Gefyraki: A Family Tradition of Taste in Naxos

“What goes down should come up,” I assumed as I dashed by Danakos’ slender alleys with the power of a fifteen-year-old. The village, considered considered one of Naxos’ oldest, is constructed amphitheatrically in a ravine that flows from between two mountain slopes on Mount Zas. Lots of its residents proceed to work in livestock farming and agriculture, and they’re well-known for his or her rhyming expertise.

A small household taverna, owned and operated by Maria Amorgianou, Nikos Tsafos, and their youngsters Dimitris and Eleni, has been working for the previous 27 years on the final step of the village earlier than reaching the verdant ravine. They named it “To Gefyraki” (The Little Bridge) as a result of the small constructing, Nikos’ grandfather’s outdated home that was transformed right into a taverna, is perched proper on prime of the little bridge that connects the ravine to the smaller streams that movement by the village.

The household runs a small farm with one pig, 300 goats and sheep, and vegetable gardens that offer recent elements for the taverna. Creamy mizithra and xynomizithra cheeses, in addition to comfortable anthotiro and manouri cheese, are created from the animals’ milk. Yearly, they put aside a leg of pork to make conventional Naxos-style cured ham for the restaurant. They’ll solely buy elements in the event that they run out through the peak vacationer season in August, and solely from native producers they know and belief.

The charcoal grill is within the yard, the place the world’s luckiest griller will get to grill prime cuts in a magical setting surrounded by cool, dense vegetation and the babbling waters of the stream. They serve scrumptious conventional taverna fare on the few tables shaded by airplane bushes and one maple. They serve scrumptious conventional taverna fare on the few tables, beneath the shade of a single maple tree and some airplane bushes.

First, they introduced us native wine; exquisitely recent mizithra cheese; a salad with ripe tomatoes and feather-light xynomyzithra; a manouri saganaki that may have you ever rubbing your eyes, then your arms, and eventually your stomach; tender child goat in pink sauce with pasta and grated arseniko cheese; and an out-of-this-world dish of child goat with lemon sauce served with fries soaked in its wealthy juices. “We used to get lots of water right here, however there hasn’t been any rain for the previous two years,” Nikos defined as Maria ready the ultimate delicacy, her well-known egg potatoes with yolks as golden because the solar. On the lengthy, gradual climb again up, I handed the time pondering that if in addition they served wine from the Cyclades, I might nonetheless be in Danakos.

P.S. 1: I later found that there’s one other highway that permits you to attain the other financial institution of the stream by automotive, avoiding all of the climbing. Nevertheless, for those who go by that route, you’ll miss the chance to walk by the picturesque village.

P.S. 2: In case you go to, you need to positively cease by the Church of Zoodochos Pigi in entrance of the stream, in addition to the Monastery of Fotodotis, which celebrates with a competition on August sixth.

This text was beforehand printed in Greek at gastronomos.gr.