There are of course infinite variations of all these dishes and you'll often have great pleasure tasting the same ones in different restaurants to discover other variants!

Dolmadakia avgholemono: a variation on the traditional "dolmades" (grape leaves), but stuffed with rice and minced meat and served with a lemon and egg sauce. Outside the period when fresh vine leaves are soft, the best restaurants replace them with cabbage leaves, and it's also a pure delight!

Tyro saganaki: fried cheese, best tasted when sprinkled with lemon juice. Quite nourishing but as there are many different cheeses in Greece, you may taste it again and again. "Saganaki" is the small individual frying pan used to cook and serve, and you'll find other delicious dishes cooked this way: shrimps, mushrooms, and so on.

Skordalia: a "garlic salad", actually a thick dip you'll eat with a fork. Made with garlic, extra-virgin olive oil and mashed potatoes or moistened breadcrumbs. A kind of "aioli", but thicker. A more liquid variant often accompanies fish.

Melitsanosalata: a "salad", actually a kind of eggplant caviar with garlic and olive oil, sometimes with some walnut crumbs. Once again, a thick dip you'll eat with a fork. The best are made with eggplants grilled in a way that gives the salad a slightly smoked flavour.

Manitaria gemista: stuffed mushrooms, cooked in different variations, mostly stuffed with feta, but sometimes with a stuffing of lamb minced meat, onions and cream. You'll also find tasty mushrooms fricassee, mainly made with pleurotus.

Loukanikes: the peasant sausage, a whole world in itself. Usually made with mixed beef and pork with added garlic, paprika, cloves, cumin and other spices kept secret. Often a real treat!

All these dishes are the "mesedes" appetizers, Greek version of the Spanish "tapas". And there are so many different ones that you may even order your selection as a full meal.