Cafe in Kolimvari
ebbebelly 2006. Food
The old portWine and "raki" in Crete
By visiting Crete one immediately realises the importance of wine and raki (raki is a very strong distillate usually being drank in snap shots) in everyday life. It is quite rare to see the locals sitting at the table of a café or a restaurant without drinking a glass of wine or raki wishing each other "good health" (the expression in Greek is "ghia mas!"). In the spirit of great hospitality which characterises Greeks, offering a glass of a wine or raki to the visitor, who is always being treated as "the guest", is considered as a duty in order to get the spirits high and create a nice atmosphere. Until today the long history and love of wine and raki production is something shared only between the locals and the visitors of the island without ever producing it in bigger quantities and commercializing it.
