In general, most of our mornings in Greece were spent getting from Point A to Point B, whether by ferry or catamaran or metro or tram. With most of our ferries leaving some time between six and nine AM, breakfast wasn't really our priority. Besides, we were saving our appetites for some kind of huge lunch and dinner. But there's something about travelling, the giddy rush of it, that can make almost any meal memorable. Like that morning when we took the 6 AM ferry from Naxos to Santorini? I had stuffed the tickets into my back pocket, thrown on my backpack and walked jauntily to the port before the sun rose, only to realize that somewhere along the way the tickets had flown away and disappeared somewhere into the Grecian ether. Oops. Nothing to do but wait for the boat to arrive, hope that it wouldn't be full, and buy tickets on board. Luckily it was one of those huge, slow, cheap Greek ferries, so there was most definitely room for a non-exorbitant price, and I had remembered to pack the rest of the Papadopoulos "Petit Beurre" cookies coated in chocolate, which are incomprehensibly, but immensely, satisfying to me. So I got over it. Sometimes we'd think in advance and buy a few oranges, eating them on the top level of the ferry, always forgetting napkins to wipe our sticky fingers. The oranges were always good. If we were in Piraeus, we might buy koulouria - the ring-shaped sesame bread sold in stalls all over the city, and if we felt like something more substantial, we might find a crepe place.
But my absolute favourite breakfast item from the trip, which I have brought back to Montreal with me and have been eating most mornings, is Greek yogurt with honey and fruit. Greek yogurt is rich, creamy and silky, with almost double the milk fat you'll find in whole milk yogurt over here. It's traditionally made with sheep's milk, but is also made with cow's milk. You could buy it in stores - the Fage brand is the best you'll find for mass marketed kinds (and they sell it in North America, but I'm not sure where to get it in Montreal yet), but if we were lucky we could also find some local brands in clay pots from the bakery. It comes plain, and topped with a good drizzle of honey and a few spoonfuls of fruit, or even just the honey, is sublime. And I'm not normally a yogurt and fruit kind of girl.
I didn't have much time to look for good Greek yogurt in Montreal, but the morning after we returned we woke up super early (thank you, jetlag) and went to the Jean Talon market where I picked up a tub of Krinos brand sheep's milk yogurt from Qui Lait Cru. It isn't as thick as I'd like it to be, but it has that familiar tang and is wonderful with the blueberry honey I got from the market earlier. Next time I'm going to get some locally made sheep's milk yogurt which I spied on my way out of the market, and I'm curious about how it would taste with a glug of Quebec maple syrup.
Next time you do your yogurt shopping, try it out. It's an excellent foil for any of the fresh fruits which are starting to make their appearance this season (like strawberries!) or eat a glop of it with a rhubarb crisp now that rhubarb is cheap and plentiful.
But my absolute favourite breakfast item from the trip, which I have brought back to Montreal with me and have been eating most mornings, is Greek yogurt with honey and fruit. Greek yogurt is rich, creamy and silky, with almost double the milk fat you'll find in whole milk yogurt over here. It's traditionally made with sheep's milk, but is also made with cow's milk. You could buy it in stores - the Fage brand is the best you'll find for mass marketed kinds (and they sell it in North America, but I'm not sure where to get it in Montreal yet), but if we were lucky we could also find some local brands in clay pots from the bakery. It comes plain, and topped with a good drizzle of honey and a few spoonfuls of fruit, or even just the honey, is sublime. And I'm not normally a yogurt and fruit kind of girl.
I didn't have much time to look for good Greek yogurt in Montreal, but the morning after we returned we woke up super early (thank you, jetlag) and went to the Jean Talon market where I picked up a tub of Krinos brand sheep's milk yogurt from Qui Lait Cru. It isn't as thick as I'd like it to be, but it has that familiar tang and is wonderful with the blueberry honey I got from the market earlier. Next time I'm going to get some locally made sheep's milk yogurt which I spied on my way out of the market, and I'm curious about how it would taste with a glug of Quebec maple syrup.
Next time you do your yogurt shopping, try it out. It's an excellent foil for any of the fresh fruits which are starting to make their appearance this season (like strawberries!) or eat a glop of it with a rhubarb crisp now that rhubarb is cheap and plentiful.
