GASTRONOMY – EN
REGION OF EASTERN MACEDONIA AND THRACE
KAVALA ● DRAMA ● XANTHI ● RODOPI ● EVROS
OUR GASTRONOMY
The Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace has a vast authentic gastronomic wealth, shaped by the wide variety of agri-food products produced by the land of the 5 prefectures of the Region, the gastronomy of two regions of the country, namely Macedonia and Thrace, as well as the multicultural coexistence of local and refugee influences.
The visitor meets the local gastronomic traditions of each region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in the recipes and the variety of its processed products.
Products created from the fusion of gastronomic traditions of Macedonia, Thrace, Pontus, Eastern Rumelia, Armenia, the Roma, and other refugees who added their touch to the gastronomic mosaic.
With a wide variety of high-quality raw materials, including fruits, vegetables, meat products, dairy, fish, and seafood, local and refugee populations maintained their eating habits and enriched them with influences from their new neighbors.
Some of the highly reputed processed products of the Region are:
Tzigerosarmades, kavourmas (boiled goat and pork meat preserved with their fat), tas-kebap (pieces of pork or veal with sauce), tanosour (from Pontus), manti (ravioli stuffed with minced meat from Cappadocia), local sausages with different recipes, the unique red trahana with vegetables requiring 7 days for its creation, ifikadia (noodles) and couscous. Additionally, cheeses such as feta and graviera, complete the long list.
Of particular interest is the list of sweets, which includes syrupy baked goods (baklava, kantaifi, ekmek kantaifi, saragli, walnut pie, samali, ravani), rahat lukum with plenty of walnut, coconut and raspberry, hanum burek with cream, kantaifi, kazan dipi, tauk kioksou, a unique dessert with chicken, muhalebi or malebi (cream with rosewater syrup), seker pare from semolina, kariokas and sujuk lukum, a long narrow lukum with must-jelly and walnut tied with twine.