Greek cuisine

alt=Saffron|thumb|Saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, with its vivid crimson stigmas and styles

Couscous () is a traditional North African dish of small steamed granules of rolled semolina that is often served with a stew spooned on top. Pearl millet, sorghum, bulgur, and other cereals are sometimes cooked in a similar way in other regions, and the resulting dishes are also sometimes called couscous.

The swordfish (Xiphias gladius), also known as the broadbill in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are the sole member of the family Xiphiidae. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category. Swordfish are elongated, round-bodied, and lose all teeth and scales by adulthood. These fish are found widely in tropical and temperate parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and can typically be found from near the surface to a depth of , and exceptionally up to depths of . They commonly reach in length, and th

Moussaka (, , ; ) is an aubergine (eggplant)- or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, which is common in the Balkans and the Middle East, with many local and regional variations.

coffee brewing method originating from Turkey

A pancake, also known as a hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack, is a flat type of batter bread like cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk, and butter, and then cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan. Archaeological evidence suggests that pancakes were probably eaten in prehistoric societies.

Ayran ( ) is a cold savory yogurt-based beverage that is consumed across Central Asia, the Balkans, and the Middle East. The principal ingredients are yogurt, water and salt. Herbs such as mint may be optionally added. Some varieties are carbonated. It is a national drink of Turkey.

Semolina is a coarse flour traditionally made from durum wheat. Its high protein and gluten content make it especially suitable for pasta.

species of plant

Tahini (; , or, in Iraq, ) is a Middle Eastern condiment (a seed butter) made from ground sesame seeds. The most common variety comes from hulled seeds, but unhulled ones can also be used; the latter variety is slightly bitter, but more nutritious. The seeds are more commonly roasted than raw. Tahini can be served by itself (as a dip), made into a salad dressing, or used as a major ingredient in hummus, baba ghanoush, or halva.

dish made from tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, feta, olives, salt, oregano, and olive oil

Dolma is a family of stuffed dishes largely associated with Ottoman cuisine. It mainly includes vegetables and leaves, and occasionally seafood, offal, fruits, and meats, that are hollowed out or wrapped, then filled with a mixture of rice, minced meat, herbs, and spices. The leaf-wrapped type can be specifically known as sarma, but colloquially dolma is used for both.

Pita ( or ; ; ) or pitta (British English), also known as Arabic bread, Arab bread (), Syrian bread, Lebanese bread, and pide (Turkish) is a family of yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and neighboring areas. It includes the widely known version with an interior pocket. In the United Kingdom, the term is used for pocket versions such as the Greek pita, used for barbecues as a souvlaki wrap. The Western name pita may sometimes be used to refer to various other types of flatbreads that have different names in their local languages, s

culinary tradition of Greece

The albacore (Thunnus alalunga), known also as the albicore or longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Scombriformes. It lives in temperate and tropical waters across the globe in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. There are six distinct stocks known globally in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, as well as in the Mediterranean Sea. The albacore has an elongate, fusiform body with a conical snout, large eyes, and remarkably long pectoral fins. Its body is a deep blue dorsally and shades of silvery white ventrally. Individuals can reach up to in length.

resin obtained from the mastic tree

Gyros, sometimes anglicized as a gyro (; , ), is meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, then sliced and served wrapped or stuffed in pita bread, along with other ingredients such as tomato, onion, fried potatoes, and tzatziki. In Greece and Cyprus, it is normally made with pork or sometimes with chicken, whilst ground beef and lamb are sometimes used in other countries.

Souvlaki (, ; ) is a Greek food item consisting of small pieces of meat and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer. It is usually eaten straight off the skewer while still hot. It can be served with or inside a rolled pita, typically with lemon, sauces, vegetables such as sliced tomato and onion, and fried potatoes as a side. The meat usually used in Greece and Cyprus is pork.

Sujuk, sugou or sucuk (/suːˈd͡ʒʊk/) is a dry, spicy and fermented sausage which is consumed in several Anatolian, Balkan, Middle Eastern and Central Asian cuisines. Sujuk mainly consists of ground meat and animal fat usually obtained from beef or lamb, but beef is mainly used in Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Georgia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Greek iced coffee drink

Simit is a circular bread, typically encrusted with sesame seeds or, less commonly, poppy, flax or sunflower seeds, found across the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and the Middle East, especially in Armenia, Turkey and the Balkans. Simit's size, crunch, chewiness, and other characteristics vary slightly by region.

Pirozhki (, ; ; see also other names) is the Russian name for baked or fried yeast-leavened boat-shaped buns with a variety of fillings in Russian and Eastern European cuisine in general. Pirozhki are a popular street food and comfort food. They are especially popular in countries with large ethnic Russian communities, and may also be found in other parts of the world.

type of food

Chorba, ( ; ) shorwa, shurba, shurpa, shurbah or shorba ( ) is a broad class of stews or rich soups found in national cuisines across North Africa, The Middle East, Iran, Turkey, Southeast Europe, Central Asia, East Africa and South Asia. It is often prepared with added ingredients but is also served alone as a broth or with bread.

thumb|Typical merienda fare thumb|Typical vespertine merienda in the Andalusia|South of Spain thumb|Traditional serving of merienda in Café El Gato Negro, [[Buenos Aires: medialunas (croissants), café en jarrito (a double espresso coffee) and a little glass of sparkling water]] thumb|A typical meryenda in the Philippines, [[tsokolate with suman rice cakes and ripe carabao mangoes]] Merienda is a light meal in southern Europe, particularly Spain (merenda in Galician, berenar in Catalan), Portugal (lanche, merenda) and Italy (merenda), whence the word spread to Serbo-Croatian in, according to di

Orzo (, ; ; from Latin ), also known in Italy as '''''' (; 'large [grains of] rice'), and popular in Greek cuisine as kritharaki (κριθαράκι), is a form of short-cut pasta shaped like a large grain of rice. Orzo is made from flour, often with semolina.

Kokoretsi () or kokoreç is a dish of the Balkans and Anatolia (Asia Minor), consisting of lamb or goat intestines wrapped around seasoned offal, including sweetbreads, hearts, lungs, or kidneys, and typically grilled; a variant consists of chopped innards cooked on a griddle. The intestines of suckling lambs are preferred.

Kashkaval is a type of cheese made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats, or a mixture thereof. In Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, the term is often used to refer to all yellow cheeses (or even any cheese other than sirene). In English-language menus in Bulgaria, kashkaval is translated as 'yellow cheese' (whereas sirene is usually translated as 'white cheese' or simply 'cheese').

liver meat used as food

Bottarga is salted, cured fish roe pouch, typically of the grey mullet or the bluefin tuna (). The best-known version is produced around the Mediterranean; similar foods are the Japanese and Taiwanese , which is softer, and Korean , from mullet or freshwater drum. It has many names and is prepared in various ways. Due to its scarcity and involved preparation it is expensive and regarded as a delicacy.

Taramasalata or taramosalata (; from 'fish roe' < + Greek: 'salad' < ) is a meze made from tarama, the salted and cured roe (colloquially referred to as caviar) of the cod, carp, or grey mullet (bottarga) mixed with olive oil, lemon juice, and a starchy base of bread or potatoes, or sometimes almonds. Variants may include garlic, spring onions, or peppers, or vinegar instead of lemon juice. While not traditionally Greek, smoked rather than cured cod's roe is more widely available in some places, and often used. Bottarga is usually much more expensive than cod roe.

Keşkek, also known as kashkak, kashkek, or keške, is a ceremonial meat or chicken and wheat or barley stew found in Turkish, Iranian, Greek, Armenian, and Balkan cuisines.

cabbage, vine leaf, or other leaf roll

Skordalia (alternatively skordhalia or skorthalia) (Greek: , also called , aliada/aliatha) is a thick purée in Greek cuisine, made of garlic in a base of potatoes, walnuts, almonds or liquid-soaked stale bread mixed with olive oil in to make a smooth emulsion, to which some vinegar is added. It is usually made in a mortar and pestle. Skordalia is served as a garnish or side dish. It is mainly served with batter-fried cod, especially during Lent and on the Greek national holiday of March 25th. In the Anglosphere, it is promoted as a dip.

In Greek cuisine, saganaki (; ) is any one of a variety of dishes prepared in a small frying pan, the best-known being an appetizer of fried cheese. It is commonly flambéed in North America.

Cuisine of Ancient Greece

culinary traditions of Cyprus

cod which has been preserved by drying after salting

Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.

Pastitsio (, pastítsio) is a baked pasta dish with ground meat and béchamel sauce, which came from the Ionian Islands to Greece. Variations of the dish are found in other countries near the Mediterranean Sea.

traditional soup prepared from stinging nettles

thumb|Packaged mahleb with English, Armenian and Arabic text

The national dish of Albania, baked lamb dish in sour cream

syrup made from almonds, sugar and rose water

Bougatsa, bogatsa or boogatsa ( ) is a Greek breakfast food (sweet or savoury), or mid-morning snack, or midday snack. Bougatsa has several versions with their own filling, with the most popular the bougatsa krema (bougatsa cream) that has semolina custard filling used as a sweet food and dessert.

species of plant

Koliva, also spelled, depending on the language, kollyva, kollyba, kolyvo, or colivă, is a dish based on boiled wheat that is used liturgically in the Eastern Orthodox Church for commemorations of the dead.

large, black olive

historical regional cuisine

Yakhni (, , , , ), yahni (Turkish), or yahniya (, Serbian, ), jahni (Albanian), iahnie (Romanian) is a class of dishes traditionally prepared in a vast area encompassing South Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans. Generally, it is a stew of meat and vegetables.

squid used as food, commonly eaten in the Mediterranean, in East Asia, and elsewhere

Popara (Cyrillic: попара, , papara, ) is a dish made with bread. Typically the bread should be old, stale and have a thick crust. It is soaked in either hot tea, milk or water. Sugar, honey, butter, and cheese are often added. It is mostly made in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Turkey, Croatia and Montenegro.

thumb|right|300px|A taverna on the Greek island of Naxos Island|Naxos

Leblebi (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a snack made from roasted chickpeas, common and popular in Iran, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria and sometimes seasoned with salt, hot spices, dried cloves, or candy coated.

Dakos or ntakos (), also known as koukouvagia or koukouvayia (κουκουβάγια) or kouloukopsomo, is a Cretan horiatiki consisting of a slice of soaked paximadi that is topped with tomatoes and cheeses such as feta or mizithra. The salad is then flavored with herbs such as dried oregano. Ingredients such as olives, capers, and caper berries are also often added to the dish.

Brandade () is an emulsion made from salt cod, olive oil, and usually potatoes. It is eaten in the winter with bread or potatoes. In French culinary terminology, it is occasionally referred to as brandade de morue; in Spanish cuisine, it is sometimes known as brandada de bacalao ('morue' and 'bacalao' meaning 'salt cod').

Bamia, bame, bamieh, bamje, bamiya or bamya is a Middle Eastern and Central Asian main dish, a stew made with okra, lamb, and tomatoes as primary ingredients. It is commonly made in the following countries and cultures: Afghani, Albanian, Armenian, Assyrian, Jordanian, Azerbaijani, Egyptian, Greek, Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli, Kurdish, Lebanese, Palestinian, Romanian, Somali, Sudanese, Syrian, Tanzania, and Turkish. Additional ingredients used can include tomato sauce or tomato paste, onion, garlic, cilantro (coriander), pomegranate molasses, vegetable oil, cardamom, salt and pepper.

Türlü is a Turkish casserole made of stewed vegetables that may also include stewed meat. Varieties of the dish are also found in different Balkan cuisines. In particular, it is known as turli perimesh in Albania, tourlou in Greece, and turli tava in North Macedonia.

condiment