Venturing beyond Chania’s harbour restaurants – dining in the hills, eating by the beach, restaurants with a view, tavernas on the sea front.

A new batch of inspiring suggestions adds to your chances of enjoying the food of Crete.

Venture outside Chania town and enjoy the scenery, authentic villages and mouth watering treats.

The CreteTravel article spills the beans and reveals the food-fanatic secrets that have been given to the travel consultancy’s own guests >

http://www.cretetravel.com/Chania/Chania.htm – ( scroll to near the bottom of the page for these secret places and look at the rest of the article for Chania town attractions as well )

Happy travels

Agios Nikolaos is on a beautification binge…smartening the main Eleftherios Venizelos square and approaching roads. Unsightly cables have been committed to below-ground, where they really do belong!

Nykterida – the long-famed restaurant where I would love to be able to say “my great friend and colleague Sir Winston Churchill” (alas we did Not meet ! ) , apparently dined and enjoyed a cigar as usual – still sits aloft Souda bay on the piddly and insufficient road from Chania to the airport.
The restaurant is poised above the water, offering welcome views night and day.

Nykterida’s oven cooked lamb with many supporting ingredients, a rewardingly tasty eggplant dish with hints of bacon, wonderful cold salads, pork rolled with cheese and vegetables, smoked pork, all were healthy, wholesome pleasure. Lubricated with a 2000 Nemea from the boys at Skouras which scores an 8.5 out of ten on my red wines list (rich, without tannin dryness, silky without over suddsiness, fruity without bringing one fruit too much to mind and totally pleasing to mouth and palate) .
Also welcome on a chilly night was that the restaurant had heard of heating and was warm and cosy. Though they need to add this comfort level, I am told, to the ladies toilets which were all about refrigeration !
A simple change that would bring many more welcome visitors and guests to Crete – will be unilateral warmth – cafes and restaurant owners take note – in winter, indoors!

From our view of the snow-coated White Mountains of Crete, to you all over the world with warm wishes and greetings.

A Cretan restaurant we hope to try – Alatsi in Athens.
Using ingredients and recipes from Crete – sounds authentic and tasty – try it and enjoy at Vrasida no.13 near the Hilton hotel (phone 210 721 0501)

Snow fell “all at once” as it always seems to do….much of the country was snow-covered to some degree – including a late-to-work-because-of-the-snow Athens on Tuesday.
Mountains and hilltops over 300 metres were snow covered even in Crete. Crete received months of rain in a night and a day, causing temporary lakes to appear in some parts of Chania while some south and eastern areas saw little of the wet stuff.

Crete has had few rather cold days with daytime temperatures sometimes straining to exceed 6 degrees centigrade. Things, the meteorological soothsayers tell us, will start warming up on Thursday
Perhaps integrity will descend across the land on Friday….! Ho Hum.

The restaurants, to qualify must:
-Only use Virgin olive oil from Crete
-Have the correct ingredients for a Greek salad
-Offer at least 2 Cretan cheeses
-Fresh potatoes must be used and fired in olive oil for fried potatos
-Offer real Greek coffee, made in the traditional way
-Must offer olives or olive paste, or local tapa-like appetizer and cretan rusk or local black bread included in the cover charge
-”Taste” must be acceptable as “Cretan” cuisine (read more about Cretan Cuisine http://www.cretetravel.com/Cretan_Diet/Cretan_Diet_1.htm )
- Must offer Cretan wines
- Acceptable standards of cleanliness in kitchens, dining areas and bathroom/toilet

OK – enough of the tedious list here is a more interesting one, the names of the restaurants:

AVLI – Rethymno; VILLA ARCHANES (a place to stay
http://www.crete-hotels-rooms.com/Reservations/Villa_Arhanes.htm )
- Arhanes village; ENAGRON – Axos; KYRIAKOS – Heraklion; BALCONY – Sitia; PANORAMA – Spili; PITHOS – Hersonisos; SYMBOSIO – Rethymno; CHRISTOS TAVERNA – Rehtymno.

I know there are many, really many, other restaurants in Crete that fulfill and dramatically exceed these terms and specifications and offer the true Cretan dining experience – but more tend to cater to foreign cuisine-influenced expectations with chicken nuggets for children and packaged dinner plates. So it is a worthwhile addition to have this new reference point for all it might do to encourage both those certified and other who may understand the appeal to both visitors and local residents.

I’m getting hungry at the thought….