Ingredients

Here are the main ones

Excluding vegetables, fruit, fish and seafood, lamb and more that we also have, even if here they are not always as varied, or as fresh and high-quality. Some are imported from Greece and the vast majority of them have appropriate local replacements.

Olive oil, olives, yogurt and honey.

Cheeses

The variety of cheeses is great. Most of them are made from goat and sheep milk, and many of them are produced locally and in homes, so the cheese there can be fresher in one place and well-aged and spicy in another (manouri below is a good example). These are the main ones, that are naturally imported to Israel, and local versions (to varying degrees of quality) can be found in Israel as well.

Feta, kefalotyri, graviera, manouri and mizithra.

Wild plants, herbs, and green leaves

In the old days, when the villagers lived mostly on wild herbs, legumes, cheeses, olives, olive oil, and wine they collected, grew, and produced themselves, the women of the villages knew each and every herb and what it was used for – weather it was bitter or sweet, and what were its healing qualities. They collected chamomile for stomachaches, chicory for high blood pressure and garlic for the treatment of worms, and without physicians, wild herbs and natural medicines were the only tool at the disposal of women to treat their families.

Similarly to ouzo and feta cheese – leaves, wild plants, and herbs are an essential part of Greek foot to this day. In the rainy winter and in the beginning of spring, the whole of Greece is covered with them, and the Greeks remained experts in the ancient art of herb picking. They go out on weekends for herb picking in the hills surrounding the cities, or else buy in farmers' markets what the villagers have picked, and they use the leaves, herbs and the rest of the wild plants – raw, cooked, dried or preserved – all year long.

There are more than three hundred wild edible herbs in Crete alone, and Greek even has a special verb for picking wild herbs. There is a special apron you wear when you go picking herbs in the fields, with deep pockets for all the herbs you get.

Oregano, sideritis, mastik (pistacia lentiscus), green leaves, vine leaves, and capers.