The Culture Club - Greece special 🏖️ 🇬🇷

A round up of the tastiest things in my life right now

Photo by Miltiadis Fragkidis on Unsplash

Thanks for subscribing to this newsletter! I hope you’ve been enjoying reading it. After writing sporadically over the last 18 months I’m now returning to more regular writing and will be popping into your inbox weekly. I’m also moving some of the content behind a paywall — that’s where you’ll find most of the exclusive recipes, recommendation round-ups, essays, and interviews from now on. This content takes considerable time, care, and research to produce and your support helps sustain this work. I’ll still be offering a few free posts each month, but if you’ve been enjoying my writing, I do hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

This week’s Culture Club is a Greece special, where I’ll be sharing my favourite restaurants, hotels, and cultural recommendations celebrating this wonderful country. Enjoy!

Summer is almost upon us, and I’ve just returned from a week’s holiday in Halkidiki on the northern coast of Greece. In recent years, I seem to have gravitated towards Greece for both work and pleasure, spending many a trip staring out at the shimmering Aegean Sea—whether while researching my cookbook Ripe Figs, on solo vacations, or on family trips.

Never happier than when in Greece!

I’ve spent time in Athens, of course, wandering through its bustling markets and feasting in its fine dining establishments, but it’s the islands I really love. In the last seven years, I’ve taken trips to Ikaria, Rhodes, Samos, Chios, Lesvos, Corfu, and Crete (twice!). To visit the Greek islands is to get schooled in colour—specifically, the vivid and intoxicating shades of blue that appear everywhere: from the azure sea to the cobalt sky, and the cornflower decks of the ferries that ship passengers from port to port.

For me, it's also the place to enjoy some of the most magnificent produce the Mediterranean has to offer: peppery, full-bodied olive oils that carry just a hint of bitterness; slabs of tangy, salty feta; and the sweetest sun-kissed tomatoes that taste like summer distilled in one bite. And that’s before you even get started on the heroes of Greek cuisine—from crisp, golden rings of calamari to kleftiko, tender, slow-roasted lamb infused with garlic, lemon, oregano, and rosemary, its juices soaking into melting slivers of potato.

So, without further ado, here are my top recommendations for Greek food and travel, plus a little cultural round-up of what I’m enjoying right now.