Tavernas R Us ....
09 October 2012 | Kolona taverna.
G. Hot.
We are still anchored in the lovely bay near the island of St Louka, which is divided by a sandbar. It is really quite remote, we can see the little harbour of Merikha in the distance, two miles away, but there is nothing else here. Except some sheep. And a taverna on a hill above the sandbar. We were overjoyed to find that it is still open in the evenings, we had expected it to have closed down for winter but as yachts are still coming here, I guess they can still make a few drachmas.
So we took the dinghy ashore at sunset and were the first to arrive at the taverna, but some other yachts were also anchored in the bay so we hoped we wouldnt be the only ones eating. Although there is an outside seating area with about twelve tables it was more like someone's house rather than a taverna, with an indoor sitting area and a large open plan kitchen. We said Kalispera to the lady owner and she served us with our drinks, and some other boat people started to arrive.
A while later, we could hear the sound of kitchen activity, and smell something nice wafting through the window, so in traditional Greek fashion, I wandered into the kitchen to ask if they had anything special on the menu tonight. "Menu! You want the menu!" cried the owner, whose English was about as good as my Greek. So I went back to our table having learned nothing about the special dishes on offer, we perused the delicious sounding menu for a while, until she came over to take our order. "can we have some lamb in lemon sauce and some briam please?"
"No! No food!" she replied. "come with me!". And she practically dragged me into the kitchen where there was a large pot simmering on the cooker. "I have this!", she declared, and dramatically removed the lid of the simmering pot to reveal some form of grey meatballs and vegetables. " is that all you have?", I asked. "yes, and the grill" she replied. "and I do you Greek salad and Saganaki" she told me. "Er .... ok then" I said, and returned to our table. Husband and I discussed what was the point of giving us the menu if she didn't have anything on it!
Several more groups of people began to arrive and the tables began to fill up. Our food started to arrive, and we were presented with some delicious warm bread, a beautiful Greek salad and the saganaki, which is fried Greek cheese, which was all delicious. Then she brought our main course which was her home made meat balls, and i needn't have worried, they were lovely! Freshly cooked, very light, flavoursome, cooked in a lemony sauce with chopped onions, carrot, courgette and potato. More and more people kept arriving at the taverna, and we were worried that she would run out of meatballs! We heard others asking for the menu, which she still produced, despite not having anything on it! The Germans ordered huge amounts from the menu, and she nodded and said "Ochi, Ochi" to everything they asked for. I don't think they realised this meant 'no!'
Then some Americans approached, walking up the path from the beach. "hurry up.....!" I called to them, "......or they'll run out of food!"
I'm not quite sure whether her huge pot of meatballs did feed everyone in the taverna, but we certainly enjoyed our meal, and the bill was only 24.50euros which is a smidgeon under a tenner a head, with drinks. Can't complain at that!