5 Local Products to take Home from the Ionian Island of Zakynthos

Zakynthos may have been for many years one of the most popular islands of the Ionian sea but the locals have not forgotten their traditional culture and products.

In Zakynthos, like in every Greek island, the raw materials produced on the island take the lead. These pure ingredients, combined with traditional techniques, create unforgettable flavours, and you must take some home as a rich souvenir of the island.

Zakynthos is known for its sweets: the famous mantolato – nougat -and the mantoles, caramelized nuts made with almonds, honey and sugar. Sourdough bread is also a traditional product once made in the homes of Zakynthos but now found in bakeries all over the island. The sharp and spicy ladotyri cheese has become famous all over Greece, while the island’s vineyards are taking its first tentative steps, offering quality wines with strong personalities. Finally, a list of products from Fioro di Levante – the flower of the East – as Zakynthos is called, couldn’t not include perfumes.

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Mantolato and mantoles

Crunchy, freshly toasted almonds, honey, sugar and egg whites are the ingredients of the mantolato. It was brought to the island by the Venetians and since then has become the traditional sweet of Zakynthos. You can find mantolato, mantoles and pastelia – traditional sesame and honey bars – in sweet shops and on the benches of street vendors. In order to see if a mantolato is fresh, those in the know recommend trying to break it, if it doesn’t crumble into pieces don’t buy it. A fresh mantolato must be very hard and be of a specific white shade, and many small producers are found in the town, making small batches of mantolato following traditional recipes.

Mantoles are caramelised toasted almonds, and the best are found in the sweethouse Zakynthos.

Info: Zakynthos, 5 Psaron str, Zakynthos, Tel. 0030 26950 42535

Perfumes

“The gap the earthquake opened filled with flowers at once” the poet Dionysios Solomos writes about his birthland. After all, Fioro di Levante, the flower of the East, is not a name given by change to this Ionian island, and it simply confirms the relationship of Zakynthos and perfumes. Bouyarini and Grantouka belong to the jasmine family and are Jasmine Sambac varieties, a type of jasmine from the East, and in particular from India; the white flowers of both varieties are found in the island’s gardens and are also used for the production of perfumes. They might be considered old-fashioned, but they are fine perfumes, and they can be found at the Razi Perfumery shop in the centre of town.

Info: Razi Perfumery, 17 Alexandrou Roma str, Zakynthos, Tel. 0030 26950 42477

Ladotyri

The island’s most famous cheese is made of goat and sheep’s milk; it’s spicy with an intense, strong flavour, and it matures for months inside clay pots, and the longer it matures the harder and spicier it becomes. The locals prefer it like this and serve it as a meze with wine or tsipouro – traditional pomace raki – but it is also used in salads and grated over pasta, and there are milder, more buttery, versions available. One of the best cheeses on the island is from the Basta Dairy in the village of Agios Leon.

Info: Basta Dairy, Agios Leon, Zakynthos, Tel. 0030 26950 48600