Bread (psomi) has always been at the heart of the Greek table. Homer called humans "bread-eaters", and even today a meal without bread is hard to imagine. In villages the bakery (fournos) opens at dawn and also sells pies, biscuits and cakes; many island houses still have outdoor wood-fired ovens.
Everyday breads
| Bread | What it is |
|---|---|
| Horiatiko | "Village bread", with a thick crust and soft crumb, often wholemeal or semolina |
| Pitta | Soft flatbread used to wrap souvlaki and gyros |
| Koulouri | Thin sesame-covered bread ring sold on street corners at breakfast; Thessaloniki's is the most famous |
| Paximadi | Long-keeping rusk of barley or wheat, once the food of shepherds and sailors |
| Dakos | Large Cretan barley rusk softened with tomato, oil and mizithra |
| Eptazymo | Bread leavened with fermented chickpeas, traditional in Crete and northern Greece |
Festive breads
For religious feasts and life's milestones bread becomes a ritual object, often decorated with dough designs:
- Lagana: a long, flat unleavened bread sprinkled with sesame, eaten only on Clean Monday, the first day of Lent.
- Tsoureki: soft, sweet plaited Easter bread, scented with mahlepi (wild cherry kernels) and mastiha, often with a red egg in the centre.
- Christopsomo: Christmas "Christ's bread", decorated with a cross and symbols of family life.
- Vasilopita: the New Year cake or bread with a hidden coin.
- Prosphora: small bread offered in church, stamped with a seal; after the liturgy antidoro, blessed bread, is handed out.
- Kollyva: not bread but a dish of boiled wheat, made for memorials of the dead.
- Wedding breads and the decorated breads of Crete, true folk art with dough flowers and birds.
In the taverna
In tavernas bread comes with a small cover charge (usually €0.50-1.50), often toasted with oil and oregano. It is used to mop up the salad oil and sauces: in Greek, papara.
See also Greek cuisine and Easter in Greece.