BATIS seafood Tavern –Nea Lampsakos!

Seafood Lovers love Nea Lampsakos where we are having dinner tonight but first we have to pay a visit to some friends who live in Chalkida . I remember of times when we met every week at the choir but ever since I quit we hardly meet. We don't stay long though, it is a very cold night and I want to warm ourselves with some ouzo.

Nea Lampsakos is just 4 Kms south of Chalkida. Many of the locals who live here come from the coasts of Turkey. They were compelled by the Turkish Government back in 1922 to abandon their homes and businesses and leave the country. They became refugees, got in boats and sailed all the way to reach the Greek borders. A number of them sailed to Cyprus as well.

The small refugee village of Lampsakos is famous for its "ouzeri" eating places and I am going to give you some key words that a tourist should have in mind when visiting one such restaurant.

The word “ouzeri” comes from Ouzo which is world known as an aperitif and it usually accompanies sea food.

The Greek word “pikilia” means variety, so people who come to Nea Lampsakos or visit other Seafood “tavernas” will hear the word “Pikilia” .

Usually a pikilia includes different sea shells, squid, prawns, oysters, crayfish, and laver. An echinus salad may come separately if one wants to have it but it is quite pricy. Depending on the number of people you are the owner will bring the respective pikilia portion in one big dish.

The word “karafaki” refers to a small bottle of ouzo usually accompanied by a bowl of ice cubes. The ideal glasses for ouzo are usually narrow and very small and can take the maximum one or two ice cubes.

I consider Nea Lampsakos the paradise of seafood lovers and this is the reason we are here since it is very close to Chalkida. Seafood can be accompanied of course by fine white wine, and the vineyards here in Evia produce some very good quality wine. Instead of a bottled wine which is surely pricy the carafe is the best solution.  

For tonight we thought to drop by at the seafood tavern that we know well and have been coming here for years . It is called Batis. The word batis in Greek refers to the soft sea breeze coming from the coast. The business is in the hands of the second generation now, with the son Angelos and his wife Andromachi - nice that it has been passed to the family.

It is really cold outside and I wonder if anybody comes to the tavern this evening, although it was very busy at lunchtime with locals and Athenians. Time for the couple to have some rest tonight I guess. We order and I notice that Angelos takes coals from the fireplace with a small spade and returns to the kitchen. It seems that everything will be cooked over coal.

We get our karafaki at first and by the time Yianni puts the ice cubes in our glasses the first seashell dish arrives. The fireplace might not be beautifully designed but it is huge and warms up the whole place. It is surely perfect for this very cold evening.

I am asking Angelos different questions and he keeps coming and going so in the end we ask him to join us with his wife Andromachi .

Andromachi is very much on the macrobiotic diet so the conversation turns to be very interesting. In the end she hands me a leaflet with feed of data on the theory of macrobiotic life, and seeing that I have a problem with my eyes she suggests some things that I should exclude from my diet. The worst of all is that the majority of things are those I love eating, things like prawns, bananas, mango, cheese prunes and yoghurt which should be either out or I have to whittle away the amount I consume. The list is interesting as I see it now, and I believe it is time that I get back to my old habit and way of living, add more exercise and start eating the right food.

The conversation became more and more interesting and it was a little before midnight when we greeted the couple goodnight and returned to the hotel.