Paleochora Morning, Noon and Afternoon

For me “afternoon” begins, as the word suggests, a little after midday. In Florence, they start saying “Buona Sera” in the afternoon. In Paleochora, the most puzzling part of the day is the “afternoon”.

Siesta time in Paleochora is normally between two and five in “our afternoon”, if you know what I mean(!!) Talking to locals leads me to believe that their “afternoon” begins some time after five o’clock.

The reason I had to work all this out is that someone told me, “He is coming this afternoon” and the time was six o’clock in “our evening”!! A shop that would be open “in the evening” sometimes would not open until past eight o’clock.. We used to say, “In Greek, there’s a word for everything” but Cretans sure don’t carry this saying into their use of English.

You can tell when the Paleochoran “afternoon” has begun. All the main roads and the sea front area are suddenly closed and are filled with chairs and tables. Any cars have to pick their way carefully through a myriad of backstreets. You begin to hear Greek music from most of then, which I rather like, and sometimes “live” Cretan singing. The restaurant I go to once a week has Miles Davies most of the time and serves huge portions .

On the menu of most restaurants is a selection of starters and mains. They do offer desserts but, if you can manage that after a typical main, you must have starved for a couple of days.

Here was my first mistake. My first order included a typical starter plate of olives, feta, grilled aubergines and roasted red peppers (I just love those last two!) The problem was that I also ordered “Slow-cooked Lamb Kleftiko, stuffed with roasted red peppers, mint and yoghurt (they’re very good at yoghurt here!!) served with roasted herb potatoes and a bowl of Tzatziki” When the main dish was brought to me, my jaw dropped, much to the amusement of the chef who had brought it himself, probably because it was too heavy to be carried by the waitress. It looked like half a sheep!!!! The meat, having been cooked all day, just melted in the mouth but I still wished I had gone without my starter.

The next time I went in there, I decided that I would go without a starter but just have the mousaka, thinking that this would be a smaller meal. Wrong again! An enormous plate arrived full to the brim with the largest piece of baked lamb mousaka I have ever seen plus a large pile of salad.

After all that lamb, I decided to go healthy. So, exploiting the English ingenuity of the chef, I ordered the vegetable quiche. But they also had a beetroot, feta and garlic salad with a balsamic dressing on the menu. “It’s alright! We’ll make you a small one” and in front of me appeared the largest “small one” I have ever seen. I think I am my own worst enemy because I love to pour all the olive oil and some vinegar (in this case almost all!) on to the salad then mop it all up with the loaf of bread they provide. So I was NOT in good shape for the vegetable quiche which came loaded with even more goodies all around it. Seeing me struggling with the enormity of it all, the chef said, “It’s all very healthy, you know!” and went to put on more Miles Davies.