Some islands, Mykonos and Santorini for example, are known for their temples of gastronomy. Others, like Tinos, Milos, Syros and Sifnos, possess solid reputations for uniformly excellent tavernas.\u00a0Until recently, Andros, a green anomaly in the treeless, windswept Cycladic chain, had two main attractions for tourists: a world-class modern art museum and a network of well-maintained hiking trails. You could get a decent meal after you\u2019d seen the exhibition in Hora or trekked up to a 1,000-year-old monastery or down a river lined with water mills, but it wouldn\u2019t be something to write home or tweet about.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
This is no longer the case. In recent years, this island of shipowners and sea captains is acquiring a new profile where good food is the norm rather than the exception. Surprisingly, some of the best eateries have been around for decades and are going even stronger, while three others with a far shorter history are well on their way to becoming institutions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It may seem strange that Andros, the birthplace of such famous shipping dynasties as Goulandris and Embirikos as well as dozens of less renowned but very wealthy families, should have such a low-key food scene. But it\u2019s just possible that they get all the luxuries they want in London, New York and Geneva and prefer old-fashioned, traditional meals when they come home for the holidays. So don\u2019t look for blinis and caviar. Instead, seek out the specialty shops with local delicacies like a wide range of honeys, lemon blossom jam, cheeses soft and hard, preserved capers and caper leaves, and\u00a0amygdalota<\/em>\u00a0(crushed almond) and\u00a0kaltsounia<\/em>\u00a0(crushed walnut) confections covered with powdered sugar and rosewater.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n You\u2019ll find such goodies in two shops almost across from each other on the main gray-marble-paved street in Hora: Rodozachari and the tiny Paradosiako Pantopoleio (\u201cTraditional Grocers\u201d), whose decorative baskets hang above the entrance. Our favorite, though, is Yannis Batis\u2019s funky Andriotiko Pantopoleio at the south end of the island\u2019s port, Gavrio. There you can not only shop, you can sit with an ouzo, boutique beer or a Cycladic wine and sample some of the artisanal cheeses and charcuterie that Batis brings from neighboring islands like Naxos, Tinos, Serifos, Syros and even Ios or Samothrace.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n From there it\u2019s only a few steps to Yorgos Sigalas\u2019s mulberry-shaded\u00a0mezedopoleio<\/em>,\u00a0Karavostasi<\/strong>, the last establishment on this end of the port. Open four years now, Karavostasi is the most recent addition to our list of the best places to eat on Andros. We love it for Sigalas\u2019s handsome, smiling presence but also for his repertoire of seafood dishes:\u00a0keftedes<\/em>\u00a0or fritters from almost any substance you can imagine \u2013 from zukes to tomato, cheese, octopus, mussels, potato and even meat \u2013 copious salads and the opulent fisherman\u2019s spaghetti. Sigalas caught the restaurant bug while working as a waiter in the evenings, assimilating the best tricks of the trade while inheriting kitchen skills from his father, who was a ship\u2019s cook.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n We prefer this quieter south end of the port to the main waterfront strip, where most of Gavrio\u2019s caf\u00e9s, shops and eateries are concentrated.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Heading out of Gavrio to the west will take you down to Fellos Beach or up to Ano Fellos and\u00a0Kossis\u2019s taverna<\/strong>, which in the 15 years since its inauguration has become the most popular meatery on the island. Like so many Andriots, Dimitris (Mitsos) Kossis had started out as a sailor but he quit to become a farmer. Three kids later, he decided to open a taverna to make ends meet. And unusually, he chose a gully just off the main road to the sparsely populated northwest as his location. Now, despite its relatively remote location, it attracts diners from as far away as Hora. Kossis has remained a farmer. He still raises cows and sheep, which supply milk for fresh homemade cheese and delectable lamb chops, and he grows many of the taverna\u2019s vegetables. He even has a few horses for children to ride up and down the courtyard while their parents savor a prolonged meal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Kossis\u2019s greatest assets have been his flexibility, charm and wonderful family. When some of his British regulars told him about aging meat, he listened and adapted his menu to include superlative tender steaks cooked to order, even rare \u2013 a difficult concept for most Greeks. When others suggested that a red Nemea might be nicer than a Chateau Cardboard or the local, amber-colored plonk, he obliged. The interiors are attractively rustic, free carafes of\u00a0tsipouro<\/em>\u00a0arrive with the place settings, and the service is always carried out with a smile by Kossis\u2019s engaging sons, Yannis and Panagiotis. Apart from the chops and steaks, we recommend the liver and barbecued chicken, but if you\u2019re not into meat, the sides of salads, fried zucchini and eggplant,\u00a0saganaki<\/em>\u00a0(fried cheese), thick tzatziki, oil-drizzled grilled bread and crisp fried potatoes will more than satisfy you.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Heading east out of Gavrio will take you along the coast to a series of pleasant beaches. Here at Agios Petros, maybe 10 minutes from the port, is\u00a0Yiannoulis<\/strong>, whose garrulous owner started it as a caf\u00e9 in the late \u201950s. Yiannoulis (little Yannis) had been a seafarer, too, until a shipwreck convinced him to keep his feet on dry land, or so his wife, Katina, told us. Sitting in the kitchen wrapping chard leaves into\u00a0dolmades<\/em>\u00a0as she\u2019s done since their marriage in \u201962, she told us how the caf\u00e9 quickly expanded into the taverna, where Andriots have been congregating ever since.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Whether you\u2019ve been swimming or are driving to Gavrio to catch the ferry, Yiannoulis is an oasis of shade, good service and specialties such as\u00a0froutalia<\/em>, the island\u2019s famous omelet with sausage, preserved pork and fried potatoes, zucchini flower croquettes (kolokythopoula<\/em>), baked eggplant, keftedes, those and other types of dolmades, beautifully cooked fresh fish when available and artichokes and broad beans from their garden in spring. Poppi, Katina and Yiannoulis\u2019s daughter, runs the kitchen now; her husband and her brother, both named Niko, are efficient, cordial waiters. Ask for\u00a0doppio<\/em>\u00a0or local cheese instead of feta to go with your village salad.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n After Gavrio, the next village is Batsi, a former fishing hamlet that collects most of the island\u2019s tourists. You can get a good idea of what it used to look like by examining the black-and-white photos on the walls in\u00a0Stamatis\u2019s taverna<\/strong>, up the steps opposite the little marina at the south end of town. Stamatis, another institution, opened in 1965, and the d\u00e9cor has not changed since we discovered it in the \u201980s. Then, its only drawback was the absence of a view, but recently Stamatis\u2019s son, Yannis, and his Greek-American wife, Callie, acquired a balcony-like room opposite which overlooks the port and makes summer dining more romantic. Try the\u00a0kleftiko<\/em>, slow-cooked lamb or chicken, or lamb with the traditional Andros Easter stuffing of rice, eggs, herbs and green onions and fresh fish from a large menu of familiar Greek dishes. Yannis prides himself on his lobster\u00a0makaronada<\/em>, too. Until he joined his father, the only seafood served was the humble\u00a0gopa<\/em>, whose comical scientific name is\u00a0Boops boops<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Up till now Stamatis was the one restaurant on Andros that never shut. This year Callie told us they decided to celebrate Christmas and New Year\u2019s as a family at home. Some of their regulars were outraged. \u201cWe had nowhere to eat!\u201d they complained.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In Hora itself, the \u201ccapital,\u201d there may be other choices, but we have a ritual. First, we sip an\u00a0ouzaki<\/em>\u00a0with trimmings under the plane trees in the main square opposite an Ottoman-era fountain and the Archaeological Museum after we\u2019ve done our errands or visited the summer\u2019s exhibition in the Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art, and then we lunch at\u00a0O Nonas<\/strong>, squeezed into a corner on the western waterfront below the town proper. Nonas was the grandfather of Foteini and Koula, who run this small place with their mother Eleni now. Old-timers remember going there in winter in the \u201950s and \u201960s and having to wait for a lull in the breakers that still crash onto the road there. Nonas, a fisherman, would have a fire blazing and, for a priceless meze, would cut down one of the fish-roe sacks he\u2019d hung to dry from the rafters and fry it up for his customers. Talk about caviar.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Today\u2019s guests must content themselves with paper-thin slices of octopus carpaccio, crisp chunks of fried cod with deceptively smooth garlic sauce (skordalia<\/em>), monkfish fricassee, seafood in all sorts of guises, from risottos and pastas to saut\u00e9s and winey stews, colorful salads and even a couple of inspired desserts. It\u2019s always a dilemma to limit ourselves to what we can actually eat. Although fish is the main theme, we invariably leave room for the keftedes. Foteini has a passion for them, as one of her fondest early memories is helping her grandmother knead a big bowl of the meat, bread and herb mixture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Our final stop on this eating spree on Andros is Korthi Bay (Ormos Korthiou), about half an hour\u2019s drive east of Hora. Strung out along a very exposed beach, Korthi is the least touristy of Andros\u2019s four main settlements, but you might want to visit just to eat at\u00a0Sea Satin Nino<\/strong>. Dimitris Giginis, who opened this all-day bar, caf\u00e9 and restaurant five years ago, intends to make Korthi the gastronomic center of the island and has refused offers to relocate to Hora.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Although he never attended cooking school, Giginis is an accomplished, inventive chef and has the restaurant business in his veins. His grandfather had a well-known taverna in Piraeus that catered to the Sixth Fleet in the \u201950s and \u201960s, until he moved back to Andros. His new place in a village above the bay was famous for its froutalia. His father cooked on cruise ships before he took over. That place closed in the \u201980s. Giginis, now 40, began his career with his own caf\u00e9 almost 20 years ago. He had a few other eateries and traveled widely, learning about food, but it was his Korthiot wife\u2019s idea to open a restaurant in their hometown, with her mother and brother.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n After a meal of the most original twists on classics \u2013 a \u201cKorthianese\u201d salad of lightly saut\u00e9ed whole baby tomatoes with grilled local cheese, small calamari with pesto, fava with caramelized onions (sweet enough to have as dessert), and sardines stuffed with pink, slightly pickled shaved onions \u2013 our companion pronounced it the most interesting food on Andros. We looked longingly at the menu, wishing we could start over and sample the octopus grilled with beets, the anchovies marinated with oil, lemon and lemon balm and accompanied by fried chickpeas, the pizzas that others were relishing, or even the 750-gram T-bone steak and tempting round fries. Instead, we decided on some of the house ice cream, made with local milk, in flavors like pavlova, fig, lime and several intensities of chocolate.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Wherever you eat on Andros, we offer the following advice given by Epicurus in the 3rd century B.C. (and which is printed on the back of O Nonas\u2019s menu): \u201cSelect with whom one will eat and drink before selecting what to eat and drink.\u201d And we wish you\u00a0kali orexi<\/em>\u00a0(bon app\u00e9tit) in good company.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Although the food on Andros can be wonderful, unfortunately the same cannot be said about the wine. The local stuff is undrinkable unless you happen to have been brought up on it. Most restaurants have a house wine from an acceptable box, but few have a decent wine list, and when bottled wine is available, it tends to be outrageously expensive. Beer, ouzo and tsipouro are more reliable.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n