Maistrali

Tucked up in a little corner just off the busy marina at Pera Gialos is the traditional Greek restaurant Maistrali. From their covered patio you can enjoy a myriad of Greek dishes while watching all the boats coming and going from the harbor. If you time it correctly, you can even see the massive Blue Star Ferry arrive.

 

On this night we were joined for dinner by a friend who happens to be Astypalean. After gossiping a little, this is a small town, we try to decide what we will order. Between the three of us we hammer out an order and place it with the server.  In less than two minutes she returns and begins speaking with our companion in rapid fire Greek, accentuated by shoulder shrugging and hand gestures that are generally interpreted as “I don’t know, but what can you do?” 

 

I asked Lambrini why the server came back. Was one of the dishes sold out?  Daily specials? Oxi. It was then that Lambrini explained to us that we were way out of the norm with our dinner order. The custom is as follows. 

 

First you must decide what your table is going to “play”, which loosely translates to a theme for the dishes ordered. Fish, vegetables, and meat are usually the main categories to choose from. If we decided to “play” vegetables, then the shared dishes in the middle of the table would be vegetables, and then each person would order their own main dish. 

 

Our order consisted of one main dish, even though we were three people. Compounding the problem was the choice of four side dishes for the middle of the table from every category. Our server suggested we should each choose a main and then maybe all veggie dishes for the middle. Our friend explained that we were Americans tourists and did not understand the finer points of ordering dinner at a restaurant.

 

Pictured here we have two veggie courses to be shared, zucchini fritters and George’s salad.

 

More soon