Local eats during a Mediterranean Cruise?

Hi all,

I'm going on a Mediterranean cruse with my parents (and a dozen of their friends) and they're planning on mostly going on guided excursions when we are in port.

I was thinking about branching out and trying for more local (and cheaper?) fare. I already saw a couple threads on places to visit in Istanbul and Athens... but just wanted to see if anyone has any experiences or recommendations for some other cities I'll be stopping in.

Athens
Katakolon
Cofu
Alexandria
Iraklion
Santorini
Mykonos
Ephesus
Istanbul

Let me know if you can help me out any. Thanks!

When you are in Alexandria, you probably are going to go into Cairo to see the Pyramids, so you won't really get a chance to see much of the port city unless you are overnight there? It's a long trip to Cairo. Note that due to all the oil refineries it REALLY smells bad at the port.

Ephesus is also a bit away from the port of Kusadasi. Kusadasi has a very nice bazaar/market and is quite walkable (compared to Istanbul, which is amazing but huge).

In any of the cities, when ordering Meze, make sure that you know what you are getting. Don't just let them bring you things, or you will end up with a LOT of food wasted and a big bill.

Thanks Leek. We have two days in Alexandria so I am hoping to explore a bit. I've been doing some research on chow and google, but surprisingly, Alexandrian recommendations are pretty sparse. This list of top ten rated restaurants on TripAdvisor kind of depressed me... 4 American chains?



I'm still looking for more recs for Mykonos and Ephesus... 6 days and counting!

I've compiled a list of recs on a google spreadsheet... will share it when I'm back and have reviews.

My husband and I just returned Sunday from a Mediterranean cruise! Which cruise line are you taking? We were on Louis Cruises on the M/V Cristal, and needed to use every meal off the ship we could get, as the food on board was just average, maybe a little below average. (We knew this going into our cruise, and chose the ship for its port-intensive itinerary, which only brought us closer to our goal: local food).

We started in Istanbul, and had crummy weather the whole time. We were expecting 60s and weather was rainy and blustery and in the 40s. We were completely unprepared clothing-wise. As a result, we tended to take the easy route and eat closest to the tourist destinations. We had lunch one day at the Pudding Shop (Divan Yolu 6), near the Blue Mosque and Agia Sophia. Also, lunched at the Flower Passage on day on Istiklal Street. Both served their purposes: pretty inexpensive food to fill us up on the way to the next stop. In true LTH fashion, we ordered several entrees at each restaurant and were able to try several items. By the end of our time in Istanbul, I was ready to move from ground meat kababs to true souvlaki.

Also, had a late lunch on Galata Bridge on our one not-rainy day. The views were great, and while we ate, we watched the local fishermen reel in their catch from the level above the restaurants. Very cool.

I regret not being able to try the No Bull In Istanbul thread recommendation of Sofyali 9. Due to weather, we weren't as ambitious as I wish we could have been.

In Mykonos, we had a liter of house wine and appetizers at Casa di Giorgio (behind the Catholic Church). After less than stellar calamari in Istanbul, my husband wanted to erase the taste on Mykonos. While it wasn't transcendant, it did the trick. We also had serviceable mussles, and the house red was pretty good.

For dinner, we wandered over to Philippi, a restaurant surrounding a beautiful courtyard. It was super-romantic (perfect since this was our honeymoon!), and my husband has declared the lamb chops among the best he ever tasted. They were super simple, salt, pepper and oregano, with a little lemon. I had a steak covered in a tomato/green pepper/garlic tapenade. The steak was a tougher cut than I'm used to (more pot roast-y than anything), so the sauce was welcome, but not enough to make the dish. For dessert, we had walnut pie, which was unlike any my Greek family makes. Very good.

I thought our ship was stopping in Iraklion, but in reality, we docked in Agios Nikolas, which is about 40 miles from Iraklion. The ship was only in port long enough for people to take the ship's Knossos excursion and then we were out! We docked in early morning and left by 11 a.m. No food for us there, just coffee.

We were in Santorini that afternoon, and again had a short time in town. We disembarked by tender, which took about an hour and a half for everyone to get off the ship, and then you either waited in line for the funicular or donkey ride up. By the time we made it up to Thira, we only had an hour fifteen to make it back to the tender boats. We knew it would be short, so we used that time for gyros. We wandered through town and found a busy corner stand, grabbed two gyros and were so happy!

In Kusadasi, we were anxious to see Ephasus and the House of the Virgin Mary, and we booked the ship's excursion, again, due to tight times in port. Ephasus was unbelievable, and the excursion conveniently dumped us into a carpet store. We wandered around town and headed back to the ship without stopping for food. I am veering off food topic here to encourage you to see Ephasus with a guide. The ship's excursion was expensive, and we had a large group, but I was glad to have an expert.

In both Greece and Turkey, french fries accompanied every meal, answering one of my life-long questions: do french fries go with Moussaka? Answer: YES!!

Have a great time on your cruise!

Thanks for your tips, will spend some time trying to find some of those places on google maps next time I'm on line. Sound similar to Princess cruises which I read a blog about at foodmayhem.com. I'm on Norwegian which is supposed to be nicer (11 restaurants on the ship) but we'll see...

I'm currently in Athens after a day in London and we will be heading to the boat in a couple hours. So far I've gotten two pages of reviews/pictures up, mostly from London. Will see if i can get anything else up in the next hour or so before my battery dies...

London
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

In transit to Athens
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Unfortunately, I took like 150 pics yesterday so I have to sort and re-size those before I can put them up and I've already taken 50 today...

Great report and photos! Thanks for all of the effort especially after dragging your lame suitcase around!

Dang, this cruise line internet is slow...and expensive! 50-60 cents per minute! So I'm only on for a few minutes trying to upload as much as I can... darn this SLR... I took 300 pictures in Egypt alone...

While I have time, here's one more day from Corinth/Athens

http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... x.php#pics

I sure commend your efforts. Great photos and report.

Couple more posts.

More Athens
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... x.php#pics
Katakolon
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... x.php#pics

Great photos! Thanks for sharing...

The tea in Athens looks like Greek Mountain Tea, which you can pick up at Athens Market in Greek Town. It's super-cheap and similar to chamomile. I think a bag is less than $3. Not sure how other Greeks do it, but at our house, we break off pieces from the bag and jam it into the basket in the teapot, stems, sticks and all. Steep for just under 10 minutes. (does that mean 8 minutes, 9 minutes? use your best judgment. I wait until I can't wait any longer.)

My husband always gravitated to the tea, until we reminded ourselves that we could just buy it back home. Not as romantic, but for the lazy, less to carry home.

Also, speaking of carry-ons -- we bought olive oil as a gift for our house-sitter and stuck it in our carry-on so it didn't explode on our clothes, forgetting the 3-1-1 liquids rule. The Athenian version of the TSA eventually looked the other way, but for a few seconds I was seriously bummed at the thought of tossing the olive oil.

Have a great rest of your trip! Will be watching for updates...

Here's Corfu
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

And an uneventful day at Sea
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

We arrive in Istanbul today for my last week of vacation. I'm already bummed that I have to go back to work next Monday...

Ok, it's been almost three months and I still haven't finished going through my pictures (i'm lazy, i admit it) but I'm almost done...

Cairo
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Alexandria
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

At Sea
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Iraklion, Crete
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Santorini
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Mykonos
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Izmir
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Istanbul 1
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Two more days in Istanbul and one day in London coming next...

Also, here's my google spreadsheet as promised.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... H_aw&hl=en

Grump - Selene – Santorini, Greece

When it comes to restaurants, I can be a bit of a grump. My standard is perfection, and even I can’t meet that standard! Recently my wife and I took a cruise through the azure waters of the Aegean Sea. Now cruiseship food – even if bountiful, colorful, and well-provisioned - can not salve a culinary grump. But every so often we escaped the ship. One of these moments permitted us to explore the beautiful, white-washed island of Santorini, an island formed from the rim of a volcano, which the deity exploded for His own amusement (Santorini sits in a caldera – the collapse of land after a volcanic eruption), the most remarkable spot in the Cyclades. When one comes across a crescent sliver of land so exquisite my thoughts turn to, well, food. (My thoughts also turn to food when viewing a toxic dump or a beautiful woman.)

Still, Santorini is more than brownfields or lithesome legs, it is scenic. Were this insufficient, Santorini is also the home to one of the most astonishing restaurants in all of Greece, and, Michelin not to the contrary, in all the EU. Selene, perched on a cliff in Fira, the main town (in fairness most of Fira is perched on a cliff), opened in 1986 under the guidance of owner George Haziyannakis, who wished to show off the creative nature of Greek cuisine. He succeeded.



Yes, the view is perfection, but it cannot quite compete with the food. One looks down at one’s plate while the clouds and skiffs pass outside. We began with a pair of soups, cold tomato and warm rockfish and langoustine. The cool tomato was perfection in this warm June lunchtime, although had this been our only course I would have noted Selene as a most pleasant boite. The seafood soup was pure cream and sea: impeccably rich and sweet, with ingredients that revealed that locavores have a point.





These soups were followed by an appetizer of local bivalves with lemon foam – molecular cuisine in the isles! – paired with potent seafood tartlets. Here was a chef who was aware of both the standards of modern cuisine and the robust cookery of the Aegean. Again the local clams were salty-fresh and the buttery tarts composed of the finest catch of the wine, dark sea.



But truly it was the main course that was spectacular: that afternoon I fell in love with all things Santorini. As is clear from the photo the ravioli is not the enclosed, Italianate pocket pasta, but rolls of perfectly cooked strips with – again! – blessedly fresh seafood with plump mussels and delightful squid, so perfectly prepared that the word rubbery was banished, and authoritatively and sharply seasoned crayfish and shrimp.



As magnificent as the ravioli was, it was surpassed (just barely!) by the risotto: rice in a fava bean sauce with a juicy roasted rabbit with an evocative rosemary jus: symphonic notes of Greek cuisine, but so expertly prepared that it would have been perfection if prepared by Escoffier. A month later I still dream of this brilliancy.



To close the afternoon, we were served a sturdy baklava with a startling Niotiko cheese ice cream. Not a showy dessert, but with the view appearing again, the dessert served its purpose.



Never have I been so pleasured by the combination of taste and scene. With God as designer and with Selene’s own divine kitchen staff, any grumpiness must quickly be voted off the island.

Selene
Fira, Santorini
+30-2286022249
http://www.selene.gr/

filbertman wrote:Thanks for your tips, will spend some time trying to find some of those places on google maps next time I'm on line. Sound similar to Princess cruises which I read a blog about at foodmayhem.com. I'm on Norwegian which is supposed to be nicer (11 restaurants on the ship) but we'll see...

I'm currently in Athens after a day in London and we will be heading to the boat in a couple hours. So far I've gotten two pages of reviews/pictures up, mostly from London. Will see if i can get anything else up in the next hour or so before my battery dies...

London
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

In transit to Athens
http://www.filtsai.com/pictures/2008_cr ... /index.php

Unfortunately, I took like 150 pics yesterday so I have to sort and re-size those before I can put them up and I've already taken 50 today...

I just read through your wonderful trip reports and photos as we are almost ready to depart on the Jade through the Greek Islands.
What a great trip report!
Thanks for posting it.
I am so excited to be a traveler...

irisarbor wrote:I just read through your wonderful trip reports and photos as we are almost ready to depart on the Jade through the Greek Islands.
What a great trip report!
Thanks for posting it.
I am so excited to be a traveler...

Thanks. It looks like I never uploaded the last day of photos! Doh...