Traditional Cuisine of Chios

Chian cuisine is determined in part by the characteristic products produced by the place. The first and best fruit of the island is the citrus starring the fragrant mandarin. The Chians eat the mandarin like fruit, they make it tangerine juice, dessert, jam, liqueur, syrup, they also use it in cooking, tasting the meats, the cuttlefish wines and even the classic bean soup Hotzas is famous) with mandarin zest! Dozens of households and handicrafts make the famous sweets of Chios, while there is one new business the Chios Plain that produces juices and soft drinks.

Then Chios has the gum, the tear of the skin, the hard resin of the mastic tree, which apart from being a medicine, from the 15th century was considered an erotic elixir as it was the only aroma of the mouth and the breath of those who chewed it. It is worth noting that in Chios there were no meals or sweets with mastic. Even after the liberation of the island, its poor inhabitants, instead of inventing mastic preparations themselves, preferred to sell it in Istanbul. For the Chian farmers, mastic was the "paras" thanks to which they paid taxes and exchanged it for edible products.

Chios is known nowadays for spirits of (ouza, liqueur, mastic). The ouza produced by the distilleries operating on the island is Apalarina, of Fourth, of KakitsiOf Stoupaki and Soul.  Liqueurs or mastic essences in interesting versions are produced by the same distilleries, while the Skinos and Ya Mastiha Liqueur. The rest are made by small households and are mainly sold in the local market, such as gaff liqueur (lemon and lemon), orange, walnut, apricot (koukoutsoliker), mint, vanilla. In Chios there are 120 small distillers who produce spirits and suma (fig distillate). In the northern part of the island it was known to the ancient world for the famous His excellent wine, the so-called "nectar of the gods", one of the first names of wine origin in the world. Wines are made from local varieties such as white Bigleri and red Chian Krasero and Agiannitis, and other Aegean such as Assyrtiko and Athiri, Moschato and Savvatiano.

In Chios, you will find mizithra and dry mizithra, kopanisti and green brine cheese while it is released under the registered name mastelo, from the cheese dairy of Konstantinos Tomazos from cow's and goat's milk, excellent for grilling. Local yogurts with mandarin and mastic aromas are also made.

Chian olives are excellent dates, that look like trumpets, but are much more breaded and flavored with schino.

The most typical dishes of Chios are the braised goat, the egg squid, the hand-made spaghetti (shaped by hand) from the northern villages, the honeysuckle, the sponge with koutsounades, the sponge with fresh beans, green fried tomatoes, the gourd pie .

Summarizing the vocabulary of Chian gastronomy (food - delicacies):

Convenient bread: Sour sourdough, "tight" black bread.

Kopanisti: Soft fermented cheese with a very spicy taste, similar to the Cyclades but has a more creamy texture

Dates: The Chian olives that look like thrombi

Mastic liqueur: Fragrant sweet liqueur, with a strong aroma of mastic.

Malt meatballs: Pseudo meatballs with fennel

Mamulia: Cookies stuffed with walnuts, in the shape of a small chocolate cake, sprinkled with icing sugar. (one can find them in the market of Aplotaria)

Bobbins: Small sweets in the shape of a flute, stuffed with almond or more rarely with mastic submarine.

Mastelo: White, fresh, soft, unsalted cow cheese, chewy, ideal for frying.

Mastic tea: Mastic-flavored donuts with wafer "coating" coating.

Black flour: A type of cream made with a glass of honey, diluted in a little water and coagulated with flour.

Eggplant pilaf: Rice cooked with eggplants and onion.

Pitian nuts: Hard wheat wholemeal nuts, eaten with chopped tomatoes.

Pasteliers: Dried figs, baked, stuffed with almonds, cinnamon, sesame and laurel.

Pitiano or basket: Whitish, hard cheese made from whole goat's milk and goat's rennet.

Mastic products: Nowadays mastic is also used in cooking. It becomes the children's favorite submarine (spoon dessert), mastic (sweet pies with crust sheet stuffed with almonds, bitter almonds, lemon zest and mixed with egg whites), while flavoring breads, cookies and sweets such as ravan.

Rests: The dry turquoise tomatoes that are tied in strings (restes) and kept hanging from the Chian balconies in a shady place.

Sponge with koutsounades: omelette with poppy leaves, before flowering

Drum pies: pies with tambourine (pumpkin).

Handmade spaghetti: Handmade spaghetti, made from durum wheat.