Patras, Greece: Dinner on the Waterfront

My friends at the University of Patras took me to dinner at this wonderful restaurant on the waterfront. They told me it featured great seafood and they were certainly right.

The meal started with this wonderful presentation of bread and tomato salsa. I have seen this done a piece at a time but never at this scale.

Some tziki...

And Greek salad.

Spanakopita.

I really enjoyed this eggplant dish.

The octopus was superb, very tender, particularly for such a big one. The octopus was bathed in lemon juice to help tenderize it.

This plate has two different kinds of fried fish. Both were outstanding, with moist flesh and a thin coating that gave texture without being overpowering.

I don't remember what type of fish this was but it was superb: very meaty, very moist. Its freshness was obvious.

This combination of olive oil and lemons is quite different from the straight olive oil used on the Italian table. It works extremely well on fish.

This digestive is rich in local spices---very distinctive taste, quite nice in small quantities.

We topped the meal off with desserts. My favorite was the cream pastry on the right.

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