One silly post

I decided to start the new Year with a very silly post: my top 10 of Greek junk food. Tiny little packets of shiny foil and colourful lettering stucked orderly on supermarket shelves, it can be very tempting. All the little sinful bites that you will never acknowledge for their nutritional value yet they find their way in your shopping basket. In case you are following the blog for the incredibly healthy Greek dishes, apologies, this one time I will disappoint you. It’s all very unhealthy but there are some fun videos of old commercials too.

Every time I visited Athens, I would go on a supermarket rampage, just to lighten the shelves of all things unhealthy and munch on them during my short stay back home. Most of these treats I could not find in London, or at least not easily. There was no chance of getting supplies either – not only would they get crushed in the suitcase, they would have vanished the same time I set my foot on UK soil.

The habit though was not new, it’s a deep rooted conspiracy between me and grand-pa. Every Friday afternoon, I would wait on the balcony to spot him cycling down the road. There was a little blue bag dangling from the side of his handlebar. It normally held some chocolates and other crunchy treats. That’s what I call proper quality time on a Friday afternoon. Here is my top 10 of little sinful treats:

1. Drakulinia – little cheese and tomato snacks

2. Foudounia – peanuts and hazelnut snacks – In case you don’t understand a word of the commercial it’s ok – it doesn’t even make sense in Greek

3. Pacotinia – cheese flavoured snacks. There will always be a dilemma of which to have first – Drakoulinia or pacotinia? Both equally addictive. 

4. Crips, with a surname! Tsakiris chips, these come in all sorts of flavours of course. My favourite is of course oregano, a Greek classic!

Moving on to chocolates

5. Ion, there is milk chocolate, dark chocolate and all combinations with nuts and fruit filling one can imagine. I could never resist on the almond one – ion amygdalou.

6. Lacta

This is a chocolate to fall in love with. Lacta chocolate commercials always featured a couple, breaking up, getting back together, falling in love. Just imagine lots of hearts flying all around. A very old product too, this little video is by the S. Korkolis, the artist who wrote and was the first to feature on the commercial as we know it.

7. Derby – seriously retro commercial and an amasing chocolate bar, with sticky coconut filling and an extra crunch. It was a huge hit in the office.

8. Chocofreta, chocolate and waffer, the combination is hard to resist.

9. Strawberry filling biscuits – Gemista Papadopoulou

It’s the most cherished childhood memory I have, I prefer the  non chocolate version. Absolute favourite is strawberry, then comes lemon.

10. Caprice, last but not least, I could occasionally find these darlings in Waitrose. Chocolate twists with crunchy waffer. They are amasing to decorate cakes too

So Happy New Year everyone! I wish 2016 is filled with wonderful treats, healthy and unhealthy ones. As the saying goes, all good things in moderation

 

from Athens with love

 

 

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