The snack of choice with ouzo is
Sardeles Pastes. These are the
sardines that have been caught that
morning, salted on the boat and served
that night. To eat them the skin is
removed and they are seasoned with
oil, lemon or whatever your host
prefers to season them with (though
some eat them totally unseasoned.)
Sardeles Pastes are not a treat for
everyone, but I am certainly a convert
to them, so much so that I have
written a book about it called IN
SEARCH OF SARDELES PASTES which is
part of my major work
Spearfishing in
Skatahori
. The best sardines come from the
large bay of
Kaloni
where the main sardine fleet is based
in Skala. But some argue that the
sardines from the
Gulf of Yera
are smaller and better. It just
depends upon who you ask, like most
things in Greece. As I have discovered, sardeles
pastes are seasonal. In July and
August the sardines are generally
the perfect size. If they are too
big it may take two days before
they are ready to be eaten.
Visitors who come in September
and October may have a hard
time finding them at all. Even in
July and August they won't be
served in every cafeneon though
most of the restaurants in Kaloni,
Eressos and Molyvos will have
them.
Occasionally a truck will come by
with fresh sardines and the fish
merchant will make the sardeles
pastes right there before your
eyes. First he lays down a layer
of course sea salt and then a
layer of sardines packed together
on their sides. He alternates
sardines with salt. The top layer
is salt. Sometimes his hands work
so fast it is like watching a
magician. Some of the restaurants
buy their pastes from the trucks
but many make their own and each
claims to have the best pastes in
town. The technique is generally
the same though there are
variations that some pastones
claim make theirs better, more
firm, more tender or tastier. For
example the pastes at the
restaurant Arion in Skala Eressos
are completely different from the
pastes served in the cafeneon down
the beach. The cook told me his
technique is to lay the fish with
their bellies up.
While in the more populated towns
like Mytilini, Kaloni, Eressos and
Molyvos sardeles pastes are a
regular feature on the summer
menu, in the small village
cafeneons they are considered a
treat and not served every
day. A rumor that Michalis
is serving sardeles pastes at his
cafeneon across the street is
enough to make us jump up from our
table at Tryphon's leaving half
filled glasses of ouzo and half
eaten plates of delicious food
behind.
Eating sardeles pastes is easily
mastered especially when the cafe
owner has done most of the work
for you before hand. But on
occasion you might find yourself
staring at a plate of salt covered
whole fish with no idea of what to
do. This can happen in places like
Agiassos where the sardines are
sold by street vendors who will
just hand you a quarter of a kilo
of uncleaned sardeles wrapped in
paper, assuming you know what to
do with them. There is no
cause for panic because the
technique is simple and easily
mastered.
Another method is to lay the fish
down and using a knife or the edge
of your fork, starting at the base
of the tail scrape along the spine
and separate it from the meat.
Then turn the fish over and so the
other side. You will need to be
holding down the tail with your
thumb or the whole fish may end up
in your neighbors plate or ear.
This can also be done by hand but
you will need extra
napkins.
My method, which I am quite proud
of, is actually a combination of
the Tom and Jerry and the fork
method where you substitute the
tines of the fork for your teeth.
In other words run the fish
through the tines of the fork
(starting at the tail as always).
The end result will be two filets
of sardeles on one side and the
fish skeleton on the other.
But the way the pros do it is to
grasp the sardine by the tail and
tear it exactly in half. The bone
will seperate from one side,
leaving you a little mini-filet.
Then you have to get the bone out
of the other side which you can do
by pulling it out or going to the
fork method.
Sardeles Pastes can also be eaten
as a meal. My friend Peter
Poulides is a non-ouzo drinking
sardeles pastes lover who became
addicted to them at first bite.
But ouzo and sardeles pastes
certainly compliment each other
and in my opinion there is no
better meze when they are in
season.
Because of the high oil content of
sardines, they are perhaps the
best fish to eat salted and raw,
whether in a can or fresh. There
are others including anchovies
or
anchooyes
,
well known and popular in Lesvos
and the rest of the world.
Generally when you order them in a
restaurant or cafeneon they will
be canned. Also Mackerel,
called
kolios
is served, sometimes out of cans
and sometimes done on the
premises. The canned stuff makes a
great gift and is available not
only in food markets but in gift
and tourist shops too.
Lakerda
is a variety of tuna that is
available in some restaurants and
this is generally made in the
restaurant or at home. Chances are
good that no matter where you go,
even the most remote taverna will
have one kind of pastes or
another.
As for buying sardeles pastes to
keep in your room or carry around
with you to give as gifts to your
friends or favorite cafeneon
owner, you can sometimes find them
in the market in Mytilini town at
a fish store around the corner
from the Mattis Ouzo shop. In
Kaloni there are several fishermen
who sell it from their homes.
Usually the procedure is to meet
with the fisherman and order some
for the next day, or whenever you
can make it back to the village. I
buy mine from a fisherman named
Panayotis and his hard bargaining
mother. They have a house on the
main beach road and you can find
him through Fiona at Tsalis rent a
car on the beach road. You can
also ask the master boat builder
Panayotis Psaradelis who along
with building and maintaining the
sardine fleet at Kaloni, sells
sardeles pastes from his workshop
next to the Medusa restaurant. The
Medusa Restaurant will sell them
to you if they have enough.
To spend a whole page or two
writing about sardines and not
mention other dishes besides
pastes would make this guide
incomplete and leave the reader
unaware of what I think is the
best fish dish and culinary
delight on the face of the planet.
Yes, better then the poison dart
fish of Japan, better then Maine
lobster and perhaps even better
then barbounia (red mullet). I am
talking about fresh grilled
sardines, seasoned with oil, lemon
and oregano. When sardines are in
season they are available almost
anywhere. For the best restaurants
serving them grilled, fried (also
delicious) or sardeles pastes, go
to my
restaurant
guide
.
...We turn around and start up the hill ready to begin the night of
ouzo and entertainment. We walk
past the tourist restaurants that
advertise their fare in big
English letters, to the settlement
of cafeneons around the famous
church. We find the least crowded
and take a seat on the street. I
order some fried sardines and some
ouzo and we begin the night's
festivities. It is as traditional
a place as you could imagine. No
menu. Just Ouzo, beer, restsina
and whatever the proprietor
happens to be making to eat that
evening.
While we are going through our
first bottle of ouzo I see a
retarded fellow drop a pile of
fish on the next table. I follow
him down the hill to see what the
deal is. He goes into a store
where a man is selling sardines
out of a pail. They were caught
this morning in the bay of Kaloni
and then left in salt for several
hours. I buy a handful for two
hundred drachs and bring them back
to Andrea to her un-delight. These
are the famous sardeles
pastes.
I eat the first one, skin bones
and all and realize I either have
a lot to learn about sardeles
pastes, or that I better find some
hungry cats. I don't panic though.
I walk over to the next table to
see what the pros are doing with
theirs since they obviously know a
little more then I do. A man leaps
up from another table and comes to
our rescue, not only showing me
how to clean them, by removing the
skin and the heads, but cleaning
my entire bag full. I thank him
and try the first one. Delicious.
Better than sushi and perfect with
ouzo. Before I know it they are
all gone and I'm drunk on ouzo and
raw fish. I stumble back to the
store where I had gotten them but
the retarded guy and his boss have
disappeared into the night. When I
return to Andrea we are given a
plate of stewed crab by the old
men at the next table. I return
the favor, buying them a bottle of
ouzo. By the time we leave we were
all good friends.
-from I MARRIED A LESBIAN by Matt
Barrett
...The second time through
town the Medusa Taverna looks
like it has possibilities. Pam
says that if we don't eat now
we could spend the rest of the
afternoon looking for a decent
restaurant. She volunteers to
go in and check out the menu
and comes back all
smiles.
"It looks really good and they
even have
sardines!"
We can't get out of the car
fast enough.
In the refrigerated glass case
we see two trays overflowing
with fresh sardines' plus a
variety of other fish. We are
so excited we can hardly wait
to order. Then as I am gazing
into the kitchen I see on the
table a container of what
looks like sardeles pastes. I
ask the young
owner.
"Of course we have sardeles
pastes", he assures
me.
I order a plate full and a
bottle of ouzo. We also order
two plates of fried sardines,
a stuffed zucchini flower and
beets with garlic sauce. They
bring the ouzo first, a small
bottle of Mini, with a bowl of
ice, some bread and four
glasses of cold water. I pour
the ouzo but control myself
waiting for the sardeles
pastes. I am rewarded for my
patience when they arrive at
our table already peeled. I am
surprised that they are not in
oil or seasoned but I assume
that perhaps this is the
custom in Kaloni. No
embellishments. Just plain raw
sardines.
This is the moment I have been
waiting for and I sip my first
ouzo in preparation. I take a
small sardine by the tail, but
stop short. I have forgotten.
Do I eat the whole fish or do
I pull it between half closed
teeth, leaving the meat in my
mouth and pulling out the tiny
fish skeleton. I can feel the
pressure mounting as everyone
awaits my move. Even the
foreign couple at the next
table have taken an interest.
I can feel my heart beating
and the blood rushing in my
ears.
"This is it", I tell myself
and eat the whole fish, bones
and all.
It's sad how earthly pleasures
can never live up to the
desires that drive you towards
them. I suppose that is the
motivation for a life of the
spirit, the belief that God or
self knowledge is the only
thing that will ultimately
satisfy. All other goals and
desires will end in
disappointment. This is how I
feel as I eat the first
sardine and look woefully at
the whole plateful before me.
If they don't taste any better
then this it will indeed be a
long journey. The setting is
perfect: the large bay,
surrounded by green mountains,
with the small fishing boats
which had brought in these
very fish this morning,
bobbing gently in the small
harbor before us. What had
gone wrong?
I eat another, but still no
beating of angels wings or
trumpets from heaven. Andrea
smiles with enjoyment but I
can tell it's not a smile from
the depths of her soul, but
one with a touch of sadness. A
smile that says she is happy
because I am happy but she's
not that happy because these
are not that great. I smile
back weakly, not wishing to
shatter her fragile
happiness.
Several cats have begun
prowling the periphery of our
table, like demons come to
taunt us for our fruitless
love of the flesh. I sacrifice
one of the precious fish and
give it to Amarandi to feed to
one of the cats, but it turns
up it's nose and looks at us
with undisguised amusement. By
now the other food has arrived
and is truly delicious. I use
it as a reward every time I
have eaten a sardine, and it
seems to work. In a few
minutes my plate is littered
with tiny sardine
tails.
Finally there is one left. I
take a small sip of ouzo,
leaving one mouthful left in
the glass. Picking up the
final sardeles pastes I put it
to my lips, and slowly eat it
down to the tail. Then I wash
it down with the last of my
ouzo. It's delicious! That
last morsel was everything I
had hoped it would be, like
the unexplainable sweetness in
that last bite of an ice-cream
sundae. Either the aura of
sardeles pastes was completely
psychological or I had been
eating them incorrectly. I try
to review the previous bites
to see what I had done wrong.
It must have something to do
with the little ouzo ceremony
I did for that last sardine, I
am convinced. Once again I am
caught in it's spell and I go
into the restaurant to bargain
with the woman in the kitchen.
I must have more. How much
will she sell me? She tells me
to come back in an
hour.
I spend the time on the end of
the dock looking out across
the bay of Kaloni. "How many
sardines are out there?" I
wonder. the sea is
surprisingly rough for such a
closed area. I turn towards
the inner harbor and look at
the fishing boats, all ten to
fifteen feet long and brightly
colored, their nets piled on
the decks. How exciting it
must be when they come into
port each morning full of
sardines. I imagine their
sailors calling out their
prices to the people on the
shore.
Then my eyes fall upon a very
strange boat. In design it is
like all the others,
traditional Greek caique,
except instead of the simple
colorful painted hull, this
boat is painted like an
African disco. On one side of
the bow is a strange mask
where it's name should be. On
the small cabin is written
'Peace', and the designs are
wild and zigzagged. It is the
only non-conforming boat in
the entire Kaloni sardine
fleet and I wonder about it's
captain. Is he a black African
who has made his home here and
been accepted by the locals?
Unlikely. More likely he is a
free spirited young man,
probably considered crazy by
the other fishermen, with a
taste for reggae or African
pop. But it's as strange a
sight here as John Lennon's
psychedelic Rolls Royce must
have been to London in the
sixties. It takes all types to
be sardine fishermen I
suppose.
When I return to the
restaurant the woman gives me
a container of pastes. She
charges me a thousand
drachma.
"Do you know why our sardeles
are so good?" she asks me.
"Because they are full of
phosphorous. The Doctors of
the island prescribe them for
children who have trouble
seeing at night."
This sounds reasonable. More
so then the olive oil washing
into the bay story. I thank
her and put my precious cargo
in the car.
When we get back to Xidera I
can hardly wait to bring the
sardeles pastes to the two
cafeneons where we have been
spending all of our time. I
bring the container into
Thanasis and put half of them
on a plate, then give the rest
to Avglaia. They both begin
peeling them and soon every
table has a plate in on it.
Thanasis has taken each fish
by the tail and torn it down
the middle, then covered them
in oil. Avglaia has covered
hers in oil too but has not
torn them and of the two
methods of serving them we
find hers to be the most
delicious. We discover two
very important things about
sardeles pastes. The first is
that they are much better
seasoned with oil, salt and
pepper and whatever else
appeals to your taste. The
other is that they are much
better if you don't eat the
bones. As we leave, the old
men in both cafeneons toast
me. "Bravo Matheos.
Congratulations. You are truly
a hero. These are very good
sardeles pastes."
Cafeneon in Xidera
Goodbye Matheos. Come back
soon
and
stop telling the tourists
about sardelles pastes!
Help Support Matt's Lesvos.com
Do you enjoy using my site? Have you found it entertaining as well as useful? If so please show your appreciation by booking hotels through the travel agencies and the links found on my Lesvos Hotels page. The small comission I make on the bookings enable me to keep working and in most cases you won't find them any cheaper by searching elsewhere. You can find hotels, apartments,
rooms and even houses through Booking.com's Lesvos Pages which also contributes to my website when you book.
The snack of choice with ouzo is
Sardeles Pastes. These are the
sardines that have been caught that
morning, salted on the boat and served
that night. To eat them the skin is
removed and they are seasoned with
oil, lemon or whatever your host
prefers to season them with (though
some eat them totally unseasoned.)
Sardeles Pastes are not a treat for
everyone, but I am certainly a convert
to them, so much so that I have
written a book about it called IN
SEARCH OF SARDELES PASTES which is
part of my major work
Occasionally a truck will come by
with fresh sardines and the fish
merchant will make the sardeles
pastes right there before your
eyes. First he lays down a layer
of course sea salt and then a
layer of sardines packed together
on their sides. He alternates
sardines with salt. The top layer
is salt. Sometimes his hands work
so fast it is like watching a
magician. Some of the restaurants
buy their pastes from the trucks
but many make their own and each
claims to have the best pastes in
town. The technique is generally
the same though there are
variations that some pastones
claim make theirs better, more
firm, more tender or tastier. For
example the pastes at the
restaurant Arion in Skala Eressos
are completely different from the
pastes served in the cafeneon down
the beach. The cook told me his
technique is to lay the fish with
their bellies up.
...We turn around and start up the hill ready to begin the night of
ouzo and entertainment. We walk
past the tourist restaurants that
advertise their fare in big
English letters, to the settlement
of cafeneons around the famous
church. We find the least crowded
and take a seat on the street. I
order some fried sardines and some
ouzo and we begin the night's
festivities. It is as traditional
a place as you could imagine. No
menu. Just Ouzo, beer, restsina
and whatever the proprietor
happens to be making to eat that
evening.
