You’ve probably heard of pastitsada and sofrito if not eaten before. The classic local dishes that keep you asking for more. Corfiot dishes tend to be sweetened with sugar and cinnamon and spiced up with red pepper much like the island’s temperament in fact.
There of course a few secrets you won’t get on every restaurant’s menu. Almyrixa is a local bushy green that grows in the sand between rocks on the sea shore. Not seaweed per se but rather like a green succulent delicacy I like to consider as mermaid food. It is available only a few weeks a year on certain beaches, the open fruit market in Corfu Town and one or two restaurants.
The best place to taste a sea urchin is in your mouth with freshly cut lemon, local olive oil and wood oven bread. Find out from a keen local which ones are right to pluck from the sea before you attempt this yourself. This is a high class delicacy in most foreign restaurants but seems to have not caught on in Greece yet. It is still available on a do it yourself basis.
Whilst on the beach front make sure you’ve bought a water melon off the back of a truck between July and August. Recycle a plastic bag by putting small holes into it, place the juicy red fruit inside, tie the bag with a string and leave in the shallow waters whilst you swim. Alternatively chop into small bite size pieces and stick in you apartment freezer for yummy icy hydration.
Another rare delicacy are the small wild strawberries that have as much taste as a dozen of their larger cousins put together in your mouth. These are rarely available in a supermarket and are traditionally sold on the side of the Perama road by an old man in a hat!
