Messinia rare products for fine cooking

Hearing about Messinia, our mind goes inevitably and not without reason to olive oil and olives, its top PDO certified products. Linear B tablets in Nestor's palace at Pylos contain symbols of olive cultivation, so the site can boast that already in the Bronze Age olive cultivation was known and widespread.

Messinia, of course, is not only olives and oil and of course not only figs. A fertile place, with mountains, plains and sea, it generously gives its precious goods to its inhabitants and visitors.

Gourmets swear by the pork, a traditional delicacy of Messinia and neighboring Laconia, always well-cooked but juicy, melting in the mouth, and with a delicious crispy skin.

It is one of those local delicacies that Messinia offers not only in its famous restaurants and taverns of Kalamata, but also in taverns and cafes in its most remote villages.

There you will also enjoy orange sausages, as well as pasto, as they say in Messinia synglino, i.e. pork smoked in sage or string and then boiled in orange juice with spices, preserved in oil or clay, in fat of.

Messinian cheeses are also famous, such as Sfela PDO, also known as "fire slice", a fiery and extra spicy cheese that is also produced in Laconia, an ideal appetizer for wine but also for the village salad, in which the Messinians have particular weakness and have taken it to new levels of deliciousness and choice of ingredients. Here you will also try pan yogurt as well as feta cheese, anthotyro and gruyere.

Like all regions to the north and west of the Peloponnese, Messinia is also famous for its black and PDO raisins.

The raisin is not only included in pastries and sweets but also in the food, as in the famous cod chiladia, cooked with tomato and raisins.

This fine fruit has been used for years by the Messinian Papadimitriou family, producing one of the rarest balsamic vinegars in the world, the only one produced with the natural sweetness of raisins.

Descendant of an ancient Greek vinegar called giadi, this vinegar deserves to be certified for the uniqueness of its quality, taste and method of production.

The dishes of the Messinian cuisine are countless and exquisite

What should one choose first? From the rich kayanades with plenty of local tomatoes, the savory mullets, the pork with celery which is also the festive winter dish, the braised rooster with local noodles? Messinia is also famous for its pastry products, sweet and savory, based on dough.

The crispy and thin diples, sufficiently honeyed and sprinkled with plenty of walnuts, are the dessert of celebration and joy.

The lalangias, which are made mainly in Mani, Messiniaki and Lakoniki, are an appetizer that calls for tsipouro, while galaktobourekas with local dairy products are among the most delicious in Greece.

The Messinians are also masters of pasteli, made with honey and sesame, soft and crunchy at the same time, pure delight for young and old.

An unknown side of Messinian gastronomy is its mountain cooking

Its villages, perched on the western slope of Taygetus, produce from noodles and trachanas with fine dairy products, to chestnuts, walnuts, quinces, pomegranates, cherries, cheeses and excellent mountain olive oil.

In the mountain taverns, the braised goats and lambs smell of musk, the incredible yaprakia with chopped goat, the Alagonia liver - an Easter appetizer made of braised veal tripe cooked with literally plenty of parsley - the braised stew that is also served outside of Easter, the black-eyed beans with spinach and tomato.

In our suitcase we will definitely put chapelosikas, the famous local figs dried in "chapeles", i.e. passed through a rope and left to dry, we will take olive oil and Kalamon olives, sausages and pickles for our wine appetizers.

The inquisitive and restless visitor who wants to know more about the wealth of Messinian gastronomy deserves to visit the impressive Virtual Museum of Messinian Food of the Captain Vassilis and Carmen Konstantakopoulos Foundation (www.messiniandiet.gr). He will leave there much wiser about the products of Messianic land and will certainly live up to their reputation.