C. Sfikas - Food Tour: Thessaloniki

By C.Sfikas | Tourist Guide & UNESCO journalist

A city with a history of 2300 years like Thessaloniki inevitably has to offer many stories. As we say here in the northern part of the country "the love has to do with the belly" and the many cultures which passed from the city offered their own cuisine to Thessaloniki.

Jewish,Ottoman,Serbian,Bulgarian,Greek and many more were the cultures leaving their trace with monuments and houses, and of course their recipes. Coffee and traditional drinks and refreshments,  buffalo milk sweets and buffalo meat recipies, herbs and spices are only some of the delicacies of the city. Koulouri or simit  for our neighbors the Turks, is the ultimate snack  for every moment of the day, while bougatsa is still after many centuries ,starting from the Byzantine times, the breakfast of the Thessalonians.

The olives variety is amazing in the local market Kapani. The alcoholic drinks of Ouzo and Tsipouro , the cousin of Grappa or Arak can be purchased in the small shops of the markets.

The many taverns give an inexhaustible variety of plates, stealing the heart of the visitor.