The book to learn how to cook all the recipes from Greek tavernas
Opa! (written ἄπα) is a Greek expression that evokes joy, enthusiasm, admiration, or surprise.
The result is Opa! Authentic Greek Tavern Recipes, published by DK, a treasure trove for discovering the wisdom hidden within these traditional bars and the story behind each of their dishes. It's more than just a cookbook: a brilliant repository of conversations, interviews, local spots, ideas, tricks, and living culinary memories. It begins with appetizers—mezze—continues with fresh fish and seafood, moves on to meats, oven-baked dishes, and fabulous vegetables, culminates with desserts, and finally, suggests a host of iconic drinks.
Recipes, tips, and photos are interspersed with "journeys" to different tavernas. Scrambled eggs with artichokes and tomatoes on a remote island with 20 inhabitants; toast with grilled sardines in a bustling fish taverna in the port of Athens; the best meatballs in Thessaloniki or nostalgic cabbage rolls are some of the dishes served in these charming tavernas.
How to set up your own Greek pantry
As the Moursellas sisters explain, to replicate the delights of Greek tavernas, you need a series of ingredients: start with a good extra virgin olive oil —Greece is the country in the world with the highest per capita consumption, preceded by the fame of its thousand-year-old olive trees—, red wine vinegar, pitta bread, honey and legumes.
Lemons, green herbs like parsley, oregano and dill, and fascinating Greek cheeses are also essential, from the elastic halloumi to the semi-cured graviera, the galotyri—with a texture similar to yogurt—, the soft and pale kaseri, the salty kefalotiri, the creamy soft-paste manouri, or the acidic mizithra, the equivalent of Greek ricotta.
From the maroulosalata to the hortopita, from the paputsakia to the loukaniko
To savor slowly on a golden summer afternoon and improvise an al fresco dinner with loved ones, at Opa! you'll find tranquility, tradition, fresh, seasonal ingredients, and above all, a passion for things done well. You can sip a pomegranate and mint spritz or a sweet and spicy psimeni raki, prepare an authentic Greek milk cake, indulge in creamy semi-candied figs with honey, or discover the magic of potato salads with herbs.
Meat lovers will salivate over the chops with roasted red pepper butter, the biftekia—Greek's version of hamburgers—with authentic tzatziki sauce, or the roast chicken with pickled lemon. For seafood lovers, the book offers delicacies such as prawn youvetsi—cooked in a traditional clay pot—, octopus in red wine with short pasta—a Lenten specialty—or fried whitebait with ouzo mayonnaise.
And vegetable lovers are in for a treat, as Greek cuisine is intrinsically linked to the garden, with delights like hortopita—or vegetable pie—, peppers stuffed with Greek cheeses and sun-dried tomatoes, giant plaki—Greek beans baked with tomatoes and spices—or beautiful zucchini blossoms stuffed with rice. If you get your hands on it, put aside your rush and prepare your taverna dishes with love and meraki, a Greek word that means, precisely, doing something with creativity, soul, and passion.
