As Athens has become more multicultural over the past decade, the city’s immigrant communities have livened up the local food scene. You can now find fantastic falafel, ramen, and khachapuri alongside the more traditional souvlaki, tripe soup, and spanakopita.
However, traditional Athenian food culture still very much follows the seasons. Most residents do their weekly shopping at their local laiki or farmers’ market, a mobile feast where whole streets are transformed into a cornucopia of colourful produce. From heaps of horta (wild greens) to agoureleo (early harvest, unfiltered olive oil), each season has its standout ingredients. Some delicacies have only a fleeting presence in the city’s markets—spindly wild asparagus in April, glistening cherries in May, fresh vine leaves for rolling your own dolmades in June, figs oozing their sticky nectar in September. Εven the variety of bouquets at the flower stalls change with the seasons, from fragrant chamomile to flamboyant sunflowers.
“My favourite places to food shop are on Kallidromiou Street at the laiki on a Saturday, and the weekly organic market at the Kypseli Municipal Market,” says Anglo-Greek food writer Anastasia Miari, author of the wonderful cookbook Yiayia, Time Perfected Recipes from Greece’s Grandmothers. Miari also frequents specialist delis, such as Oi Sympetheroi in Exarchia “for all the Italian goodies my Milanese man misses. My cheeses, rusks and spices often come from Oi Rizes Mas in Kypseli. I also adore the smoked chilli flakes from Daphnis & Chloe.”
Many of the best modern Greek restaurants in Athens have seasonal menus that change every few months—or even every day. With a new wave of gastro-tavernas taking over Athens, places such Akra, Fita, Linou Soumpasis & Sia, Pharaoh, and Annie base their daily menu on whatever produce their chefs can get their hands on. “We go to the organic farmers’ market every morning, and we get our fish straight from fishermen in Halkida or Keratsini,” says Yiannis Loukakis, the obsessively provenance-driven chef at Akra. Here, strictly seasonal ingredients are fermented, pickled, char-grilled, or roasted over a wood fire in the tiny open kitchen. “Our meat is mainly goat or comes from rare breeds of cattle raised by smallholders. We practise whole animal butchery and use a lot of unpopular cuts like heads, hearts, and tails. Any leftovers are used for the next day’s specials.”
As well as being better for the planet—fewer food miles, less intensive farming—eating with the seasons is better for you: the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, which faithfully follows this seasonal philosophy, are well documented. But there’s another very good reason to eat like an Athenian locavore: everything tastes better in season. “Obviously, I love summer for juicy tomatoes and peaches that taste like sunshine; but earthy beetroot and sweet leeks are also favourites of mine and they come later in the year,” says Anastasia Miari. “Every season in Athens has great produce. I think if you truly love to eat seasonally, you also appreciate everything each new cycle of the moon brings.”
Read on for our guide to what to taste and where to try it, whatever time of year you’re visiting Athens.
AUTUMN
What to eat
Pistachios, grapes, figs, pomegranates, heather honey, pumpkin, pears, plums, beetroot, carrots, walnuts, elephant beans from Prespa lakes, prickly pears, persimmons, mushrooms, quince, and new season olive oil.
WINTER
What to eat
Chestnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, leeks, celery, lotus fruit, lemons, oranges, tangerines, apples, Cretan bananas.
SPRING
What to eat
Peas and broad beans in the pod, artichokes, loquats, wild asparagus, avocados, apricots, strawberries, courgettes, spring onions, lettuce, radikia (dandelion greens), spinach, stamnagathi (spiny chicory).
SUMMER
What to eat
Tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, cherries, melons, watermelons, peaches, vlita (amaranth), runner beans, loquats, cucumbers, peppers, okra, and ambelofasoula (string beans).
