Over the years Crete has become our favorite holiday destination. Heraklion Airport is close, less than an hour and a half by plane from Israel. Crete has pretty much everything: busy coastal cities, small charming fishing villages and rugged mountain hamlets that have given Crete its ‘rough’ Cretan reputation. Add to this the most pristine beaches and a lot of history – everywhere you look, history.
The island itself is covered from head to toe in an endless carpet of productive olive groves that cover almost every arable inch of dirt on the island, with barren limestone peaks towering, dominating over both the modern and traditional, cultivated and untamed Crete.
As usual we returned to our regular holiday haunt: the historic Porto Elounda Hotel resort overlooking the turquoise waters of Mirabello Bay, a magnificent harbor that contains amongst many other sites the famous Spinalonga Island (ruins of a leper colony and Venetian fort) and the fishing villages of Elounda and Plaka all brought to life in the enchanting popular novel The Island by Victoria Hislop.
The panoramic sea and mountain vistas along the shores of Mirabello Bay are so powerful, yet serene. One can almost find solace from the perpetual trauma of globalisation and all the damage that it has wrought upon our beautiful globe.
Enough of the travelogue and back to my area of interest, food. Crete has a well-greased culinary culture: like most places you get what you pay for. Aside from the obvious culture of olives and all it entails, fresh seafoods, fruit and veg along with sheep, goat, chicken and meats are all in abundance.
We enjoyed three outstanding meals during our stay on the island. Two meals were at a well-known chef’s restaurant called “The Ferryman” –a favorite of ours, not just because there are no hawkers trying to hook you in 15 languages as you walk on by, but because they serve very good traditional fare with a modern twist, at a waterside Corso location that is very hard to beat and wait staff with character, humour and flair.
Amazing breads, dips, entrees of freshly pickled anchovies and perfectly flavoured and presented carpaccio of bass, traditional Cretan mains of long-cooked lamb and goat were the big winners for us. I had never eaten goat before but if attended to with the appropriate know how and care it is delicious, succulent and hard to beat.
The Ferryman is an institution and even had a cameo appearance in the Greek movie of the same name. Opened in 1974 the restaurant has moved a long way from what it must have been back then.
The third outstanding meal we enjoyed was at the Koh Restaurant, one of a number of restaurants found within the grounds of the Porto Elounda hotel resort. It is only open three nights a week and we always somehow missed the opportunity on previous visits.
The Koh – not satisfied with being on the water’s edge – is actually built out over the water and the diners enjoy not only a culinary experience but also a nautical one. All senses are activated here as you enjoy your meal. Taste, the wind in your hair, the smell of both the food and the sea, the visuals of the restaurant itself and the limestone mountain ranges rising out of the waters, silhouetted in the pinks and reds of the setting sun along with the sound of the sea lapping rhythmically at your feet.
The Koh is an Asian-style restaurant of the highest standards. We enjoyed a full meal, but mostly came for the sushi made by a Filipino sushiman, whose kitchen was carved out of the rocky foreshore the restaurant extended out from into the sea. The sushi didn’t disappoint. The service was impeccable and the ambiance was the sea air from Mirabello Bay.
In short, Crete is a real holiday if you ever make it there. The only gripe, if it is one, is of the faded and obscured road signs that can distract from trying to stick to the narrow and winding mountain roads.
Yeia ciao, in Greek.