Ognistra in Palia Perithia

Η traditional tavern Ognistra is located at the entrance of the protected settlement Old Perithia. The village is its oldest settlement Corfu, a historical monument of the 13th century, a landscape of special natural beauty located at an altitude of 450 meters below Mount Pantokrator.

Until the beginning of the 20th century Palia Perithia was a prosperous village with 130 houses of Venetian architecture inhabited by about a thousand inhabitants, while eight churches of Byzantine style with outstanding architecture surrounded it. People lived with her livestock and olive cultivation.

When in the 1960s Olive growing was abandoned and the tourist areas of Kato Peritheia, Kassiopi and Acharavi began to develop as tourists, the Perithiotes found work there and little by little the village emptied until it became uninhabited. Only in recent years there is an interest in the purchase of some abandoned houses by foreigners and the operation of 4-5 taverns that serve the travelers who travel to get to know the ghost village.

In a deserted building of 1872, The Nikos Heidaris, after a 20-year wandering in the restaurant, stocked with love for tradition and place, he returned to his village, restored his old house and turned it into a cozy picturesque tavern.

His name Ognistra or otherwise a corner of the house where the grandmothers lit a fire and put the firebox and the pinata, in which they cooked the traditional Corfiot delicacies.

These delicacies of hers Corfiot cuisine, Nikos offers them generously with his art.

Of all its delicacies, such as classic dishes, rooster pastitsada, beef sofrito, galeos burdeto, strapatsada, tsigareli (deep fried wild greens with spicy sauce), pumpkin pie, I bowed to a dish that I admittedly tried for the first time and was surprised by its simplicity and taste.

Η orange salad - as I later learned - was a very daily salad of the Corfiot homemade, which not only does not exist in the taverns but has been forgotten in households. The recipe is disarmingly simple - a few slices of orange (it is called neratzi in Corfu), olive oil, coarse salt and red pepper - but the taste is extremely majestic!