East

Just outside her city Skiathos, in the area Huts away from its cosmopolitan and tourist restaurants-taverns, is the Taverna Anatoli.

On the road to Evangelistria at a distance of 5 km, on the top of a hill with abundant sea views and NE to Skopelos and in the background Alonissos we will meet a fairytale tavern. As you walk through the front door you feel the sweet feeling of a manicured home yard. In the yard a pressed cement floor, like an old cement mortar, painted gray-blue, highlights the old white chairs, while in the background under the sheltered yard, from the north winds and the sudden spring showers of the island, two large built-in sofas, behind the tables with colorful ethnic pillows.

A tufted skin - in Skiathos the fragrant skins become trees - in the middle of the yard it creates an airy shadow, while large jars play the role of flowerpots, to welcome tufted basil and mint that when you inadvertently touch them, as you pass, give their scent all over courtyard.

«But it is not only for decoration or for smell, but also for raw material in our cooking and in the kitchen", Tells us KoulaThe daughter of Mrs. Katina, who was the one who built the store 1992 next to her family home.

The food in the tavern Anatoli is the folk mamadist cuisine, which as time goes by becomes rare, because the mothers who possess the art are no more, while most modern cooks, full of arrogance in the effort to distinguish themselves, put so many ornaments that finally hide the character of the raw material and the purity of the flavors.

«We do it like my grandmother and my mother did!», What humility and what respect does this proposal hide…

Η Koula and Freedom they learned from Mrs. Katina who still does not put it down. Among other things, we tried her baklava, after all, it is known and sought after for the wedding baklava that she makes in the big sini (special pan).

The main dishes in the East are the cooked ones, rooster, local goat - Turkish delight plain -, oily, squid, fish when they find pelagias from Skiathos fishermen.

But appetizers also have character. Twisted pies (Skiathos version), giaprakia, Smyrna soutzoukaki with plenty of cinnamon, zucchini stuffed with rice and spices, tsitsiravla and kritama that accompany the sour gabbro, cheese pies in the pan. I loved a gorgeous appetizer, a surprise, fried zucchini flowers with a little cheese in them, sprinkled with sesame seeds, in the pan like chips!

We said goodbye to the tavern Anatoli and the large ornate painted octopus that welcomes you at the entrance of the store - Kula, when she is not cooking, she paints - with a sweet inside us.

At a time when everything is running and changing at tremendous speeds, to exist some constant flavors, aesthetics and ethics, is a very comforting and at the same time rare thing.