XEE and the Municipality of Ios presented on Wednesday 19 July 2017 at the hotel Liostasi Hotel & Suites, the "Greek Breakfast of Ios", which is the 40th Standard Greek Breakfast. After 8 years of systematic effort and travels throughout Greece, recording and promoting local products and recipes, the Greek Breakfast left its mark on the beautiful Virus.

The Greek Breakfast of Ios was presented by George Pittas - that is, my boss -, member of the Board. of the Hotel Chamber of Greece and head of the "Greek Breakfast" program, who pointed out the value of the program, analyzed how important it is for a hotel to provide for breakfast pure local products and local recipes that tourists will appreciate and enjoy, thus giving… points both in business and on the island.

 

The event took place at Liostasi Hotel & Suites, which was recently upgraded to a 5-star hotel, and where its staff headed by the owner Despina Denaxa - who personally cooked the local recipes - presented an extremely rich range of products and delicacies.

The event was honored by the presence of Mrs. Angela Fakou, chairman of the Tourist Committee of Ios and Mr. Georgios Poussaios, former Deputy Regional Governor of Cyclades and for twenty years mayor of Ios, as well as many hoteliers and producers.

In terms of products, the cheese dairies of the island and especially the cheeses from the two certified dairies of Ios were the leaders. Their products are local cheeses:

The Scotch. Traditional, soft cheese with a spicy taste and aroma of pepper and thyme.

Η Myzithra. Soft cheese, fresh, fluffy and relatively unsalted, leans tenderly on salads and is used for pies.

The Sour. Oily, with a slightly sour taste, it pleasantly accompanies tomatoes and capers, in salads and dakos, sought after in Santorini for meletini.

The Kefalotyri. Slightly salty, greasy and rich, either sheep or goat that goes well with fruit and wine.

On gruyere, soft and buttermilk from sheep and goat milk.

The big cheese dairy of Ios, with the brand Niotiko, within 4 years -after the family Zacchaeus received the cooperative cheese dairy of the island - has grown significantly and has penetrated into most commercial networks of the country producing excellent cheeses, such as gruyere, kefalotyri, the famous Homer trilogy - graviera made from sheep's, goat's and cow's milk - and the soft sour, scotch and mizithra.

A smaller cheese factory Diaseli, also produces the soft cheeses of the island, skotyri, sour, mizithra but in the semi-skylla it also has wine cheese and a kefalotyri with pepper.

The cheeses of Tinos were accompanied by Cycladic cold cuts such as the Syrian louza.

The famous sour cheese of Ios in the magical hands of Despina Detaxa was turned into cheese balls with sesame. The scotch had the same fate.

The Native watermelon pie followed!

One of the typical sweets of Ios is mossenta a sweet that looks like her watermelons of Folegandros and is prepared with juice and the contents of the watermelon, with flour, sugar, oil, cinnamon, Corinthian raisins, sesame and at the end of cooking it is poured with thyme honey.

The dessert is very tasty, and its recipe, as well as the recipes of the other typical dishes of the Greek breakfast of Ios will be presented very soon.

The greetings This is also a recipe that is more common in the Cyclades, they have different names and are similar to Mykonian shelves.

In our Ios they were made by Despina Denaxa, with the classic ingredients of the dessert: mizithra, sugar, egg, cinnamon, lemon zest. The porridge is rolled into a crescent-shaped dough, fried in olive oil and then topped with thyme honey.

Machi is a type of fresh pasta made in Ios and is a bit reminiscent of bunch of Folegandros and more the mangiri of Crete.

The way of creating the dough is also this classic, flour, oil, lukewarm water and salt. Open a sheet, cut in the shape of an elongated noodle and boil in water. The interest is gained when a part of the dough pieces before frying is fried and acquires a crispness, so in the taste you meet two types of damage, the tender and the crunchy. Depending on the case, you throw in what you have like a tomato.

Breads made with oil, tomato and olives.

 

Pies of all kinds, savory and sweet.

And of course there was the honey honey with honeycomb, thyme honey and heather honey.

 

The delicacies would not be missing tomato meatballs, the cement The stuffed zucchini flowers - and the Native oils.

Thanks to all the producers and cooks who helped for this perfect presentation of the 40th morning. And now, scarf, let's go for our fifties!