Travel Notes: Fira and a Plate of Tomatokeftedes

After about an hour and a half of waiting for the bus, we went into downtown Fira last night and had a fantastic dinner at this place called Ouzeri. Highly recommended to me by strangers on the Internet, and I appreciate their good advice.

Details on the eats:

1. I accomplished one of my goals already! We had "tomato balls," which were more elegantly/authentically titled on the menu "tomatokeftedes" Considering fried pickles (from Freda's Seafood Grill in Austin) and green tomatoes are my favorite fried foods, I was quite excited about these guys.

Did not disappoint as this has been my fave dish in Greece thus far.

Strips of tomatoes balled up with a little bit of mashed potatoes mixed with onions, scallions, dill, mint. Fried with a super light, flaky batter. Some of the cookbooks I've seen here blanch the tomatoes before frying and others just peel and toss in the oil fresh. Ouzeri roasted them first, which added a nice, rich flavor from the caramelized skins.

2. Pris had a standard "village" (Greek to us) salad.

3. We split a huge plate of pasta in a tomato porcini sauce with fresh grilled prawns on top.

4. Pot of chamomile tea with milk and sugar (I slept 12 hours that night and totally thank the chamomile for that).

After a delightful meal, we stopped by the market for some cheap canned foods, which we'll be enjoying for the next few days. Ahh, the life of a cheap traveler.