With the production of its 5.000 forms Culinary Guide of Skiathos of the program Gastronomy & Wine Tourism the first phase of highlighting the island's gastronomy was completed. This program has been implemented in 12 regions of Greece and Municipality of Skiathos was one of the first municipalities of the country (along with Amorgos, and Kefalonia) who warmly embraced this initiative and financed the action.

The initiator and manager of the program Giorgos Pittas, known for the "Greek Breakfast" initiative, at the Hotel Chamber of Greece, having for sixty years relations with the island (he started visiting it at the age of 8) implemented the program of Culinary Community of Skiathos.  Starting with research and the recording of the island's culinary wealth (products, dishes, protagonists) and proceeded to the presentation of the material, using two tools, the 28-page printed guide and the digital guide with the 40 articles in greekgastronomyguide.gr/skiathos.  

"Our goal is to strengthen the identity of the destination, highlighting every element that highlights the uniqueness of the island. The long-standing culinary heritage of Skiathos, as it is alive today and as recorded by the great of Greek letters the Alexander Papadiamanti, is an important chapter for us and the collaboration with the Gastronomic Communities of Giorgos Pittas is the ideal way to make this intangible heritage of our place an experience for the visitor. The program will be expanded every year with new actions", said the mayor Skiathos Thodoris Tzoumas.

Ο George Pittas he describes the research process as he experienced it during the year and a half that he dealt with the subject:

"Skiathos, like many other islands that were touristized early on, lost touch with the culinary tradition of their place, and contented themselves with the preparation of typical tourist stereotyped dishes. At the same time, the few fields became plots of land, while the lake of Papadiamantis (short story All around the lake) and the surrounding orchards welcomed the Skiathos airstrip. At the beginning of the 21st century, the only trace of culinary tradition was found in chaimalia, a dessert of walnuts and almonds.

So I started by reading it Alexandrou Papadiamantis, the majority of his dozens of short stories were read and the darkness of the culinary past was illuminated by unique information.

In the short stories of Alexandros Papadiamantis, his humble protagonists, farmers of Skiathos, at the end of the 19th century, act among the "rosy shores", the harbors, the ravines, the heights, mountains and valleys, the vineyards and the olive groves , orchards and ravines and live without material goods a quiet life.

Guided by the author's work, one discovers alongside nature the eating habits of Skiathos. In his short stories you discover all the seafood, from sardines, squids, octopuses, tuna, even lobsters, shrimps, oil, olives, but also the ones cockles, splenanders and skewers lambs as well as macaroons,  the chaimalia (local sweets), the baklavas and thus a hidden treasure is revealed, a unique material which still constitutes the living culinary reality of the island"

Let's take a look at an anthology of excerpts:

"The genealogies and women's scarfs, with their baskets and knives, scattered over the hills, and brought out caucalithres and myronia, and they were cutting ferns and fenugreek"

“…Half a half lobster tail, with no smoked lake kingfisher, with a little scrambled eggs,with one sprinkle salted, all products of the small beautiful island, barb'-Alexis was doing his job" (bribed the commander).

"...you suddenly saw him stooping down to catch the little one with his palm octopus, to bite it on the neck, to struggle to detach the mouthpiece from its wrist, to run on the sand and beat it bravely... Loving child! He was running all day long from one side of the other to the other side you grunt, purples and horseshoes by two crabs by three octopuses by four."

"...behold, after he had poured much milk into a large cauldron, and poured plenty of salt into it, from that which he himself collected from shore to shore, running up to the rocks, where he extracted shells and petals, the shepherd (shepherd) lit a fire and was busy boiling it...".

"...two key fobs were tampered with bipyra, olive oil and caviar. He blew two octaves flask of wine from his harvest. Wrap two or three in paper xerioctopods and he filled it with a small box ischada and red currant...two large pieces of meat salad, up to five okadas each".

"God blessed the joyful day, and the shepherds (shepherds) were honored to slaughter and roast two tender goats, while the two woodcutters had brought many dozens from the mountain salted courgettes... and Captain Constantis disembarked from schooner two casks of strong wine and a basket of eggs and cascavali of Ainos, half a dozen chickens and a small barrel with mackerel".

"Let's eat lobsters with maratha, let it also be Great Friday, and let us admire those monastics caviar meatballs, with the scents of the grass, prepared, where they were as big as ducks, each a pan"

"But the three archaeologists and the public teacher had long ago arrived at Agios Ilian, and had eaten the chick, and they had drunk per two mastic and they already switched to it splenanderon (it was eleven o'clock before noon)…

In the short stories of Alexandros Papadiamantis, the productive cycle of nutrition is present in all its aspects. Landscapes, methods of production, fishing, gathering herbs, local snacks and favorite dishes, but also the feasts and treats in the cafes are described in his short stories and complement the magical world of the author, sending us timely messages of the importance of a life in austerity and simplicity.

After studying the work of Alexandros Papadiamantis, we searched for the memories of modern Skiatians who lived in the era of self-sufficiency of the islands. One learns a lot by asking and rummaging. This is how the history of the local cuisine of each place is formed.

In Skiathos, fishermen take out their fish and their shells (lobsters, crayfish). Nowadays, pelagic fish and lobsters may have a great value, in those years, but the problem was not the gastronomic experience, but the feeding of the large family. And while in other places to "spit" the seafood they marry it with pasta (macaroni, barley, macaroni kofto, noodles), in Skiathos they mix the seafood with the zarzavatikas and a unique marriage is created. Peskandritsa stew, lobster with zucchini, crayfish with mountain greens, what Papadiamantis describes so graphically.

And this is how a unique cuisine with distinct peculiarities is created, a cuisine that does not exist in any other region of Greece, a kitchen with a unique identity, the traditional cuisine of Skiathos.

After the Asia Minor Catastrophe, refugees from these places arrived in Skiathos and carried along with their culture and customs their culinary tradition and thus came to the island and the ντολμαδάκια and various other stuffed, the sauces, syrupy sweets and the like, while there are also influences from the cuisines of the surrounding coastal areas (Pelion, Alonissos, Skopelos).

Here are some delicacies that you can enjoy on the island:

The seafood you find in other Aegean islands, such as marinated anchovy with kritama, grilled and stewed octopus, grilled and stewed shrimps, grilled sardines, lobster pasta.

However, the dishes that represent the cuisine of Skiathos are the kalapodia (local vegetable pies), the Skiathos cheese pie spiral shaped - similar to that of Alonissos and Skopelos -, and the marriages of fish with mountain greens or zarzavatica, such as crayfish with greens, cod stew, grouper stew with tomato and other similar delicious combinations.

The marriage of seafood with "greens", however, does not mean that the Skiathos do not respect meat and especially the goats of the island or the surrounding dry islands. In family taverns we will find egg-lemon goat, "stealing" lamb, braised ibex, local rabbit stew or veal with zucchini.

Family taverns and homemade traditional food is the most suitable recipe to try the authentic flavors of Skiathos.

The 28-page publication of the Gastronomic Community of Skiathos includes the chapters:

A place rich in history, Alexandros Papadiamantis, The Castle of Skiathos, Crops-products

The culinary tradition of Skiathos, Traditional cuisine Typical dishes

Restaurants and taverns, Churches, monasteries, festivals and celebrations, Beaches, Gastronomic souvenirs Traveling on the island.

This form, which is used in exhibitions but also provided in professional spaces (hotels, catering) works with the digital guide greekgastronomyguide.gr/skiathos the protagonists of the island's gastronomy are presented in detail. The digital culinary map of the island has already been visited by more than 150.000 people with an M.O reading duration of 3 minutes!

The cuisine of Skiathos, after a phase of misrecognition, is dynamically coming back to the fore and aspires to highlight the culinary identity of the island, and expands the richness and diversity of Greek gastronomy. Congratulations to all contributors and first and foremost at the initiative of the Municipality and the mayor Thodoris Tzouma who coordinated the project. 

For more photos and more photos travel to greekgastronomyguide.gr/skiathos