri is a bit like Italian Romano, though softer and less salty. It has a nutty, slightly sharp taste. Graviera offers a firm yet elastic texture and is slightly sweet. As the name implies, kefalograviera falls somewhere in between these two in taste and is possibly the most versatile of Greek cheeses, eaten in slices and grated over macaronia (pasta). Also popular is kasseri, which is a bit like mozzarella in that it is nice for melting, but possessing a rich, buttery flavor that is all its own. Really, to do justice to the range of wonderful cheeses available from Greece would require a whole, separate article.

No discussion of dairy products would be complete without covering yoghurt. There are many different kinds of yoghurt in Greece. Some are made from sheep’s milk, some from cow and some from goat, or some mixture thereof. Some are strained and some are sour. But whatever the type, the best are made using traditional methods. Those that are produced by adding proteins or including powdered milk - often in a continuous hyperfiltration process-are significantly less tasty.

The Greek Garden
What is undeniably tasty in Greece is the produce. Eating the fruit and vegetables here reminds me of a passage in Jack Finney’s novel Time and Again where the protagonist finds himself transported through time to 1880’s New York. There he discovers tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, among other things.
In Greece the tomatoes do taste like tomatoes, as do the peppers, zucchini, and eggplants, to name a few. Even the cucumbers – who knew they were supposed to have a flavor? – taste like cucumbers.

There are some special varieties of produce that are unique to Greece. The "waterless"