♪ ♪ [Diane Kochilas] Today, I'm pounding the pavement with my friend Carolina to seek out the vibrant street food in Athens' many neighborhoods.

We'll sample delectable savory pies.

Mm.

Gourmet sandwiches that can't be beat.

That's really good.

It's complicated.

And a gelato treat of both Greek and exotic flavors.

It's really good.

[Carolina] It's amazing.

[Diane] In the kitchen, I'll make street food inspired, gyro stuffed baked bread loaf.

This sandwich takes gyro to a whole other level.

A warm green bean salad with chopped onions and hazelnuts.

The simple things in life are the best, and this salad is a great example of that.

And a smoothie bowl with Greek yogurt, honey, and more.

And it's a great, healthy snack, any time of the day.

Join me on My Greek Table , as we taste our way around the city, inspired by the variety and flavors of delicious Athens.

♪ ♪ [Announcer] My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society And by the following... [Woman] Yamas!

(laughter) [Diane Kochilas] Greeks might love to sit around a table for a shared meal... ...but, street food is also, a longstanding tradition.

And in Athens, the street food scene is vibrant, varied, and delicious.

From popular canteens that cater to the late night crowd, to loukoumades, a syrupy dough puff, from falafel, to small fried fish in cones, to classic succulent pita wraps of gyro, kebabs, and souvlaki, Athens' street food is a cornucopia of offerings.

Handheld savory filo pies, everything from cheese and herb filled delights, to vegetables, eggs, and more, ensconced in pastry.

Then, there are the classic sesame rings called koulouria, the Greek answer to a bagel, that are sold on street corners all over the city, for hungry souls just looking for a quick nibble between meals.

Two of the best Greek street foods are its simplest: grilled whole corn on the cob, and chestnuts roasted whole on carts that dot city corners and fill the air with smokey deliciousness.

♪ ♪ The coconut fountains and towering fruit stands dot the areas where tourists roam around Monastiraki and Pláka.

And of course, gyro, perhaps the most iconic of all handheld noshes.

There is so much to savor on the streets of Athens for appetites of every ilk.

♪ ♪ I'm about to meet up with my good friend, Carolina, who isn't only our culinary director for the show, but also a chef and a cookbook author in her own right, and a major foodie.

We have a lot in common, and we're planning to taste our way around Athens.

I'm meeting Carolina at one of her favorite cafes, Joshua Tree, in Metz.

[Diane] Kaliméra.

[Carolina Doriti] Kaliméra.

[Diane] How are you?

[Carolina] I'm good.

Uh, nice to see you.

[Diane] Nice to see you too.

I'm dying for a tea.

[Carolina] Let's order.

[Diane] Joshua Tree is a great example of the new hip, anything goes cafes that are now part of the city's tapestry, right down to the spirulina smoothies and vegan brownies.

What do you think is the pulse right now in Athens, in terms of street food?

[Carolina] It's growing.

The variety is huge.

So there's, I think, a lot of influence from the West Coast, from the, you know, California avocado toasts, and the superfoods, and chia seeds, and the matcha lattes.

I mean, all of these are imported from that type of cuisine.

[Diane] In many ways, that stuff also gets embraced, and kind of co-opted, and becomes Greek in its own way.

[Carolina] This type of cuisine for me goes beyond nations, you know.

It's kind of a global style of cuisine.

[Diane] Yes.

That's true.

Greek global to go.

[Carolina] Yeah.

[Diane] Shall we finish our morning meal and head out?

[Carolina] Yes.

[Diane] Okay.

(chuckles) ♪ ♪ I love this area, so much great food.

[Carolina] I'm gonna take you to a very small pie shop that I love.

I think you're gonna love it.

[Diane] Okay.

[Carolina] Here we are.

[Diane] It really is tiny.

Savory pies are on our agenda next.

Harry's Kitchen, a hole in the wall in the center of Athens, is one of the many savory pie specialty places that have popped up in recent years.

Husband and wife team Harry and Yiouli, roll out pies with really unique fillings.

Handheld deliciousness to go.

[Carolina] It's really difficult to choose.

[Diane] I see that.

This looks interesting.

[Carolina] This is amazing.

[Diane] Which is the omelet, the classic omelet.

[Carolina] Kagianas?

Yes.

It's like the scrambled eggs in Greece.

[Diane] Scrambled eggs.

Yeah.

[Carolina] Which is not a typical pie filling.

[Diane] No, no, no.

[Carolina] But it works great here.

And I'm gonna get their cheese pie, which is with three types of cheeses: feta, anthotyros, and graviera.

And they put mint and spring onion, which is very good.

[Woman] Kagianas.

[Diane] I didn't know this little place.

[Carolina] Efcharistó.

[Diane] Mm...that's good.

The oregano's really nice.

This is a Greek egg sandwich.

It's so delicious.

[Carolina] It's really nice here, because everything they use is fresh.

So, the tomatoes are fresh tomatoes in there.

And the cheese pie that I'm having, it's got mint inside, and spring onions, so it's really flavorful.

Yiouli makes all the fillings for the pies, and her husband, Harry, he rolls out the pastry.

[Speaking in Greek] So let's move on.

[Diane] Okay.

More great street food.

[Carolina] Yeah.

[Diane] Everyone loves a good gyro.

Gyro is to Athens what pizza is to New York City.

Trying to make it at home, though, requires a little imagination.

I'm making an unusual recipe today for a bread stuffed with gyro, and I'm taking a shortcut.

I'm using a ready sliced, frozen beef and lamb gyro that's really easy to use and will work really nicely with all these traditional Greek ingredients and seasonings.

So, let's get started.

I'm gonna heat a little bit of olive oil.

The first thing in the pan are these beautiful thinly sliced leeks.

♪ ♪ Cook those down a little bit.

♪ ♪ Let me get the green peppers in here next.

♪ ♪ And our garlic.

At this point, I like to add the spices, and giving them a turn in the olive oil with the leeks and the peppers also helps liberate all their beautiful essential oils, so you get more flavor out of them.

Little bit of cinnamon.

Very traditional spice in Greek meat sauces.

♪ ♪ A little bit of cumin.

Smoked paprika next.

And a little bit of tomato paste.

♪ ♪ The gyro meat goes in here next.

♪ ♪ And a little bit of white wine.

♪ ♪ While that's cooking, just for all those beautiful flavors to melt together, we're just gonna chop some fresh parsley.

♪ ♪ This is looking good.

I just want to season it with a touch of salt.

Raisins.

Toasted pine nuts.

Let me get that mixed in.

The parsley next.

A little bit of Greek oregano.

This is looking great.

Gonna get the bread ready next.

And what we want to do on the bread is just slice through it.

And we want to get the inside of the bread out.

We basically want to hollow out this loaf, and you could just use your hands for that.

♪ ♪ I'm gonna just brush this with a little olive oil.

I'm gonna do this right in the pan.

♪ ♪ Get most of the cheese into the filling, and I'm using a Greek cheese called kefalotyri for this, which is a yellow sheep's milk cheese, and we're ready to fill this.

This is a great dish for a party, for a buffet, for a picnic.

It's fun, and it's complex too, because there's a lot going on here.

We've got the pine nuts, the raisins, all the warm spices that we often find in traditional Greek tomato sauces.

We want to mound this and try to press it in a little bit.

A little bit of kefalotyri, a little bit more just over the top.

Olive oil.

And we're gonna get the bread right over the top, and press down on that.

And now, we're gonna wrap this right before baking it.

♪ ♪ This is ready for the oven, and we're gonna bake it at 350 for about an hour, so that everything melds together.

♪ ♪ Okay.

♪ ♪ That looks yummy.

Time to cut into this.

The bread is warm and soft.

I can tell a comforting gyro sandwich, with that nice spicy traditional Greek filling.

♪ ♪ This is hearty.

I can't promise you I'm gonna eat it daintily, but I do want to taste it.

Mm.

This sandwich takes gyro to a whole other level.

It's complex.

The raisins add this beautiful underlying sweetness.

The pine nuts give it this nice crunchy texture.

I'm getting the peppers and the onions, that kind of nice vegetable flavor, but really all those beautiful spices and the tomato bring this together in a really harmonious whole.

This sandwich is perfect for enjoying by yourself, but even better for enjoying with friends.

[Carolina] This is a great place.

It's one of my favorites.

[Diane] I know.

I like this place too.

[Carolina] It's guaranteed to be amazing.

[Diane] It is.

Guarantee is the evolution of what I remember as a kid as "tost", T-O-S-T.

Essentially a panini.

Small shops with open kitchens offered selections of everything, from cheeses, vegetables, and meats.

Guarantee raises the bar with selections that are delectable and both international and Greek.

I think, I'm gonna get the one with the grilled vegetables.

[Carolina] And I'm gonna get one of their best sellers here, which is the roast beef, goat cheese, roasted mushrooms.

[Diane] Oh, that sounds really good.

♪ ♪ So, let's go have a picnic.

[Carolina] Yes.

(they both laugh) [Diane] I love the park.

[Carolina] The Heroon Zappeion is great.

[Diane] The gardens.

[Carolina] I'm starving.

I don't know about you.

[Diane] Let's sit here.

[Carolina] Yeah.

[Diane] And enjoy our sandwiches.

(chuckles) ♪ ♪ That's really good.

It's complicated.

The chutney is sweet, but it's not too sweet.

The arugula is really nice, and peppery, and grassy.

[Carolina] Mm-hmm.

[Diane] I love anything eggplant.

Goat's cheese is always delicious.

(chuckles) [Carolina] I love it.

It's roast beef, grilled mushrooms, goat cheese.

[Diane] A chef's approach to sandwiches.

[Carolina] Yes.

[Diane] It's amazing the appetite you work up when you walk all day.

(laughter) One of the many charms of Athens is its open air vegetable and fruit markets.

From the central market, where everything from produce to nuts are sold on the street, to neighborhood street carts, overflowing with great produce, Athens sparkles with all the ingredients of the Mediterranean diet, and that's what inspires my next recipe.

Salad has to be a Greek word, because we have so many of them, and they're all delicious.

Today, I'm making a warm green bean salad.

I have most of my beans already cut.

I'm just getting through the last of them here.

You definitely want to use fresh beans for this salad, not frozen, but you can use any variety of fresh green bean.

So, the next step is to blanch the greens for a few minutes, and I've got salted water boiling here.

Beans are going right in.

You want to do this carefully, because the water's quite hot.

We just want the beans to blanch for about a minute, maybe two, if you want them a little more tender, but I like them nice and green and crispy like that.

♪ ♪ So, the next thing I want to do is toast the hazelnuts.

Get the frying pan warm.

(hazelnuts hitting the cutting board) We want to get a coarse chop or halve the hazelnuts.

(chopping the hazelnuts) I'm gonna get these into the dry skillet.

The skillet's hot, and when you toast nuts, you just want to keep them moving in the pan.

Okay, the nuts are toasted.

I'm just gonna turn them off, and get going on the parsley.

♪ ♪ I have a couple of roasted red peppers here.

Those are also going into the salad.

♪ ♪ I'm just gonna make a very simple vinaigrette with this.

A little bit of red wine vinegar.

Some extra virgin Greek olive oil.

You always put the acid in first, before you start whisking in the fat.

(whisking the ingredients) I'm just gonna season that very simply, with a little bit of salt and pepper.

(taps the whisk on the side of the bowl) My favorite Greek sea salt.

And some pepper.

♪ ♪ Time to serve up the salad, and I'm just going to mound the green beans in the serving dish.

♪ ♪ Next, the red peppers.

♪ ♪ The minced onions.

♪ ♪ And the hazelnuts.

♪ ♪ A little bit of parsley next.

♪ ♪ And our dressing.

Spoon that right over the top.

So, you can see how simple this is.

♪ ♪ This is the Mediterranean on a plate.

It's really healthy.

It's fresh.

A little taste.

♪ ♪ Mm.

The simple things in life are the best, and this salad is a great example of that.

It's fresh.

It's made with everyday ingredients, stuff you can find at your local supermarket.

It's very Mediterranean.

It's very Greek.

It's absolutely delicious.

So, enjoy.

♪ ♪ [Carolina] There's always space for ice cream.

[Diane] I love ice cream.

[Carolina] And this place is amazing.

[Diane] With so many great, fresh, and unusual ingredients produced in Greece, it's no surprise that Athens has added its own vibe to Italian gelato, and the best places, like Django, marry Greek ingredients with the Italian classic to create truly unique gelato flavors.

[Carolina] They opened here last spring.

[Diane] Yassas.

I think, it's love at first sight.

[Carolina] They do seasonal flavors.

I mean, apart from the chocolate, and the stuff that is always here.

[Diane] I want to try some things.

(chuckles) One little taste of the quince, and maybe one little taste of the smoked hazelnut.

This is quince?

[Woman] Yeah.

[Carolina] And here, everything is really fresh, because they make small quantities, and then, you know, whatever is gone is gone.

[Diane] Wow.

That's a revelation.

[Carolina] Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

[Diane] Oh, I want to try the smoked hazelnut.

That's a big, big spoonful.

I don't know what to order.

(chuckles) Okay.

I definitely want the pistachio, because it's my favorite flavor, and one of the chocolate.

[Carolina] Why don't you taste the chili one?

It's really good.

[Diane] Okay.

Let me taste the chili one.

Thank you.

[Carolina] And I'm gonna get quince with yogurt.

[Diane] Because you're so virtuous.

(laughs) [Carolina] Because it's a classic combination in Greece.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ Thank you.

♪ ♪ [Diane] Mm.

It's really good.

(chuckles) [Carolina] It's amazing.

[Diane] The chocolate, chocolate's dangerous.

[Carolina] Let's get out of here.

(laughs) [Diane] We need to walk this off.

(laughs) [Speaking in Greek].

[Carolina] Yeah.

[Speaking in Greek].

[Diane] [Speaking in Greek].

[Diane] Sometimes, street food is sippable.

Easy to imagine when you can find Greek yogurt, nuts, seasonal fruits, and even honey almost anywhere.

Greek smoothies inform the next recipe.

I'm making a tasty, easy snack with ancient ingredients and a modern twist.

A Greek yogurt baklava smoothie bowl.

The first thing I'm gonna do is add a bit of almond milk to the blender.

I've got some frozen banana slices here.

Those are going in next.

Gonna save a few to garnish the top of the smoothie.

We want to get the bananas and the almond milk puréed.

(blender whirring) I'm gonna get some nuts in next.

Walnuts.

This is a very high protein snack.

Some whole almonds.

These are some Aegina pistachios, packed with vitamin E and antioxidants.

This is good for us in all sorts of ways.

Just gonna get that puréed too.

(blender whirring) And I'm gonna add the rest of my ingredients.

I have a little bit of Greek yogurt here.

It's going in.

Almond butter.

A little extra dose of protein there.

Greek honey.

And I'm using a thyme honey here.

Greek honey is especially flavorful because we have such a rich flora.

And I have some spices, and I call this a baklava smoothie because it has baklava spices.

And this is just a pinch of clove, and more than a pinch of cinnamon.

And to enhance the flavor and the intensity of the almond butter and the almonds, a little bit of almond extract.

One last blast with the blender.

(blender whirring) This is ready to pour.

See how thick it is?

It'll hold you for hours, and it's almost a complete meal in itself.

I'm just gonna garnish this.

Just coarsely chopping some nuts.

♪ ♪ And some of these frozen banana slices.

Frozen banana is a great substitute for ice cream.

A little bit of cinnamon.

Just a touch.

A little bit of Greek honey.

Just gonna get some of that drizzled over this.

I'm ready to taste the baklava smoothie.

♪ ♪ Mm.

Two words come to mind: wholesome and delicious.

There's a lot of richness in this dish.

It's not particularly sweet.

I'm getting a little of that honey swirl, but the nuts and the bananas are really nice together.

The yogurt is very, very soothing.

It's ancient.

It's modern.

It's Mediterranean.

It's Greek, and it's a great healthy snack anytime of the day.

Nice day.

[Carolina] And after a long walk, we need a drink.

[Diane] A long drink.

(chuckles) [Carolina] (chuckles) A long drink.

Yes.

And I know the right place, right here.

♪ ♪ [Diane] Carolina, Yamas.

[Carolina] Yamas.

[Diane] To street drinking, and street food, and great friends.

Thank you for showing me a little bit of these food secrets.

[Carolina] Thank you.

[Diane] (laughs) Cheers, darling.

For recipe links and information about My Greek Table , visit my website, DianeKochilas.com.

[Announcer] Diane's cookbook's "My Greek Table" and "Ikaria" are available to purchase online at DianeKochilas.com Or call the phone number on the screen.

My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society And by the following... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪