While in Chania, Crete, Greece in June I had the great
pleasure of discovering two vegetarian restaurants—one new and one new to me
that has been around for 8 or 9 years—both delicious. Vegetarian restaurants
that offer vegan options feel surprisingly like an oasis in a country known for
its healthy cuisine. Although plant food is readily accessible here, it is very
often mixed or topped with cheese, yogurt or butter. Even bread and dry pasta
which is often simple plant ingredients fairly often have some milk or yogurt
added in the making.
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| Fava dip or Santorini fava (1) |
We rented a lovely two story home on the east end of the
harbor. When we arrived at late lunch time, we put our stuff down and headed
down the block to the sea, took in the view and the sea air and
turned west to head toward the central harbor. The coastline in Chania is
organized in a series of bowl shaped harbors with either natural or man made
edges to each bowl. As we came to the edge of the first of these we
spotted To Stachi. The hand painted sign read, “organic” and “vegetarian.” I
was immediately drawn to the place and a bit incredulous that we would happen
on vegetarian restaurant on our first e
xplore of the trip.
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| Aubergine and dolmades (2) |
As we settled into a table on the sidewalk, the chef came
out to tell us about all of the dishes served that day. I asked about which
ones were vegan and was surprised to learn how many of their mostly traditional
Greek dishes were. We ordered fava dip, a roasted aubergine dish and spinach
pie. The waitperson suggested with get the hummus instead of the fava as “you
can get that anywhere,” but I love it and was happy with the choice. Although
it is called fava dip and sometimes Santorini fava, it is essentially pureed
split peas, not fava beans. To Stachi’s version came with raw onions and small
dried olives (see photo 1). The spinach pie was a real treat because spinach
pie in most places has cheese in it and it is often made with butter as well as
olive oil. Sometimes the filo or other dough is made with milk in it. The aubergine
dish was beautiful, unusual and delicious topped with balsamic “crème”, pine
nuts and raisins and served with two dolmades (see photo 2).
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| Vegan Apple Cake (3) |
They brought us a
taste of their yummy (still warm) hummus made with avocado and tahini. As is
the tradition in much of Greece, they brought a complementary dessert.
Delightfully, it was a vegan apple cake and very tasty (see photo 3). A few
days later we returned for their vegan moussaka and a lentil and rice soup.
Both also delicious.
After finding To Stachi, I decided to check Happy Cow
(happycow.net) to see if there were others nearby. Remarkably there was one
more completely vegetarian just about 10 miles out of the center of town. Using
other restaurant search engines, there are lots of restaurants listed as
vegetarian friendly, but as mentioned above these can be tricky for people
choosing to eat only foods from plant sources.
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| Old House Tavern (4) |
The Old House Tavern is a breakfast and lunch place that is
associated with the Sea Shell Apartments in Pyrgos Psilonerou (see photo 4). The
dining room is right on the main road through this little beach town tucked
between two seaside towns, Maleme and Gerani. The older stone building with
very thick walls has been refurbished and it is light and cool inside even when
the weather is it is warm outside. I was so excited about the menu that the two
of us ordered 4 dishes—the tahini salad, the chickpeas with coconut sauce, the
hummus and falafel plate (see photo 5) and a special dish for the day called
vegetable with Chinese noodles.
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| Hummus and Falafel Plate (5) |
All 4 were tasty. I loved the salad which
featured pomegranate seeds, nuts, cucumber, greens, sweet cherry tomatoes and a
slightly sweet tahini dressing. (see photo 6) The chickpea dish was a coconut
curry with bright flavors served over rice (see photo 7). The Chinese noodles
dish was sautéed slivered vegetables (peppers, corn, eggplant, and onion)
tossed with ramen-style noodles (see photo 8). Deliciously salty and filling.
We ended up taking home about half of the curry and the noodle dish and
incorporated them into later meals. The complimentary dessert was lovely
watermelon and cherries served with a shot glass of coffee liqueur. In all a
real treat.
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| Tahini Salad (6) |
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| Chinese Noodles (8) |
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| Chickpeas and Coconut Sauce (7) |
All this to say, if you find yourself in Chania, I highly
recommend visiting these two excellent establishments.
