In Poland, Toruń gingerbread and stretchy krówki, in Greece baklava and revani – traditional
Polish and Greek sweets. So what to look for when we want a little sweetness on a Greek
trip? As a rule, the Greeks eat very healthy – in their meals we can find variety of fresh fruit
and vegetables. A healthy diet plays an extremely important role in our body’s wellness, but
how can you just pass a store shelf filled to the brim with cookies, halva and crunchy
pastries? It can be quite a challenge, especially for gourmets of foreign delicacies. Due to
the fact that we ourselves belong to them, we will take you on a brief journey through
traditional Greek sweets.
When talking about Greek sweets, it is impossible not to mention halva, perhaps the most
recognizable Greek delicacy. Nevertheless, it is not unique to the country of flowering olives.
Halva seems to have been spread in today’s Greece by the Turks. No wonder then that
Greek halva is very similar to the Turkish halva. Both types are made of sesame seeds. In
addition, recently it has become very popular to add, for example, dried fruit to halva. I must
admit that the range of flavors is much wider than in Poland. Moreover, in Poland halva with
additives is not only expensive but also less common. Greek halva with toppings is definitely
worth buying.
Another sweet Greek dish is baklava, which probably also comes from Turkey. Baklava,
however, has become so at home in Greece that we can definitely consider it a Greek cake.
Baklava is an unusual dish. It is prepared from layers of thin phyllo dough (often confused
with puff pastry), with a mixture of chopped nuts or almonds (often with cinnamon and
cloves), baked, soaked in sweet syrup and sprinkled with crushed pistachios. Sounds
wonderful, doesn’t it?
Another dessert, relatively easy to prepare by us, non-Greeks, is loukoumi, unfortunately not
often seen in Poland. In Greece, this delicacy is widespread like halva, and we can buy it
literally anywhere – from airports to monasteries. It should be added that loukoumi is quite a
controversial sweetness, namely part of Greek society hates it dearly, others love it.
Traditional loukoumi is a delicacy prepared on the basis of water, wheat or potato starch,
natural dyes (eg fruit marmalade) and a large amount of sugar, which makes this jelly
“appealing” to everyone. The sliced dessert is then coated in powdered sugar.
