Arcadia, the gastronomy of the mountain

Arcadia can be praised for many things: for its rich history, for its age-old myths and legends, for its unique mountainous and rugged beauty. Another reason to be proud is its gastronomy, with rustic flavors, authentic goodies, PDO products and iconic recipes.

Mountainous, the vast majority of it, Arcadia is famous for some of the most classic mountain goodies: Mainalo Vanilla PDO Spruce Honey, forest honey foam, blond and pearl, a miracle of deliciousness.

Her livestock products, one by one, from the PDO Tripoli slice with the famous apsada, to her thick, traditional sheep's yogurt and her spicy and rough Gruyere.

The small and usually family-run cheese factories of Arcadia work wonders and their products are coveted even in the best restaurants and delicatessens of Athens.

Another exquisite Arcadian product is the Delicious Tripoli Pilaf Apples, the result of the personal effort of an Arcanian immigrant to the USA, Elias Pilafas, from where he brought to his homeland, Skyritida in the south of Arcadia, a rare seed of American apples that even there are considered culinary heritage.

His experiments with crosses with local seed yielded a juicy, sweet and unique apple that deservedly earned PDO certification.

The abundant chestnuts and walnuts that are celebrated annually are some of the more rare Arcadian products that the place produces.

In the small grocery stores scattered in its beautiful villages, young people usually have gathered most of the local products that we will put in our suitcases after each visit to the destination.

In the wooded mountains of Arcadia, where Panas once roamed with his Nymphs, small villages built of stone preserve the ancient culinary traditions of the place.

In winter, the muskiness of a honeyed sour trachana soup sprinkled with spicy local feta cheese is almost medicinal.

Spicy, well-boiled goat with blackberries is a dish that revives even the most jaded traveller, the amazing puff pastry pies are works of art and unfathomable deliciousness as is the hare, the iconic Arcadian fare of hare stew with garlic sauce and plenty of walnuts which even the most famous chef would envy.

Since we are talking about garlic, the Lithovouni garlic, which is grown at an altitude of over 700 meters, is considered one of the best in Greece and at the garlic festival that has been organized for 27 years in the village, the plexans with 25 heads leave one after the other at speed lightning.

Bogatsa is also a special food, a special sweet bread, fasting and especially Katharodeuteriatiko, a distinguished pastry as the late folklorist of Greek gastronomy, Evi Voutsina, called it with admiration.

Of course, we will not omit the walnut pie, one of the most emblematic sweets of the mountains, mainly Arcadia, which is made in many mountainous parts of Greece in many variations, but in these places they insist on the classic and unsurpassed recipe!

Tsakonian cuisine is a major chapter of the Arcadian culinary tradition

And we don't mean only dishes with the unique Leonidio PDO Tsakonic Eggplants, but a whole set of incredible dishes cooked faithfully by local housewives and which are worth getting to know through Tsakonissa's book, Eleni Manou, "Flavors of Tsakon" (in all major bookstores ), written in the Tsakonian dialect with a translation into modern Greek.