Checking Out the Culinary Appeal of Greece, Day 7 #HogsAbroad

Everybody say.....

-Morgan

The day started out cloudy again and was very chilly, but luckily with no rain. The breakfast at the American Farm School is not as good as the food at MAICh; we were spoiled in Crete it turns out.

Around 9 am (I say around because it turns out the Greek's run late and although they don't mind keeping us waiting, heaven forbid we make them wait) we left for the vineyard. It was about a 40 minute drive. Today we had a few extras to our group, three students interns from Arizona who are in Thessaloniki for the summer. We had to take two vehicles to fit everyone. I am still skeptical of all drivers in this country. They like to swerve around cars, potholes, and people while slamming on their breaks and doing a burn-out at almost every stop.

Once we arrived at the vineyard we had a little bit of time to kill so we ordered some coffee; the Greek's love their coffee. I ordered an espresso, which was a mistake on my part. MJ and I drank them like a shot to get it over with. Dr. Edgar ordered a hot chocolate. When it arrived, it had the most intricate foam design! As an added bonus, it was the most delicious hot chocolate I have ever tasted. Kyre's expression when she took a sip said it all.

After we finished our coffee and hot chocolate, we went on a tour of this family-owned, third generation vineyard. It was beautiful! It sat on approximately 62 hectacres and had a few different varieties of grapes grown there that the man who started the vineyard is renowned for growing. We saw the rooms where the tanks are that ferment the grapes for the wine. There were tanks upon tanks! We even saw the machine that is used to bottle and put corks on the wine. It is a very intricate process, this wine-making, so I won't go into anymore details for fear I may leave something out.

Besides walls of awards, this winery is known for its collection of corkscrews. I have never seen so many corkscrews and ancient wine containers! There were hundreds of corkscrews, dating back to some of the very first ones that were created by a priest (named the T corkscrew for its "T" shape).

Photo credit: Maggie Jo

After exploring and learning about the corkscrews of the past, we were able to sample a red and a white wine. Both were excellent and many of us bought a bottle (or two) afterwards to bring home to share with our family and friends.

Since the day was still quite dreary, we went to a cafe type place that was the Woman's Agricultural Co-op of Agio Antonios. It is one of the most well-known co-ops in Greece today. Besides its sweets and jams offered for sale, the ladies there make a special perek. We ordered a feta perek and ham and cheese perek. It tasted like a mixture of quesadilla and pizza, although that may not sound appetizing, it was delicious!

Photo credit: Morgan

After our "snack" we ventured to the beach! As soon as we arrived, the sun decided to come out and it ended up being a perfect afternoon to take a nap on the beach. Although the water was cold, the sun felt amazing after several days of rain. Soaking up the sun was nice, but by the time we made it back to the American Farm School we were ready for dinner again. Turns out, there are not many places available to eat in Greece on a Sunday. We ended up taking a taxi to town and told them to take us somewhere with food.

They dropped us off at a restaurant that ended up being closed, but it worked out because a few blocks away was a square with all sorts of food places. After a week of being away from home and living the "Mediterranean Diet", we were all ready for some American food and settled on pizza. Little did we know that in Greece, portion sizes, especially at dinner, are much larger than American. We ordered three large pizzas and a personal veggie pizza. They. Were. HUGE!!!!!! The large pizzas were 16 slices, and although they were narrow slices, it is still a lot! We figured it up and out of 56 slices of pizza, we ate 34. I think America would be proud!

Not our American pizza, but it'll do.

Just when we thought we were done and were going to roll out to a taxi, the waitress brought us two waffles with Nutella, two scoops of ice cream, syrup and one with bananas and one with strawberries. We finished it like champs! ​

Pure deliciousness.

Now we are ready for a day of studies tomorrow! ​
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Read more from these students at http://bumpersingreece.weebly.com/

Find our more about the U of A Faculty-Led: Food, Agriculture and Sustainability in Greece program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/aggreece