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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Chania
Layered baked tart of thinly sliced zucchini and potato, with mizithra cheese and mint, sometimes topped with pastry. It is named for Chania, in western Crete, and is a summer dish (June to August), when zucchini are in season.
Traditional dish from Chania, Creta
Also known as: Μπουρέκι, Χανιώτικο μπουρέκι, Chaniotiko boureki
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Boureki — Chania, Greece
The Chania boureki is a layered vegetable tart. Potatoes and zucchini are cut into thin slices and arranged in a baking dish, alternating with mizithra, the fresh Cretan cheese, and mint. Olive oil is drizzled on top, and the dish is baked until the potato is tender and the surface is golden. Some recipes cover the tart with a sheet of homemade pastry; others leave it open.
Travel writer Dana Facaros, in her Greek food guide, records that in Chania they make the Χανιώτικο μπουρέκι, baked with potato, zucchini, mizithra and mint. The Cretan cooperative ABEA publishes a recipe with the same name, in which the pastry is flavored with tsikoudia, the island’s spirit.
The name recalls the Turkish börek, but the Chania boureki is primarily a vegetable-and-cheese dish, in which pastry is secondary. It is made throughout western Crete, and the name “of Chania” follows the dish across the island.
Chania , Creta
The boureki bears the name of Chania: it is the potato, zucchini, mizithra and mint tart of western Crete, known across the island as Chania boureki.
Thinly sliced potato and zucchini, fresh mizithra cheese, mint, olive oil, salt and pepper; sometimes a homemade pastry topping, which may include tsikoudia.
Cut into pieces, served warm or at room temperature, as a main course with salad, or in small portions as meze.
Summer dish (June to August), when zucchini are in season. No fixed date.
Your questions
A layered baked tart of thinly sliced potato and zucchini, with mizithra cheese and mint, sometimes topped with pastry. It is a traditional dish of Chania, in western Crete.
No. The names share the same origin, but Chania boureki is mainly a vegetable-and-cheese tart, in which pastry is little or absent.
Mainly in summer (June to August), when zucchini are in season. It can be served as a main course or as meze.
Flavors of Greece
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Thin slices of beef dredged in flour, browned and cooked in a light sauce of white wine or wine vinegar, with plenty of garlic, parsley and pepper. It is a Corfu dish of Venetian heritage, served with potatoes, rice or pasta.
Dry barley rusk, moistened and topped with grated tomato, fresh mizithra or feta cheese, olive oil and oregano, sometimes with olives and capers. It’s the best-known snack and light meal of Cretan cuisine.
Grape marc brandy distilled in Crete after the harvest, without anise. It has a geographical indication as Tsikoudia of Crete, is served chilled in small glasses, and accompanies Cretan hospitality from the start to the end of a meal.
Fried patties made from chopped tomato, scallion, herbs and flour, served as a snack. They are a specialty of Santorini, made with the island’s small tomato, grown without irrigation in volcanic soil.
Sweet natural white wine from Santorini, made with Assyrtiko, Aidani and Athiri grapes dried in the sun and aged for a long time in barrel. It ranges in color from amber to dark brown and is part of the Protected Designation of Origin Santorini.
Sweet white wine from southern the Peloponnese, made from grapes sun-dried and barrel-aged. It revives the wine that merchants shipped from Monemvasia to Europe in the Middle Ages, when the port was known by its Frankish name, Malvasia.
Mykonos onion pie, filled with onion, the island’s fresh cheese tyrovolia, eggs and dill, between two layers of pastry. It is noted as one of the island’s oldest and most traditional recipes.
Sweet fortified red wine from the Patras region, made mainly from the Mavrodafni grape and aged in barrels until it develops notes of raisins, coffee and dried fruit. It has a protected designation of origin and is the dessert wine most associated with the city.
Toasted sesame and honey bar with almonds, orange peel and spices, cut into diamond shapes. It is Rhodes’ sweet offered at weddings and baptisms and has a Protected Geographical Indication from the European Union.
Pomace brandy (grape marc), with or without anise, served chilled in small bottles with snacks. It has geographical indications for Thessaly and for Tyrnavos, and in Volos it gives its name to the houses where each round arrives with a meze.
Pie made with very thin pastry, open and layered, filled with semolina custard and topped with sugar and cinnamon. It is also made savory, with cheese, ground meat or spinach. In Thessaloniki it is eaten in the morning with coffee and sold in pieces cut to order.
