The first time I was in Florina was last year, for a photography workshop. The participants were from Florina and they suggested it take place there. We met with the “cameras of our heart” in the town sweetened by Sakoulevas, the river with the weeping willows and the colourful deciduous trees on its banks, the lovely buildings, the smell of wood-burning stoves, and more importantly, of food being prepared in kitchens. Here, breaths are scented with tsipouro (traditional pomace raki) and eyes sparkle at the phrase “Welcome! What do you want to eat?”
The familiar warmth and spontaneity of Greek hospitality remains strong in Florina.
Wherever I stand, be it a convenience store, a barber’s, a china shop, a grocery store, the shop owner treats me to tsipouro and meze from the nearest coffee shop. The town creates food with love and gives you the chance to taste it wherever in town you are.
We chose 5 places with excellent meze that will form part of your trip’s memory.
Aposperitis
An urban and at the same time traditional courtyard that brings to mind an old Greek film, with small houses and balconies overlooking it. The interior is decorated with paintings by a friend of the owner and chef Giorgos Kevrekidis.
The team of “Aposperitis” – the name comes from a song by Thanasis Papakonstantinou – prepares every dish with passion: carnaroli rice risotto with wild mushrooms, butter and parmesan; salad with orange, manouri cheese and nuts from the forest. The famous pork tenderloin is Giorgos’ creation, and it came to be one night when he had to cook to for his family and he used the cheeses he had in his fridge. The meats and cheeses all come from local producers and farmers and accompany awarded local wines like for example Vegoritis Winery wines. Dessert? Without question florinela with Florina red pepper marmalade.
6-9 25th Martiou str, tel: 0030 2385300794, Closed on Mondays
Fratelli
I wake up early and go for a walk by the river. A bit later, I’m at Fratelli, having a marvellous breakfast with omelette, freshly squeezed juice, waffles and one of the best Portioli coffees.
Theofilos Diafonidis, the owner, spoke to me about his trips to Budapest, Istanbul, and Paris that inspired the restaurant’s décor, that was completed with the professional help of Kalliroi Tzimika, an interior designer from Ptolemaida.
At the floral dining tables, you can have great pizza margherita with luscious Texas salad, at the Art Deco corner, enjoy the Alpha Estate rose from the Amynteo – included on the list with the 25 best wines in the world –, while the New York bar is ideal for a nice red from the Pantou Estate.
Psarokokalo (or Vasilis)
At the main square, girls and boys are playing football, grandfathers are sitting at the coffee shops, koboloi (traditional worry beads) in hand, discussing the news and also the past, and Vasilis Papanaoum prepares the seafood meze that made him famous in town, while he’s also quite successful with the grilled meats.
We enjoy the grilled octopus, the sardines served open, with the bone removed, and the addition of onion, paisley and garlic, steamed mussels with spicy or sweet pepper, garlic and feta cheese, baked gigantes beans, dolmadakia (rice stuffed vine leaves) with tzatziki, smoked mackerel with lemon, prawn risotto, and prawn saganaki (traditional way of preparing a dish in a small frying pan using tomato sauce – often spicy – and cheese – usually feta), red porgy, gilthead bream, sea bass, tuna filet etc. The seafood pasta is a surprise, the prawn linguine, the pappardelle with salmon and local tsipouro. Sowthistle is served in the winter and purple amaranth in the summer, as well as seasonal vegetables and salads.
They are open every day from noon till midnight and are closed on Mondays.
15 Georgiou Modi square, tel. 0030 2385300735
Koukoutsi
Florina kebabs, risottos, salads and homemade tomato and pepper marmalade. Each dish at Koukoutsi overflows with flavour. Located inside a busy arcade. The culinary trip you’ll go on includes pork fillets with a cream of various cheeses and mashed sweet potatoes or aubergines, a salad with grilled talagani cheese, Cretan pasteli (traditional sweet with sesame and honey, usually crispy) and caramelised nectarines, a classic beef ragù, smoked pork with sauteed poppies, tagliolini in squid ink, and a variety of seafood.
“All the vegetables and meats are fresh and local. We cook our milelia – handmade pappardelle made with mustard – with mushrooms, prosciutto and white wine. On the weekend the day’s specials change and instead of beans with sausage they offer fresh fish and tortillas. We prepare the grilled tomato with white wine and garlic, while our famous “koukoutsakia” – beef fillet in black balsamic vinegar and honey – are served with batzo cheese from Western Macedonia with the addition of a fried egg on top,” Pavlos Makris, the owner, tell us.
Their sausages are their trademark. They also serve hot and cold super food salads, like with spinach, beetroots, manouri cheese, white balsamic vinegar, raisins and walnuts. And to finish off the meal choose a dessert like pavlova or dark chocolate pie.
6 Spiraki Arcade, tel. : 0030 2385 046010, Closed on Mondays
Yedeki
You mustn’t leave Florina before visiting the vivacious Giorgos Tselidis and Dani Ioannidou. With origins from former Czechoslovakia, Pontus, Kalambaka and Florina for Giorgos and nearby Pisoderi for Dani, their passion for cooking brought them together and had them join their lives.
Giorgos comes from a line of three generations of cooks. He studied and travelled cooking on yachts, taverns in Plaka, Athens, in gourmet restaurants on the Cyclades, and in tsipouro taverns in Volos to gain experience and knowledge.
But his homeland called him. He returned and got a job at the restaurant “Dervisides” where he met his muse. “14 years ago, we opened Yedeki, at first like a coffee shop. The yedek makes the coffee behind the coffee shop counter, working standing, he masterly uses the ibrik (special coffee pot), the cevze (another coffee pot) and the filcan (cup).” Dani reads to us from Elias Petropoulos’, the folklore researcher, work.
They prepare everything over fire, either on the wood stove or over the coals, and since “slow food” is what they stand for, they bring cooking techniques that have been pushed to the side – that is their grandmothers’’ techniques – back to life. The bread, the peppers, the eggs, the stew and the tas kebab all smell terrific.
“Dani is my muse, and we cook everywhere together,” Giorgos says while he brings a garlic cheese they make with goat’s cheese, the goat’s cheese feta with ajvar, with roasted peppers, and the fries made with potatoes they grow.
The traditional kebab is a showstopper. “We use three different minced meats and seven spices. Each home has its own secret recipe with cumin, red pepper flakes, and black pepper being typical. Pepper is a must here, as we grow peppers, both sweet and spicy, and not too much black pepper,” Giorgos says.
“Food has no limits and no borders. Only seasons. In the summer every home dries sweet peppers. In the winter these peppers are brought back to life in hot water, and are stuffed with cheese, spearmint, pork and rice. We also use them to make sauces and beans sweeter. The spicy peppers (called tsouskes) are also dried.
Our winter menu includes cured meats, sausages, fried pork fat, basturma pies, also known as Caesarea pies, with yiofka, the Turkish filo dough I make, again with Florina red pepper, yellow cheese, spearmint and basturma, fried eggs with sumac, sudzhuk and cherry tomatoes, stuffed cabbage that we grow ourselves, pickled needle grass and minced meat.
We make goulash soup with beef that gets its colour from the red peppers and the paprika and add a bit of yogurt instead of cream. We prepare various dishes with sausage, like spetzofai (traditional Pelion dish prepared with sausage and peppers in tomato sauce) with potatoes or Prespa beans,” Dani adds. “The winter menu is endless. We bought a special fridge, we bought it together with the butcher, where I keep the aged steaks. We also make stuffed pork steak with dried fruits and cheese and other things too.”
The tavern is decorated with a few Arabic mosaics inspired by Elias Petropoulos.
“And to complete your meal we offer the dessert we grew up eating: vanilla cream with lukumades (fried dough balls) and a nice, well-prepared coffee,” the couple tell me, smiling at the people sitting at the tables around the fire they’ve lit by the river.
2 Vasileos Georgiou str, by the river, next to the town’s cathedral. Open daily from twelve at noon until midnight, tel. 0030 2385 300599
