Home Dining

Gourmet Christmas and New Year Tour of Chania

Host Mariana

$125.54 per guest

ABOUT THEEXPERIENCE

Go where locals go to shop for Christmas specialties. Learn about the foods of the Fast before Christmas. Visit some of most favorite shops and enjoy regional delicacies and sweets while I tell you, legends, and stories about Cretan Christmas and New Year culinary culture, rituals, symbolic practices and tales about celebrations during war and far from home .
Since Arabs, Ottomans Jews, Venetians, Greeks from Asia Minor, and immigrants have passed through Chania, adding their flavors to the local cuisine, you will also learn about their impact on the festive cuisine of the city.

WHEN?
December, 8-24 and 27- 31.
January 3-8

ΤΙΜΕ:
9:30-13:30

ΜΕΕΤΙΝG POINT:
In front of Chania's Town Hall

ABOUT THEMENU

Ashure (boiled wheat, spices, nuts, sugar~ 19th century recipe) and Fotokollyva (mixture of wheat berries, seeds and nuts.
Lenten foods (and a short lesson on the fasting rules- and taste- of the Byzantine diet)
Bougatsa (a kind of cheesy/milky pastry pie)
Christmas bread made according to 18th century recipe and traditional Cretan Christmas bread.
Cooked and cured pork delicacies [Traditionally in the Cretan Christmas table, pork is mainly used and this is due to the Choirosfagia (sacrificial pork)]
Local cheese
An array of Christmas and New Year sweets:
Pastry swaddling clothes of Jesus (thin ribbons of fried dough soaked in honey syrup)
Loukoumades (deep fried balls of dough soaked in honey syrup)
Melomakarona (biscuits with honey syrup and walnuts)
Kourabiedes (buttery biscuits)

ABOUT THELOCATION

Chania is the second biggest city in Crete and has been continuously inhabited since 4000 B.C.! According to the legend, it was one of the three cities that were founded on Crete by King Minos.

Chania has a rich culture and an interesting history. Minoans, Mycenaeans, Dorians, Classical and Hellenistic Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians, Ottomans, Jews, Greek refugees from Asia Minor and Cretans created an amalgam of multiple cultural influences.
The long history of Chania is paramount to understand its rich food culture.

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THEHOST

Mariana

I am an experimental archaeologist-food historian, who recreates Greek historical recipes using

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SOME TESTIMONIALS

John

from Rome

I took the 'Eating in ancient Greece' cooking class. It was a cooking lesson, a history lesson and a meal all in one! I enjoyed it very much. I was by myself but Mariana had me group with four other lovely people and we learned so many interesting things and cooked and laughed. A very interesting class by an experimental archaeologist who is an Gourmand award - winning author as well. Food was great.

Anna Delhaugh

from New York

I’m thoroughly fascinated with Mariana's cooking courses. I took two of them and I enjoyed the entire process, from mixing historically-appropriate ingredients and cooking over an open fire to using replicas of historic equipment and tools. Mariana is extremely generous with her knowledge and responded to every question in such a warm and nuturing way!

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Historic cheese making & bread baking class $126

Eating in Ancient Greece $126

Ancient Greek Dinner $126