It’s hot. You want to drink more than eat. Although tourists in Greece rarely complain on lack of appetite, our consultant, Greek chef Nikos Gribas, recommends special summer dishes, which are light and tasty.

Let’s see, shell we? At the same time, we’ll expend our Greek vocabulary.

Gemista (γεμιστά) are the sweet peppers stuffed with meat, rice (even cheese). We are almost accustomed to eat them. The Greeks also stuff tomatoes. Gemista is translated as “stuffed”.

Papoutsakia (παπουτσάκια) is an eggplant “shoe”, stuffed with minced meat.

Tourlou (τουρλού). Everything from the summer garden into one pot! Fry eggplants, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes. Splash some wine, season with herbs and stew in tomato sauce. The name is Turkish and means “all together”.

Spanakorizo (σπανακόρυζο) is spinach with rice.

Tzipora (τσιπούρα) is fried sea bream—dorado.

Kalamarakia (καλαμαράκια) means “little squids”. They are good as a separate dish or in dishes of sea food.

In Greece, they also like to fry small fish until crispy and eat them whole. This dish can be called yavros (γαύρος). It is an anchovy but is also the name for various small fish, breaded in breadcrumbs and seasoned with rosemary.

Of course, khoriatiki (χωριάτικη σαλάτα)—translated as “village”—the Greek salad is the king of the summer table.

As one of our readers, Olga Yenenko, remarked: “In Crete, horta is very popular in the summer. Horta in Greek means “grass”. The most delicious is the wild horta. Most often, it is the “vlita” variety. They boil it for about 15 minutes, then season with olive oil and lemon juice. Some people like it with cheese (variety of mizithra).

Saligaria is often prepared—grape snails fried in olive oil, then in dry wine, with rosemary. Very tasty. Cretan cuisine is incomparable!”

If you don’t have an appetite yet, try to imagine cool pieces of watermelon with feta, or sunny slices of melon with graviera on a plate. Even on a full stomach, you won’t be able to resist.