Greek Street Market – Loutraki

 I woke up to a dull and muggy day, it’s mid-November though, we can’t have summer twelve months of the year!

 So far we’ve been lucky, weather wise, this winter, here in Greece, so I shan’t complain, how easy it is, on these dull days, to make a cup of coffee, go back to bed and read a book.

 

 

If I go back to bed, and a book, it’s possible that I shall still be there at lunch time!

Time to put one of my personal rules into action: Get up, get dressed, get out.

It’s not raining and it’s not windy and it’s Wednesday, I’ll take a walk to the Loutraki street market, we have two street markets a week, one today, Wednesday, and one on Saturday.

 Greek street markets always cheers me up, so many happy friendly people and lots of colourful stalls to inspect.

 So come with me and see what’s what at the market today!

 

The Wednesday Street market of Loutraki

 

 Look at the size of these squash; you wouldn’t need many of those to make a good hearty soup.

 

 

I could smell the graviera cheese from Crete before I saw it!

 Lots of homemade wine, red, rose and white, not sure I like the idea of wine from a plastic bottle.

 Free-range eggs from the nearby villages, I love eggs and never buy any other than free-range, there is no comparison to the ones that they have in the supermarket.

 

 

This is mountain tea, Greek people are not big tea drinkers, they are most likely to drink it for medicinal purposes, hot tea for a sore throat, chamomile tea and mint tea for an upset stomach.

 Chamomile tea is also used to bathe sore eyes.

 

 

Here’s more citrus fruit, this time mandarins, made into the Greek “spoon sweets”, this is something like chunky jam in a thick syrup, it can be made from any fruit, if made from small fruit such as cherries or grapes, the fruit is left whole.

 It is served up on a dainty glass plate with a spoon and always a glass of water.

 MGG (My Greek God) loves it spooned over Greek yogurt.

 

 

Oranges, lemons and olives are never missing from any Greek street market worth its salt!

 

 

It’s nice to see greens in season again; you can have your fill of tomatoes!

 A green salad of kos lettuce, spring onions and dill is a refreshing change.

 

 

 Radishes and beetroot, their red really does add colour amongst all the green.

The first time I ever boiled beetroot, I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to peel it first,

 it looked quite anemic when it came out of the pan!

Beetroot is boiled in its skin to stop the colour bleeding out into the water, the skin falls off easily after boiling.

 

 

Honey from bees that fed on thyme, again from the surrounding villages, where many families have their own bee hives.

 Bowls and bowls full of almonds, walnuts and raisins, a much healthier snack than biscuits and crisps, we all know that don’t we?

 

 

Large Sacks of lentils and beans for warming winter soups stand to attention.

 

 

Here’s another stall that is smelt before it’s seen, the fish!

 I do love fish and MGG would eat it every day if he could, I’m just no good at cooking fish!

 It breaks up, it becomes a mush or it burns under the grill, much better to eat it at one of the many fish tavernas along Loutraki seafront.

Now here is something that I have not seen at the market before, homemade soap from olive oil, it looked, how shall I say? Very rustic, big chunks of it, the lady said that it was scented with rose petals, lavender and various herbs.

To me it smelt like: olive oil!

 

 

I came across this little chap, patiently waiting for his mistress, it looked like he’d recently had a hair cut so, to stat warm, he was wearing his T-shirt.

 

 

This is homemade spinach and cheese pie, I sometimes buy a few pieces of each to have for lunch with a salad, it’s only one euro a slice, the same thing in the bakers can cost up to three times this!

 

 

There is much more than fruit and veg on sale, useful baskets, lots of terrible plastic stuff, clothes, shoes, anything really.

 

 

The essential shopping trolley

 

Today I didn’t buy anything but when I do, my super duper shopping trolley comes along with me, I bought this in France where all the best french women have one!

 

 

Greek markets are good, but, nobody beats France for their markets,they’re everywhere, so colourful, so tastefully decorated.

One of the best I’ve visited was in Aix-en-Provence, it was on Saturday mornings and it took over the whole town!

 

 

Coffee time

 

After a stroll around the market stalls, and before heading home, I had arranged to meet MGG at his local coffee shop, Cup “n” Cino, just around the corner from the market, Nikos, the owner, has been a good friend of ours of many years.

 

 

MGG has his morning coffee here every day, a double espresso, stretto, before he has had this, trust me, you don’t want to see him,

 Cup ‘n’ Cino, is a lively place, popular in the evenings if there’s a football or basketball match on television, you need to get there in good time though if you want to grab a seat, as you can see, standing room only!

 

 

 The walk around the market certainly blew the cobwebs away, much better than skulking around at home doing a lot of nothing, So….get up, get dressed, get out!