Lefkadian cuisine
Lefkadian cuisine begins many years ago, when people without having the facilities we have in our days they cooked tasteful things. In Lefkada, nowadays, exist around forty-seven villages and most of them have their own special traditional dishes. The old Lefkadian people had simple lives, but the difficulties were a lot and made them to get evolved. It is admirable, that despite their poverty, they used plenty of imagination to create very tasty home-made foods.
They selected wild vegetables from the mountains, they cultivated wheat, olive trees, vineyard to make their own oil and wine. At the same time, they had their own gardens with fresh vegetables, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, peppers and a lot more mediterranean products. Beekeepers used bees and they produced excellent thymian and flower honey.
So all of these, influenced the gastronomy of Lefkadian culture. In remote areas, people were forced to work a lot more, in order to have better results. Furthermore, in town of Lefkas, they had the privilege to buy easy meat and sweets from the bigger shops. It’s important to say that Lefkadian people use excellent ingredients and they cooked them with care, love and passion!
Products
The local Olive oil – of excellent quality from delicious and nutritional olives – is never missing from any Lefkadian house. An original recipe from olive oil is sweet oil-pie. Home-made with simple ingredients. The oil pie is offered in many special celebrations and also for in 1st of January, instead of the new year cake!
One more unique recipe, with oil, is traditional olive oil cookies. Also delicious with hot tea or a cup of coffee!
Famous dishes
Rustic chicken with spaghetti, lathiria (mixed beans), tsigaridia (variety from vegetables fried), cuttlefish with spinach and tomato sauce, lentils from Eglouvi, octopus with macarotsinia (pasta), riganada (hot roast bread at fireplace with fresh olive oil and oregan), Leucadian salami and sausages. One more very famous and delicious food is the Lefkadian cheese pie or egg-pie. The oldest women roll out their own pie-crust and add oil, cheese, eggs, milk in between, and finally, they bake in wooden-fire oven and the results are incredible.
Pastels and madolata (local sweets), made by old traditional confectioners. It has full of taste and wonderful mastic texture. Pastels are made only with pure natural honey, little sugar, cooked almonds and cooked sesame seeds. It has a crispy and honey flavor.
An important event which occurs every year in Lefkada, is the “gastronomy festival”, a special event which presents the local traditional cuisine and invites you to try local products. Every year, they have new entrance, new chefs and old ones who combine their knowledge. It is a great way to evolve and develop culinary gastronomy in Lefkada. The festival presents the most famous and delicious dishes, in their best edition keeping old traditions alive!
