Traveling and eating in Greece is like stepping into a gorgeous magazine cover

Traveling and eating in Greece is like stepping into a gorgeous magazine cover

Traveling and eating in Greece is like stepping into a gorgeous magazine cover, but without the Photoshop. The kalamata olives, feta cheese, colorful salads, and roast meats are all postcard perfect by default, much like the blue oceans and white buildings.

What's the secret? Olive oil, glittering olive oil, glistening olive oil, glistening olive oil, glistening olive Olive oil, a gift from the gods, is probably Greece's most important export, influencing how people throughout the world think about food and nutrition. In Greece, eating is also a form of historical consumption. A nibble of dolma or a gulp of lentil soup transports you to ancient Greece, where they were first created.

The flavors of olive oil, which can be poured on other foods or absorbed by bread, are virtually as diverse as those of wine.

With its feta cheese mixture and flaky pastry top, Spanakopita makes spinach appetizing.

Gyros — late-night drunk dining wouldn't be the same without the roast beef and tzatziki pita bread sandwich.

Lachanorizo is made up of cabbage and onions that have been cooked to death and then combined with rice. It's filling, but it's only one-dimensional.

This may or may not come as a surprise to you, but Greece has more than one national food. The country, which is recognized for its delectable cuisine, couldn't pick just one dish to represent it.

That's correct. While many countries choose one traditional dish to help establish their nation's identity and self-image, Greece — a country with widely different geography and regional traditions — has a total of six national dishes that symbolize Greek culture.

These recipes reflect Greeks' passion for fresh, local food and meats, as well as the Greek Orthodox faith, which often regulates what believers can and cannot eat at specific seasons of the year.

Gyros, moussaka, souvlaki, magiritsa, kokoretsi, and fasolada are the national dishes of Greece. Every food has a cultural or historical value in Greece, and each one is prepared differently depending on the region or island. A gyro is an all-in-one meal made of roasted meat, either chicken or pork, cooked on a vertical rotisserie and served in a pita with tomato, onion, tzatziki, lettuce, and french fries.

Moussaka is another traditional Greek meal that is well-known outside of Greece. It's a layered casserole dish with sautéed eggplant, minced meat, and a creamy Béchamel sauce on top.

Souvlaki, or grilled pieces of meat on a skewer, is Greece's third national meal. Pita bread and lemon wedges are typically served with this dish.

If your Greek friends ask if you want souvlaki, don't be surprised if you wind up having a gyro. Souvlaki can also refer to a soft pita bread loaded with meat, tomatoes, onions, tzatziki, and French fries in various parts of Greece.

Souvlaki is supposed to have originated in ancient Greece. The origins of today's souvlaki can definitely be traced back to the ancient Greeks, as evidenced by archeological artifacts and manuscripts. Souvlaki's beginnings as grilled beef slices on a spit may be traced all the way back to ancient Greece. This dish, known as obeliskos (the diminutive of obelos - "spit"), was mentioned by Aristophanes, Xenophon, and Aristotle, among others.

In his work "Deipnosophistae," Athenaeus mentions a dish of bread loaded with meat that is similar to how pita souvlaki is eaten today with pita bread.

This Easter dinner is a national tradition, albeit the recipe changes depending on where you live.

This is generally the first meat-based dish served on Easter after a 40-day Lenten fast without meat.

It's made from lamb offal and seasoned with onions, dill, butter, rice, and avgolemono. It's eaten right after the Greek Orthodox Church's midnight Divine Liturgy.

This Greek national dish is one of those things that tastes so amazing you don't want to know what's in it.

This rotisserie dish consists of lamb or goat intestines, heart, liver, and other organ meats wrapped in caul fat (or lace fat) and then surrounded with yards of cleansed intestines.

Despite the unusual ingredient list, kokoretsi is one of Greece's most delicious dishes and is well worth a try. Have faith in me.

This dish, which is made with white beans, olive oil, and vegetables, is served all year in Greece and is ideal for the numerous times during the year when the Greek Orthodox faithful are required to abstain from eating meat.

Olive oil, which is used in almost every dish, is the most distinctive and ancient feature of Greek cuisine. It's made from olive trees that may be found all across the region, and it adds to the characteristic flavor of Greek cuisine. Olives are also consumed in large quantities.

Wheat is the most common grain grown in Greece, however barley is also grown. Tomato, aubergine (eggplant), potato, green beans, okra, green peppers (capsicum), and onions are all important vegetables. Honey in Greece is mostly made from the nectar of citrus and fruit trees, such as lemon, orange, and bigarade (bitter orange) trees, as well as thyme honey and pine honey. On the Aegean island of Chios, mastic (an aromatic, ivory-colored resin) is farmed.

Oregano, mint, garlic, onion, dill, and bay laurel leaves are used more frequently in Greek cooking than in other Mediterranean cuisines. Basil, thyme, and fennel seed are among more typical herbs and spices. Some dishes call for parsley as a garnish. Many Greek recipes combine "sweet" spices with meat, such as cinnamon, allspice, and cloves in stews, especially in the north of the country.

Because the climate and geography have favored goat and sheep breeding over cattle, beef meals are scarce. In coastal areas and on islands, fish dishes are popular. Feta, Kasseri, Kefalotyri, Graviera, Anthotyros, Manouri, Metsovone, Ladotyri (olive oil cheese), Kalathaki (a delicacy from the island of Limnos), Katiki Domokou (creamy cheese perfect for spreads), Mizithra, and many other cheeses are used in Greek cuisine.

Lentil soup, fasolada (though the modern version is made with white beans and tomatoes, both New World plants), tiganites, retsina (white or rosé wine flavored with pine resin), and pasteli (candy bar with sesame seeds baked with honey) can all be traced back to ancient Greece; others to the Hellenistic and Roman periods: loukaniko (dried pork sausage); and Byzantium: feta cheese, av (traditional hard bread baked from wheat, barley and rye). There are also several historic and Byzantine meals that are no longer served, such as porridge (chilós in Greek), fish sauce (garos), and wine laced with salt water.

Tzatziki, yuvarlakia, dolma, boureki, baklava, and other Greek delicacies are derived from Ottoman cuisine, which incorporated elements from Persian, Levantine, Turkish, and Byzantine cuisines.

The modern Greek pastitsio, such as moussaka, was created by combining a pre-existing eggplant dish with a French-style gratin topping in the twentieth century, thanks in large part to the French-trained chef Nikolaos Tselementes, who, for example, created the modern Greek pastitsio, such as moussaka, by combining the pre-existing eggplant dish with a French-style gratin topping.

Filo pastry is used to wrap a variety of foods, such as kotopita (chicken pie), spanakotyropita (spinach and cheese pie), hortopita (greens pie), kreatopita (meat pie with minced meat), kolokythopita (zucchini pie), and so on. The Greeks do with filo what the Italians do with pizza; they have a plethora of pitas to choose from (savory pies).

There are various regional dishes in addition to the Greek dishes that can be found throughout Greece.

Filo-based foods, such as distinct regional pitas, have a long history in North-Western and Central Greece (Epirus, Thessaly, and Roumeli/Central Greece). From pastries to major courses, Greek food incorporates seeds and nuts.