Travel&Spice: S01E08

Hola foodies/travellers! Presenting Episode-08 of Travel&Spice for your dose of spicy travel, where travellers share interesting stories about their favourite meal, restaurant or food encounters.

Today, Helene Choo from The HC Lifestyle Blog shares a wonderful story of her food experience in Santorini, Greece. Do check out her fabulous lifestyle, travel and fitness blog.

Over to Helene…

Hi! I’m Helene, a lifestyle blogger who loves food, travel (often combined), and fitness. My blog is a mish-mash of all these things plus a lot more! Come see 🙂

I visited the Greek island of Santorini for the first time this September (2017). I’d always wanted to go because of the amazing photos of the white and blue houses I’d seen everywhere, and because I was a huge fan of “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” when I was younger. In this book series, one of the protagonists visits Santorini and completely falls in love with the place. It seemed so idyllic.

To be honest, I hadn’t heard anything about the type of food they eat there, neither did I have any idea of what that food could be. I vaguely knew Greek food from a few restaurants I’d been to in various countries, but never actually in Greece.

I can confirm that Santorini is absolutely lovely, albeit very touristy. You can still find the amazing landscapes and pristine beaches, but prices are quite high and a lot of services are geared towards tourists. The beaches can also get packed.

Let’s get to the food.

Anytime I travel somewhere, I’ll try to get recommendations for places with good food either from someone I know who has been there before, or from a local. This time, I asked my taxi driver who took me from the airport to my accommodation. Remember this for your next trip: food makes for a great conversation topic! He was very happy to recommend a few places close to where I was staying.

So the first evening I spent there, I remembered the name of the restaurants he mentioned and I googled their location. Turns out one of them was right on Perivolos beach, about a 5-minute walk from my studio.

The restaurant is called “Coralli Meet Me”. 

So I made my way there, and the first thing I noticed when I got there was that the waiting staff were very friendly. They made conversation with me and gave me a choice of where I wanted to be seated. I chose a nice table by the beachfront. I don’t know whether they were extra friendly because I was a girl traveling by herself, but they seemed friendly to the other guests too, so…:P

First, I got a delicious pea soup as a starter on the house (no special treatment, everyone got soup). Then, I checked out the huge menu. This place really has a lot of food to choose from, so it definitely caters for all kinds of tastes. Obviously, the seafood is what they specialize in.

The “fresh fish of the day” caught my eye. It turns out that that day’s fish was white sea bream. Honestly, I don’t know much about fish so I thought, hey, why not, and ordered it. It came grilled, with some grilled vegetables on the side. Yep, a whole fish. The price for it was around 25 euros.

A waiter filleted it in front of me. I have to say though, there were still quite a few bones left. But I just got on with it. The fish was served with a wedge of lemon. The fish tasted very fresh, and even better with lemon juice! The skin was crispy and the flesh tender, with a distinctive smoky flavour from the grilling.

I finished the whole thing. Then, me being me, I ordered a dessert. I got a chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Needless to say, it was yummy. How could it not be? The dessert cost about 6 euros.

On the side, I had a cocktail. It was a lovely cocktail, not watered down like they do in a lot of touristy places. It packed quite a punch, actually! I guess, being priced at 10 euros, you’d expect it to contain at least some alcohol.

I also received a second cocktail on the house from a friendly waiter (maybe that one was because I was a single girl haha, but shush…).

Anyway, the whole meal came to about 42 euros. I know, super expensive, but hey, I was treating myself. Plus, if you left out the dessert and the cocktail, you would’ve already saved 16 euros.

I would definitely recommend Coralli Meet Me if you’re ever around Perivolos beach because this fish was some of the best fish I’ve ever had. The accompanying vegetables were a bit meager but you could order a side dish!

It’s also quite a romantic experience if you’re going as a couple because you can have a beachside candlelit dinner.

Check that out, guys. Thanks to The HC Lifestyle Blog, you now know where to head for a cozy seafood meal and a cocktail with a view.

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Eat – Travel – Enjoy