Arcadia Food Guide: What to Taste and Where
Arcadia is famous for its mountains, but ask any Greek and they will also tell you about its food: wine from the Mantinia plateau, fir honey from Mount Menalon, chestnuts, handmade pasta and slow-cooked meat. Here is what to taste – and where – on your trip.
Wine: Moschofilero of Mantinia
The high plateau of Mantinia, near Tripoli, gives one of Greece’s best-known white wines. Its PDO wine is made from Moschofilero, a pink-skinned grape that has become identified with the region – aromatic, fresh and floral. Look for it on every wine list in Arcadia.
Fir honey from Mount Menalon
The fir forests of Menalon give a rare and much-loved honey: white fir honey, a PDO product that does not crystallise. It makes a perfect gift to take home – and you will walk through the forests it comes from on the Menalon Trail.
Tsakonian aubergine
On the coast, around Leonidio, farmers grow the Tsakonian aubergine in the traditional way. Sweet, oblong and protected as a PDO product, it stars in many local dishes and even has its own festival every August in Plaka. Read more in our Leonidio guide.
Chestnuts
In autumn the chestnut forests of Parnon turn gold, and villages such as Kastanitsa, Kosmas and Ano Doliana celebrate the harvest with chestnut festivals. Chestnuts also appear in spoon sweets and in winter stews.
Traditional dishes
Mountain cooking in Arcadia is hearty and slow:
- Rooster or rabbit with chylopites – handmade egg noodles cooked in a rich tomato sauce
- Lagoto – hare with a garlic sauce
- Goat with olive oil and oregano, and lamb cooked with seasonal vegetables and herbs
- Handmade pasta – chylopites, toutoumia (small square chylopites) and trachanas
Cheese and sweets
Try local cheeses such as the gruyère of Tripoli, and leave room for dessert: spoon sweets made with quince, cherries or chestnuts, svingous (fritters with honey and cinnamon), milk pie, almond meringue cookies and kaltsounia.
Food experiences with us
The best way to discover Arcadian food is to cook it with locals:
- Culinary & Cultural Experience in Arkadiani (from Arcadia) – garden-to-table cooking in Psari, Gortynia, with views to Mount Lykaio and Karytaina
- Culinary & Cultural Experience in Arkadiani (day trip from Athens)
- Tyros City Tour and Food Experience – Tsakonian recipes by the sea
- Astros City Tour and Food Experience
- Leonidio City Tour and Food Experience
Where to taste it
Village tavernas are the best place to try traditional cooking – especially in the mountain villages of Lagkadia, Dimitsana and Stemnitsa, around Vytina, and on the Kynouria coast in Astros and Tyros.
Plan a food trip
Tell us what you love to eat and we will plan the tastings, cooking classes and transfers. Contact us – we reply within 24 hours.