Dodecanese cuisine

Α plethora of fresh fish, seafood, meat and locally produced vegetables. Dodecanese cuisine is as rich and diverse as its islands. Spoon sweet tomato from Kos, gaelopites from Symi, cheese pies and «pougkia» from Patmos, «melekounia» and «xerotigana» from Rhodes, chickpeas in meatballs and «soumada» from Nysiros, myzithra cheese with goat milk from Leipsoi, Astypalaia’s rusks, crispbread with barley from Kalymnos, bread of all kinds and «makarounes» from Karpathos, cheese from Kasos and many more traditional products. Olive oil, dairy products, honey and wine are produced in almost every island, resulting in the creation of a mosaic of hundreds standard recipes and their variants.

In Patmos, due to the limited availability in meat, the most developed recipe in different versions is goat or lamb (traditionally roasted in a wooden oven or flavored with lemon, served thick pasta or a homemade sauce, with grated local cheese etc.) Rice, raisins and pine nuts are usually used as stuffing. More generally, wild greens called «stiforadika» (stamnagathi) and crithmum (sea fennel) stand out. The locals also use zucchini blossoms to make stuffed «tassels» (zucchini blossoms stuffed with rice or feta cheese). Another well-known recipe of the island is the stewed octopus.

Of course, the most famous local delicacy is the Patmian cheese pie, which you may find sweeten (with added cinnamon or sugar). Equally known are the traditional desserts of Patmos, the so-called «pougkia» (fried or baked dough with walnuts and honey), the characteristic marzipan (a variant of the traditional Dodecanese marzipans with flowering water), as well as the bread «schinopsomo» and the so called «schinopites» pies. Recently, the first major effort for local wine from «Patoinos» estate - Domaine de l 'Apocalypse began to bear fruit, providing of course a limited quantity. Finally, after the restoration of the three windmills of Patmos in Chora in 2012, a limited amount of flour is also produced.