Kalo Taxidi - Andros - Chips Galore

An extract from my book "Kalo Taxidi"




Andros - Chips Galore

One night in Andros Chora I decided to eat in a restaurant that I had seen when walking back from another restaurant. On arrival, I gestured that I would like to see in the kitchen, but I was shown to a table and given a menu. As everything was cooked to order there was nothing to see in the kitchen.

Glancing through the menu, I noticed:
"FIFES WITH HAM + CHEESE. The Greek word was "Flogera". A flogera is a shepherd's pipe! Perhaps a sort of pasta?
ECOLOGICAL PIZZA. I wondered if this was a vegetarian pizza?

Eight middle aged French people (the lost walkers of the day I went to catch ferry to Mykonos) walked out of the restaurant as there was no fish. I felt sorry for the owners of the taverna when the group walked out. Their expectations must have been raised when the group walked in, and dashed when they walked out. I fancied smoked pork - but it was "off". The waiter looked so apologetic when he said that he had no smoked pork. Was it my imagination, or did he look relieved when solitary little me did not walk out because of the non-availability of a dish?

A delicious smell of cooking is coming from the cooking area. The delicious smell must be pizzas. I get so used to assuming that pizzas are pre-cooked that I avoided the pizza section of the menu. The pizzas served here must be fresh. There was also a wide range of pasta, and pasta sauces, on the menu. I ordered potatoes in the oven with cheese and rigani, and chicken breast. I hoped that the chicken did not come with chips. In a place I do not know I never know if chips will come automatically with a dish or not. I like fresh chips, made from fresh potatoes, but am not too keen on frozen chips. One nightmare when eating out in Greece is that a dish will be served with a pile of chips, and accompanied by a side portion of chips. A surfeit of chips. I had high hopes of the potatoes in the oven with cheese and rigani; it sounded like the dish we cook at home of par-boiled spuds finished off in the oven with cheese and rigani. My wine tour of Andros continued. The white wine was less dry than that I had drunk the night before, less sweet than the rosé at Stathmos.

The chairs here are comfortable, metal frame armchairs with padded seats and back. I could almost fall asleep. I have been here half an hour, but all I have is wine (it is not as if the kitchen is overstretched). I had better not drink all the wine before the food arrives. At least the food should be fresh (imagining the delicious potato and cheese dish). I have heard the scrape of what I assume is the "paddle" in the pizza oven - but no ping of the microwave! I hope the chicken does not come with chips.

My starter has arrived. My nightmare! A pizza size plate of chips topped with melted cheese and rigani and a lemon quarter. A chip pizza! I had envisaged sliced or quartered spuds, not chips! I should have seen that the Greek was "patates". I should have realised that "patates" is chips. Chips. A chip pizza. I had never even heard of a chip pizza before. I will keep an eagle eye open for it in the future. So that I can avoid it. Even more chips arrived with the chicken - the chicken is fresh grilled and looks good.

I wonder if Greeks think that tourists like chips. I will have chips coming out of my ears, even though I did not finish the chip pizza and the chips that came with my main course. At some tavernas, if I order chips separately, and the main dish I have ordered comes with chips, the waiter will tell me so and ask me if I really want two portions of chips. You may wonder why I order chips? To keep my veg. intake up, and often there is no other veg. on the menu. If the menu at the taverna in Andros had said, "chips cooked in oven with cheese and oregano," I would not have ordered it. Another note of things to investigate when I get home: the difference between marjoram and oregano. That night I had in total on the table a quadruple, or more, much more, portion of chips. The salt and pepper came in sachets - a Pizzeria Cafeteria. The chips, like the mule path to Aladinou, is a matter of me expecting to find what I want, not what I might realistically expect.

I have left the equivalent of three portions of chips. Pity. I envisaged boiled potato with cheese and rigani and lemon …mmm - must try the addition of lemon in the dish we make at home. The cheese melted nicely on the chips.

This half litre of wine is very big. In a glass jug. I wondered if I had been given a litre by mistake, but was only charged for half a litre. No, I had the same size glass jug elsewhere - the bulging jug is deceptive and seems to the eye to hold more than the straight-sided metallic carafe. There is no consistency between establishments (and sometimes in the same establishment on different nights) as to whether a particular dish comes with chips automatically. This is chips galore par excellence. Chips coming out of my ears. I wish the remnants of the dead chips would be taken away while I was lingering over the large half litre of wine. The chip pizza was served in an aluminium dish and plate that was obviously designed for a pizza. That is why I nicknamed it a chip pizza. It stayed on the table so long that I got on familiar terms with it. Chips now stone cold. I wonder what cold chips are like when they are microwaved. Perhaps even in England it is possible to buy cold cooked chips to microwave.

This taverna only serves fresh cooked food. I had a disaster with all my chips, but to be fair to the place it does seem to be very good of its type i.e. not a place that serves pre-cooked oven foods. Table cloth paper, with dolphins and other "sea" motifs. The make is "Endless" with a "Swan" insignia.


An extract from my book "Kalo Taxidi"