Last Day on Elafonissos – Greek MasterChef and Hospitality!
Elafonissos really is about the beaches. The beaches and the friendly community that welcome you into their homes and taverna’s.
Close to Kalomoira Apartments are a couple of really nice beaches that can be overshadowed by Simos and Lefki Beaches but they deserve the status of an excellent, white sand beach up there with the best. Kontogoni Beach is just North West of the port village and leads up to a small cape. Beyond this first cape is the bay of Kalogeras which just melds into one with Kontogoni Beach – both offering views over to the snow capped Teygettus mountain range and both the place to be to watch a beautiful sunset.
Along the waters edge, rock formations spew into the sea – not great for walking on but certainly interesting to look at.
After watching the sunset we go in search of a taverna for our evening meal. Instead of heading for the popular port taverna’s we weave our way into the core of the village where all sort of little Kafenion’s and Souvlaki shops materialise – they keep under cover during the day.
As we walk past a little square, a man wishes us a “Kalispera” and asks us if we are looking for somewhere to eat. We look around and can’t see anywhere obvious that is open. Then I remember that I had seen this man earlier in the day painting tables and chairs in the square – but the paint is still wet so where would we eat?
He tells us that we will eat in his kitchen and promises that it is the best food we will have on the island. Now that is some challenge! He leads us down some steps past a barbecue to a small kitchen with a few vinyl cloth clad tables set out. The man is Giorgio and his wife is Vivien.
We are given a menu but told there may not be everything on the menu but they will do their best.
The taverna is called Sta Kala Kathoumena and Vivien tells us in a combination of miming and her limited English it means the “Good Sit Down”. When I put it into Google Translate later it brings it up as “Out of the Blue.” Either way I like it! We order a small bottle of ouzo to start.
Georgio brings us some toasted bread drizzled in olive oil. He tells us that he has 100 trees and Vivien has 100 trees from which they make their own olive oil.
We order a Greek salad and Skordalia (little did we know that Vivien makes this from scratch for us), the village sausage and souvlaki which Georgio cooks on the barbecue. It is delicious. At the end of the meal Vivien brings us some apples and pears drizzled in cinnamon and honey accompanied by two slices of baklava.
Vivien and Georgio join us at the table and we have a great conversation about when Georgio used to work in London many years ago. He has had a varied career but tells us he is mainly a fisherman like many of the men on the island. We spend another hour or so watching the final of Greek Masterchef with interspersed by great conversation. Before we leave Vivien tells us to wait just 15 more minutes as she has some freshly baked spanakopita in the oven that she would like to give us to take with us. What a lovely place this is and just amazing Greek hospitality! This is the perfect end to our stay here on this lovely little island of Elafonissos.
