Food and Travel
Greece’s Magic Mountain
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By Eleni Psyhouli Photography: Yiorgos Detsis, Clairi Moustafelou Mt. Pelion is on the eastern edge of continental Greece. It is the Centaur’s mountain, the place from which Jason and his Argonauts set sail, and it stretches out toward the sea in a semicircle, slapped by the open Aegean on its exterior but soothed by the calm waters of the Pagasitiko Gulf, which it circles like an embrace.  For centuries, Pelion’s local products have traveled far and wide Within its relatively limited expanse, though, the whole Mediterranean seems to be distilled: Pelion possesses a vast array of plant life and varied flora, snow-capped mountains, thick forests, olive groves, wide plateaus, and gorgeous beaches. Any tour of this enchanting place typically begins with its most typical food custom: a seafood meze and a fiery glass of local tsipouro, most likely at one of the countless small restaurants serving such fare in the prefecture’s capital city, Volos. The mountain itself is a mere 20 minute drive from downtown Volos; in the short space of time, visitors go from seaside vistas to chestnut forests in the mountain’s highest altitudes. Mountain villages are renowned for their unique architecture. From most of these villages a half hour’s descent by car will bring you to some quaint fisherman’s village, with its simple houses and mild clime. Pelion’s charms aren’t limited to the variety and beauty of its natural environs. Its history and legend are equally enticing. Pelion was home of the mythic battle of the Titans and it was the preferred summer rest place of the Olympian gods. Achilles was a son of Pelion, born of the nymph Thetida and the semi-deity Pelea (SP); Jason and Asklipios (the god of Medicine) were both sons of Pelion, too, and students of another mythical denizen, the Centaur Chiron. The mountain gave Jason the pine trees from which he built his boat, the Argot.  So prized has this lush mountain been, that in the long years of Ottoman rule over Greece, Pelion was the dominion of the sultan’s mother, a fact that carried with it certain benefits for local inhabitants. Pelion never felt the choking yoke of occupation as strongly as other places in Greece; artisans from other parts of the country, especially Epirus, emigrated to the area. Skillful stonemasons, these Epirote emigres chiseled the architectural facade of Pelion as we still see it today: stone villas in the northern reaches of the mountain as well as gorgeous industrial buildings built with stone that make for some of the most unique and human- scale old factories in Greece. In some of these factories, olives, olive oil and other agricultural products were readied for export. Even during Ottoman rule, Pelion’s rich agricultural treasures traveled far and wide. Ironically, the special liberties enjoyed by the area helped give birth to the Greek Enlightenment and to the movement that eventually led to freedom from the Ottomans.  The area had well-developed textiles and shipping industries, but not developed enough to be able to compete in the 19th century with the English textile and steam-engine revolutions. As a result, many of the region’s wealthiest industrialists emigrated to Egypt, Russia and Romania, sending money back to their native villages. That money helped fund another architectural tradition in the many neoclassical Greek houses and buildings that still survive amidst the dense flora of Pelion’s mountain reaches.  The mountain is home to 24 villages. Most visitors though flock to the most touristed place, to the ski center, for example, and the villages of Tsangarada, Portaria, Vyzitsa, and Milies, each a gem in its own right, thanks in large part to the distinct local architecture. But Pelion is also home to countless hidden treasures. These are to be found in the small village squares surrounded by typical lazy-day cafeneia, plain trees, and more. Even in the touristed villages, the square is the heart of local life. In Milies, for example, the café Anna Na Ena Milo (Anna, Here’s an Apple), is the place to go for a great Greek coffee simmered over hot ash, or for a soothing sip of local herbal tea. Homemade liqueurs, apple pie, and local apples fill the air with intoxicating aromas. You might also be stopped in your tracks by the aroma of fresh mountain bread, baked in a wood-burning oven, not in Milies but further along in Pinakotes, at Mario’s bakery. He claims to make bread with the same centuries- old recipe that local women have always used. You’ll also find a traditional cheese bread called “ladopiasti,” which is filled with local goat’s cheese preserved in olive oil and local black olives. A little further down the road, at a small taverna called Oinosifylo, the slow-roasting kid with potatoes and tomatoes will, as the Greeks say, “break your nose” with its perfume.  One favorite hidden treasure is Ai Yiorgis, an abandoned village filled with run-down but grand old houses whose warm peach color has long faded. The villages gurgling waters, dusty beauty and view of the sea is enough to inspire even the most rushed visitor to stop and ponder for hours. At the local cafeneion, run by Kyria Melpomeni, the coffee simmers the old-fashioned way, with patience, until just that moment when the foam on top is perfectly dense. Everything here seems to have stopped somewhere around 1950. The old wood-clad tavern Paliovigla in the middle of the forest still serves forth old, local dishes; at Stefani’s ouzeri, bulbous glass bottles filled with macerating fruit and alcohol stand upright next to flowering plants, the better to be warmed by the sun. In them are homespun liqueurs in slow making, another local custom. The most unusual is surely the olive liqueur, a house specialty and the official treat one is privy to upon sitting down and ordering a coffee. That, of course, before the actual object of desire in this place, local fire water, called tsipouro, which is served in ever more garrulous rounds to a growing number of accompanying local mezedes as the day or night wears on. Beef tongue and tripe are among the specialty mezedes here.  Portaria square One culinary sight any visitor to Pelion is likely to encounter in almost any village are the hand-made savory pies, a tradition brought to the area by Vlach shepherds who for centuries moved with their flocks into the lowlands in winter. It is not uncommon to witness a local cook hand-rolling phyllo into thin sheets with little more than a dowel. These pies are typically filled with local wild mountain greens. That same gossamer thin homemade phyllo is the star attraction in the region’s baklava, too, made crisp with oliveoil-brushed layers of pastry and filled with local walnuts. That’s a winter sweet, likely to follow another winter specialty, the bean soup aromatic with celery, or Spetsofai, a sausage and pepper medley that is arguably Pelion’s most famous dish. Wild mushrooms, wild boar, braised rooster and various offal dishes are among many other local offerings. If I’ve described Pelion’s high-altitude cuisine and given a sense of its meze-tsipouro culture, the descent from highlands to the sea brings with it a noticeable change in scenery. Forests give way to olive and citrus groves. Gardens brimming with vegetables descend almost to water’s edge. In the fishing villages along the Pagasitiko Gulf, heavy mountain fare morphs into the light, convivial fare of waterside tavernas: sun-dried octopus, salted mackerel, fried small fish, all washed down, of course, with prodigious amounts of crystal clear tsipouro. At Trikeri, which seems more island than mountain, rice-stuffed sea urchins and langoustine-studded pasta are just two local specialties. In spring, you’ll find a seasonal delicacy: mint, almond and rice filled zucchini blossoms. A meal by the sea should definitely finish on a sweet note, maybe a spoonful of cherry preserves, savored slowly as the fishing boats bob in the nearby water. No matter what season brings you to Pelion, the mountain is magical all year round.  Local Products Apples Pelion, especially the area around Zagora, with its long winter and high altitudes is famous for its apples, which are a Protected Designation of Origin product. Main varieties grown here include Starking and Golden Delicious. But there is another, strictly local variety of apple, that is most closely associated with Pelion: the fyriki, a small, sweet apple with a reddish-yellow skin. While spoon sweets are made all over the country, the tradition in Pelion is significant thanks to the mountain’s rich flora and wealth of fruit orchards. More than 10 women’s cooperatives produce these delicious seasonal sweets, including: plum, medlar, apricot, cherry, tomato, peach, sour cherry, fig, prune plum, eggplant, pumpkin, melon, grape, quince, walnut, almond, chestnut, mountain berries, and, of course, apples. Honey The mountain’s dense flora means that bees have a wealth of wild food from which to feed. In turn, they produce all manner of honeys: thyme, blossom, pine, and more. One of the most unusual honeys can be found here, too: the delicious, slightly bitter chestnut honey. Olives Olives have always been the main agricultural product of Pelion and the mountain has long been famous for its nearly waterless olives, called Pelioritikes, which have long been a favorite throughout the Balkans, Europe, the Arab world and the States. For all its wealth of olives, though, the area is not particularly known for its oil, which is rarely bottled commercially. Chestnuts Like apples, these too come from Zagora. The variety is a large one and it the main chestnut found in Greece’s farmers’ markets in the late fall and early winter. There is also a budding industry around chestnut products, from spoon sweets to preserves and more.  Restaurants that serve tsipouro and mezedes are part of the cultural tapestry of Volos and Pelion. Tsipouradika The tradition of the tsipouradika, restaurants that serve Greece’s fiery spirit together with a whole array of mezedes, is part and parcel of the cultural tapestry of Volos. The tradition dates back to the arrival of Greeks from Asia Minor, after the catastrophe of ’22, and evolved mainly among those who worked in the port and on the docks. Tsipouro has been produced in nearby Tyrnavo for a long, long time, and this is mainly what longshoremen of yore used to drink, by the shot glass, in fact, which most of the time was a little thimble! It was the stuff by which they relaxed after a day’s work or on a break. This custom slowly gave birth to establishments that served tsipouro, as well as coffee and cognac, but here, too, for more than 50 years, it was customary to down a quick drink at the counter, standing up. It was a manly thing to do after work and before dinner. Women began to infiltrate the tsipouradika in the late 1960s, and with their presence the menu decidedly evolved. When the tsipouradika were a man’s world, the accompanying small plates of food washed down by the shotglass were simple: some cured fish, some pickled vegetables, a few olives. Local fishermen, also for the most part Asia Minor refugees, supplied the tsipouradika with whatever was left over after selling off the day’s catch: mussels, shrimp, small fry, etc. Now, the custom has evolved so that these places often have menus of 50 and 60 small plates. Locals never order; the more you drink the more meze fair that comes out of the kitchen. Seafood, robust flavors, dips, olives, pickles and more are all local favorites. |
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