15 Greek STREET FOODS in Athens, Greece!! LOUKOUMADES, SOUVLAKI, GYRO + BBQ LAMB CHOPS!!

Welcome to Chopstick Travel, I'm Luke Martin and today I have another compilation video for you, this time from beautiful Athens, Greece, a European city you are not going to want to miss for its incredible food and culture. This is the top 15 Greek street foods you must try on your next trip to Athens. Today's video is sponsored by BetterHelp and a little bit more on that later. Now let's get into the video. Our first stop for breakfast today is for the famous Greek pastry known as Bougatsa. The way that he makes it is he starts with a phyllo dough that he thins out literally so thin and massive into the size of almost a bed sheet and then you can get it with a couple different fillings. We're going to get cream and cheese and this place is super cool, you can watch him making it right here. So let's order up a couple different kinds of Bougatsa. I'm going to try the cream filled Bougatsa with the cinnamon and the sugar on top. That cream is just so soft and smooth on the inside. I love it with the cinnamon. Oh, hot. That is insane. It's super nutty from that pistachio and then it's really, really crispy on the outside. They're huge and they're sort of piping hot and Nutella on the inside is super hot. These things are monsters and this is just a crazy concoction here in Athens. Look at that, green gold on top. Oh, wow. So we're in the back kitchen. They're cooking all the lamb chops on charcoal right over here on the grill and he is chopping the raw lamb chops on this huge like stump. He's got this big kind of machete and yeah, you can buy it per weight, so up to a kg, €30 per kg. These are the beautiful lamb chops grilled. You can smell that charcoal, it smells so good. I'm just going to try them as is now, cut out some of this beautiful lamb chop and look at that. It just comes right off that bone there and it just looks really, really juicy and I'll get this. Oh, I'll just bite it like this. Oh, man. Just a little bit of salt and I think a little bit of oregano too. Definitely not over seasoned, super juicy, super tender and really smoky. Hey guys, I just wanted to take a minute to address something that's been in the comments a lot lately and that is Sabrina and I breaking up. As some of you may or may not know, we broke up last year and it was a very difficult time for us both and a huge change to our lives and a huge change to this channel. So I just wanted to let you know if you're struggling with something similar to this, you're not alone and it may be difficult to find help and it's just hard to figure out where to start. BetterHelp is a customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist so you don't have to go on camera if you don't want to. There's a broad range of expertise in BetterHelp's over 20,000 therapists network that gives you access to help that may not be available in your area. It's really easy and intuitive to use. You just fill out a questionnaire that helps assess your specific needs and helps match you with a therapist in under 48 hours. Once you're matched with your therapist, you can schedule secure video and phone sessions plus you can exchange an unlimited amount of messages and everything that you share is completely confidential. Of course, you can always request a new therapist at no additional charge anytime. So many people use BetterHelp that they are currently recruiting additional therapists in all 50 states. So join the 2 million plus people who have taken charge of their mental health and joined BetterHelp and get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com slash chopstick travel. Now let's get back to the video. We have the famous Greek gyro. This thing is a beast. It is packed full of all different things. So we've got chicken. We ordered chicken. It's sliced chicken off the spit and we've got the tzatziki sauce on the bottom, some onions, some parsley, some tomatoes, and then some French fries in there too. And it's all wrapped up beautifully in this pita bread. I got to go in for a bite of some of that meat and some of that tzatziki. Yeah, it's not a pretty thing to eat, but it is good. This is a super hearty street food and this place that we got it from may not be the best in all of Athens. I would guess it's not. It does taste quite salty. I don't know if it's the tzatziki or the meat itself, but it is seriously juicy meat and you get some freshness from those cucumbers and that tzatziki. Yeah, this is messy, but so damn good. Our first stop on our Greek food tour of Athens is at an old favorite of ours. This is called Stani and it's been open since 1931. They specialize in dairy products and particularly their Greek yogurt. So they use a mixture of goat's milk, sheep's milk, sometimes just goat's milk, sometimes just sheep's milk to make the yogurt. And then he's just got this bucket full of honey that he completely drizzles on top with a little bit of walnuts. We have a couple different things, but mainly it's all about this yogurt here. You can see that huge chunk, ton of honey, and then all those nuts on top, that walnut. Just make sure I get a little bit of everything here. Wow, that is so good. It's got a really sour kick initially, but it's balanced out with the sweetness from the honey. You get a little bit of a difference in texture with this very smooth yogurt and then those crunchy walnuts. That is so good. I got to go in for another bite here. Get a little bit more honey this time. It's got such a tartness to it and it's so thick. Right off of Monastiraki Square, there is this huge restaurant that's called, I think it's pronounced Otanisies, and they have a lot of different things on their menu, but they specialize in their kebab, pita. It's different than a souvlaki because it's actually minced meat that is grilled on the skewer and then they wrap it up in the pita, but they fry their pita up too to get it nice and crispy. And we ordered it with chili pepper, you can see the chili pepper right there, and it looks like they've grilled that chili pepper too. And really cheap, only 2 euros 20 cents. You can see the tzatziki in there kind of spilling out and that's where a lot of the flavor is going to come from and let's give this a try. That hits the spot. Traditional way of making Greek or Turkish coffee and they do it by heating it very very slowly in sand. So they have the hot sand which very slowly kind of simmers the coffee, but they never get it to the point of boiling, just to a very slight simmer. So it is actually only stirred one time and then once the froth starts to kind of reach the top of the pot, it is taken out and then poured into our cup. So here we've got a beautiful cup of Greek coffee, it seems that they've poured a little bit of the froth down in the bottom, but the main part of the coffee is served in this and this is called a breki, which is a, I believe it's brass, pot and this is the traditional Greek pot of serving Greek coffee. So I'm going to pour mine in and just check out how thick that is. Oh man, that looks good and there is quite a bit of coffee in there. Alright, so let's try it out, should be nice and hot. Oh yeah, that is like a punch in the face, that is so strong, that is like battery acid, that will just completely hit you, but it is a little bit bitter and since it's unfiltered, you can kind of taste the coffee grinds or feel them in there, so it's a little bit kind of silty. Let's try another drink and it's nice and like frothy in the top and that's what I really like about it, served in this very very small cup. Oh yes, oh man, that's so good. On our last stop of our tour of the central market area of Athens, we've come to Tellus Steakhouse, which is known for having the best pork chops in town, which they cook on charcoal, but they also have this really crazy looking kind of grilled salad that is right here. Look at this, there is cheese in there, there is some spicy pickled peppers, there are lots of tomatoes and it's just swimming in olive oil and then over here, we have their pork chops and you can see a little bit of oregano on top, got a lemon here, I'll squeeze a little bit of that on and then underneath there, we've got the french fries, but I gotta go in for the salad first. Just look at the size of this thing, first of all, it is absolutely massive and there is so much goodness going on in there. Let me just try a spoonful of this on it's own first. That is just bursting with flavor, instantly the flavor of the tomatoes just hits your tongue, it is so tart, so strong tomato flavor and so juicy from all that olive oil and the juices that have released from the tomatoes and the peppers and then you get that cheesiness too, it's not a melty cheese, it's still crumbly, that is the craziest thing I've seen in a long time. I don't know what to call it, like a salad or a grill, I don't even know, but it is so delicious, whatever it is. Okay, time for the pork chop, cut a piece of this off, these are nice cuts of pork and really smoky smelling, oh yeah, let's try this out, just simple, you can taste that charcoal and it's so juicy again, wow. This shop, Mom, is a very small stall right on a corner that specializes in Greek pies since 1962. We decided to go for their spanakopita, which is this here. We thought this would be the quintessential pie to compare the two shops we're going to visit today, so it's a phyllo dough, this one's stuffed with spinach, onions and sometimes it'll come with feta cheese, but this one didn't come with the cheese and only €1.50, it's a really good deal and you can see all that phyllo dough flaking off there and I gotta go in for a bite, this smells really, really good, oh yum, that is really good. It feels like you can taste every single layer of the phyllo, it's not super crunchy, but the inside, the filling, that spinach and onion is really strong, you can particularly taste the onion in there and it is nice and flaky too. Yeah, this is a nice way to start the day and now I can start to taste some dill too, yeah, that's a good pie. We've got the ouzo, which is the classic Greek liquor, an anise liquor that they put an ice cube in. Originally it starts out as a completely colorless clear liquor and then once you add some water or an ice cube, it turns this kind of milky consistency. So let me just try this out first, yeah, nice and strong, oh yeah, yeah, that hits the spot, it's completely like black liquor to me. So definitely one of the most popular, if not the most popular street foods in all of Greece is the koulouri, so as you can see behind me, there's a guy selling them, so for 50 euro cents you can get yourself a nice little treat, so let's get one. Alright, we got ourselves a koulouri, let's go try it out. Okay, so here is our koulouri, so basically it is a bread stick in a circular shape and some might say that this is what the precursor to the bagel was, but it is an extremely popular street food here in Athens, you can literally see this at every corner and it's just a super on the go, tasty little snack and there's not much to it, it's covered in a ton of sesame seeds and that's just about it, but it looks really good, so let's take a big bite. Very similar to a bagel, so much sesame. A typical Greek cafe staple, this is the frappe, so this was invented back in the 50s by somebody from Nescafe that found just using instant coffee, shaking it with ice, you get this really beautiful foam on top, we got it with milk and a little bit of sugar, oh yeah, that is actually really really strong coffee, I didn't want to take a drink just out of the cup because there's such a huge layer that I don't think I'd get anything but foam and it's definitely a little sweet but we asked for less sugar, I think he just put a little bit in there, that is nice and cold and refreshing, not that special but still pretty cool. So we're having some seafood for lunch, we ordered up octopus and mussels, very simple just fresh and I'm going to grab one with a little bit of lemon of course, sprinkle a little bit of lemon on top of there and I love just the process of this all, it literally took him maybe 5 minutes in total to get the seafood still alive, fresh from the market, on the grill, onto the table, it doesn't get fresher than that. Look at all that olive oil in the bottom, go for a little cross section here and look at you can see all those little charred suction cups there, get a little bit of that olive oil, oh man this is my kind of food, it's firm, it's very bouncy and it's got that citrus lemon, so fresh. Okay sitting down in the restaurant now and this is such a cool little spot right inside of the market, it's a very working class restaurant where you can come and enjoy some very nice home cooked style Greek food and what they specialize in here is called Patsos which is basically the intestines of the pork and everything, the stomach and kind of all mixed into a soup and we have a big plate of it here and it smells incredible, this is a very popular dish especially if you are hungover, apparently it's a good cure. So as you can see all of the organs are very finely chopped here in the Patsos and also it's sort of like a creamy looking kind of milky yellowish broth, put that on and be very generous with it, should be good and then also over here we've got some chili peppers, sort of dried chili flakes, should be good, put those on, there we go and then over here we have some lemon, so definitely give a nice drizzle of lemon on top, this is a lemon and garlic vinegar, so that looks awesome, I'm going to give a hefty serving of that on top here and that will give it some acidic and garlic flavors, so mix it around a little bit, oh and I can smell that garlic vinegar, that has an extremely strong garlic smell to it and oh man this is looking incredible, it may not look that appetizing or sound that appetizing but honestly it's just about the way that they prepare it, it's cooked right and it's certainly delicious, so let's try it, the baklava with, it looks like walnuts on top, there may be some pistachios and just check out all the layers, can you see that, there's so many layers there and let's see if we can hear this crunch, you can hear the crunch, oh man it's dense, let me try to cut through all those layers of filo dough, that's going to be way too big of a bite, I got to cut that in half again, listen to that, that is beauty, oh no, I'm destroying it, oh no, I'll try to salvage what I can, it's covered in syrup and this is one of my all time favorite desserts, oh I love it, so even though it sounds like it's really crunchy because there's so much syrup when you bite into it, it's got this really unique texture where it's got this resistance to it when you bite down on it because it kind of concentrates and gets really hard, there's a lot of cinnamon in there too which I love, let's try a better bite, it's not too sweet either, that's awesome. That was the top 15 foods to try on your next trip to Athens Greece, certainly not a city you're going to want to miss if you love food and a big thank you to BetterHelp for sponsoring today's episode, make sure if you haven't already subscribed, hit the bell icon and leave a comment down below of what compilation you'd like to see next, see you guys on the next episode, bye.