Tastes on Board

As you travel to the Peloponnese from Gythio and go down to the east (it is also called prosiliki because it looks east) Mani, you meet him Kotrona, a beautiful harbor with few stone buildings. Here, on the sea, in front of a small sandy beach, in an 1870 tower, which he took in 1997 and built from scratch, the Mary Panagakou has built its own castle of flavors.

Mary (who many of you will know from television, as she appeared in many shows as "Mrs. Mary knows", but also from the books with her recipes), is originally from Evia, but life brought her to Mani, married to Maniatis and determined for everything. A woman endowed with communicative charisma and inexhaustible energy, she has been the captain for 3 years now. Tastes on Board, a restaurant where one can enjoy local flavors of Mani, cooking that utilizes local recipes, but also the few but wonderful local products, such as the amazing Koroneiko oil, olives and pork, which gives it convergent made in the traditional old way.

"Mani was a very poor place", Mary tells us. The women, with the little wheat, made flour, and with a little oil they cooked the "paspala". They put some flour in the pan, mixed it with the oil, and put whatever they had on top. By adding a little glyna from the pig, they made the "khouropaspala", if they had a quail, they made the "ardykopaspala" (the quails are called here, which are many in the area, because it is a passage for birds). For dessert, they had the doubles at the festivities - to "fold" the joy. But also the cabbage pies, stuffed with all the vegetables that the housewife can find! "

Mary has been looking for the subject, and the result is an incredible wealth of flavors, which travels you through time and the history of this wild and unique place. And imagine that - as he confessed to me saying goodbye - when he got married, he did not even know how to make an egg !!!

The main thing is that Maria also works in the winter when Mani is deserted. Using local ingredients offers local recipes (drawn pies, convergent, olive oil, wild greens but also fish and seafood) but other more sought after (cuttlefish ink risotto, shrimp spaghetti, pizza with convergent) stands like Akritas its price laconic gastronomy.