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Bakaliko – to make you just eat great Cretan food

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Fine foods & wines from Crete and the rest of Greece 

 

Bakaliko – to make you just eat great Cretan food

Heading to Bakaliko

The coasts of Crete are famous for their beauty (if not yet ruined by mass tourism). Nevertheless, there is great pleasure in spending some time in the enticing inland, adorned with stunning natural landscapes. We are heading to Bakaliko in the beautiful village of Archanes. We are driving 15 km south from Heraklion along the waving roads surrounded by endless vineyards to the sun-baked village of Archanes. There is a lot to tell about this village, located on the slopes of Mount Giouhtas. Archanes has a 5000-year-old history and important archaeological sites, besides wonderfully built houses, famous for their typical Cretan architecture. Archanes has won an award as the ‘second best-restored village in Europe.’ Archanes seems quiet and empty in the hot afternoon sun until we reach the main square. The central square is full of lively tavernas, their tables carefully arranged in the shade of leafy, old trees. It struck us that many activities occur simultaneously on the square, people come are sit here to meet each other, to eat, to drink, to talk, to gossip, as long as the time lasts.

Island love story

Amidst all the Greek tavernas, we find Bakaliko. Bakaliko was founded in early 2013 by two pioneering Hungarian women, Agnes and Susanna, who had come separately to Crete and both fell in love with Cretan island living. Enamoured by the beauty and bounty of Crete, the Cretan produce and wines, they decided to stay. The idea was to create a store and delicatessen restaurant. To cook some simple recipes to help visitors discover the amazing Cretan products. The name Bakaliko was a natural choice. Bakaliko, a word of Turkish origin, refers to a store. In 2017, Agnes returned to her native Budapest to pursue other interests.

Bakaliko is now run solely by Susanna and her husband George, a native Cretan. Susanna and George met at a sailing-club restaurant in the port of Heraklion, where she worked as a cook and he in the dining room, before they started their Bakaliko adventure together with Agnes. We ran into George after lunch to discover his passion and knowledge of the wines of Crete and Greece. 

Bakaliko – to make you just eat great Cretan food
Bakaliko – to make you just eat great Cretan food

Local with a twist

As lovers of good food, we could not resist the temptation to savour the tastes Babaliko had discovered. Bakaliko’s commitment to fresh ingredients, prepared with lot’s of love for the produce, delighted us. Genuine Cretan flavours, but with a twist, executed with modern techniques, sophistication and elegance. We are in for a remarkable lunch. We order Dakos, the typical Cretan rusks topped with tomatoes, olives, olive oil, fresh herbs and crumbled Myzithra;  delicious dolmades, the beautiful bulgur-wrapped vine leaves finished with lemon and mind tzatziki, and the rice pilaf with feta, toasted pistachios and pomegranate seeds. All accompanied by a savoury watermelon salad. George was kind enough to pair all of our dishes with a well-selected wine per glass that complemented the dish. Life is filled with unusual surprises. One of them was the tarte tatin. This heavenly French dessert with the taste of dark and sticky caramel, sweet apples and crisp pastry. George told us that people come specially to Bakaliko to eat this wonderful dessert. Good food and wines are part of Crete and Greece. 

The details:

When you visit Bakaliko restaurant you’ll be in for a treat, as much as we were at this charming, little place.

Bakaliko Archanes  – Main Square, Ano Archanes, Crete

Website: https://www.bakalikocrete.com

Email: info@bakalikocrete.com

Jacques-Cousteau-Calypso-Search-for-Atlantis-traveljus

Cousteau’s fascinating quest for the remains of Atlantis near the Greek island of Pseira

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“But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.”
*Timaeus, by Plato. Written 360 B.C. Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

Sea explorer Jacques Cousteau search for Atlantis

What if Atlantis lies drowned in the Aegean Sea? There is only one way to find out. To look for archaeological clues that can support or contradict the theories according to which Atlantis and the Minoan civilization are one. “He who dives,” says Cousteau, “ends up in heaven.”

Cousteau’s fascinating quest for the remains of Atlantis near the Greek island of Pseira

The story of Plato’s Atlantis

Around 360 B.C. the ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote in Timaeus and Critias about the cataclysmic destruction of the civilization of Atlantis. It is a story that still captures our imagination. As nobody found any traces of Atlantis yet, it justifies the question is Atlantis fiction or not? According to Plato, the founders of Atlantis were half god and half human. They created a utopian civilization, which became a mighty Mediterranean maritime trading empire. According to Plato, Atlantis reigned over all of Libya, all the way to Egypt’s far borders. Atlantis became so powerful, aggressive and evil that it merited divine punishment. When Atlantis waged an unprovoked war on the parts of Asia and Europe it was destroyed by a disaster, an earthquake and tsunami. The presumption is that the islands of Crete and Thera, later called Santorini, formed the “Lost Continent of Atlantis” as they were ravaged by a volcanic eruption in around 1450 B.C.

Cousteau’s search for Atlantis

In 1975 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Greek Tourism Organisation invited world-renowned French explorer Jacques Cousteau to Greece to shoot a series of documentary films named “Calypso’s Search for Atlantis”. Greek archaeologists and a research team from the newly established Institute of Marine Archaeology (HIMA) participated in the mission too. Atlantis is a myth people like to fantasise about, but what is the truth behind the myth? In “Calypso’s Search for Atlantis” Cousteau and his team are looking for clues that can support or contradict the theories about Atlantis and/or any link with the Minoan civilisation. Cousteau’s famous ship the Calypso anchored for a few days near Pseira, an island in the Gulf of Mirabello in North-Eastern Crete with the archaeological remains of the Minoan and Mycenean civilisation. While exploring one of the underwater hills near the harbour of ancient Pseira, divers found a real “cliff” of ceramic products. It stretched over a hundred meters in length and formed an inclined wall at a depth of 8 to 30 m. 

Cousteau’s fascinating quest for the remains of Atlantis near the Greek island of Pseira
Cousteau’s fascinating quest for the remains of Atlantis near the Greek island of Pseira

Archaeological discoveries of this magnitude are rare

This wall of pottery or “warehouse” of ceramics belonged to the Minoan period. Next to hundreds of thousands of vases, vessels, mugs and cups on the seabed, Calypso’s divers discovered hewn building stones. And, stumbled upon perfectly preserved remains of a wall, most likely part of an embankment to moor and shelter ships from the fierce north-western winds. The dived up pottery is more than 3000 years old. Moreover, it is surprising that all these products are of approximately  of the same age and have been preserved mostly in an excellent condition.

It is all something of an enigma. How could such a huge accumulation of clay products mount up in one single place? Yet even more mysterious, why does most of the pottery look intact, despite the effects of sea water and the inexorable passing of time? Does it indicate the remnants of Atlantis? Or is it the outcome of a shadowed memory of past events reshaped by human imagination?

More…

Read also our story about Elphida Hadjidaki, a woman, the Cretan sea and a Minoan shipwreck. Elphida Hadjidaki started to dive in 2003 for a Minoan shipwreck, not far from the Pseira diving site of Jacques Costeau.

More info about this part of Calypso’s Atlantis quest you can find on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/oHvGsD8QwqE?si=ojv6ZTARgqtXEb0b

Underwater diving Minoan Shipwreck Pseira Crete

Exciting ancient Minoan finds in the waters near Crete

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A woman, the Cretan sea and a Minoan shipwreck

There is a land called Crete in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair, rich land, begirt with water, and therein are many men, past counting, and ninety cities.
*Homer, Odyssey

Elphida Hadjidaki, a Greek sea archaeologist 

Ancient Crete has intrigued and seduced archaeologists for a long time. For sea archaeologist Elphida Hadjidaki-Marder this seduction started early. Growing up in Chania, Crete certainly helped. Jumping in and out of the sea from a young age too. Combine this with being an avid reader of books on ancient Greece, and it is clear how Elphida developed her passion for sea archaeology that became to define her life. Her interest in ancient harbours and her many dives allowed Elphida Hadjidaki to make significant contributions to the field of underwater archaeology. One of the highlights of her archaeological career was finding the first-ever Minoan shipwreck near the coast of Crete. “I always wanted to find a Minoan shipwreck,” she said in interviews, “so I started looking for one near the island of Pseira.”

Exciting ancient Minoan finds in the waters near Crete

Crete is known as the island of the Minoans

It was the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who came up with the name Minoans, and not the Minoans themselves. Evans named the Minoan civilization after the legendary king Minos. However, their origin probably lies elsewhere. DNA analysis of Minoan skeletons indicates that these Minoans are probably descendants of a people that reached Crete about 9000 years ago as part of a migration wave from Anatolia. The Minoan era, this sophisticated ancient Bronze Age civilization, lasted approximately from 3100 B.C. to 1050 B.C. 

The Minoans, the legendary people of the sea

The earliest ruler known to have possessed a fleet was King Minos. He made himself master of the Greek waters and subjugated the Cyclades. Minoan seafaring opened up trade routes with other parts of the Mediterranean basin. There are plenty enough images of ships on frescoes, but a Minoan shipwreck was never found. Until sea archaeologist Elphida Hadjidaki and her team received funding from the Aegean Prehistory Institute in 2003 to dive for Minoan shipwrecks near Crete.

Following your instincts pays off

After receiving the grant Elphida and her team started sonar scanning the seabeds. They detected 20 possible sites, however, these sites did not provide anything interesting to research further. In the last days of the 2003 sea survey, Hadjidaki decided to follow her instincts and take her team to the area around the small island of Pseira on the northeastern coast of Crete, opposite Mochlos. She knew that the area was first researched by the famous sea explorer Jacques Cousteau in 1975-1976. At the time Cousteau was looking for signs of the lost continent of Atlantis within a certain diameter of the island of Santorini. Instead, Cousteau found Minoan pottery in the waters near Pseira. At the time Cousteau assumed the pottery to come from sunken ships in the harbour of Pseira, the result of a volcanic eruption around 1500 B.C. Nowadays the pottery is believed to come from the collapsed harbour houses on Pseira. Elphida Hadjiki and her team resolved not to go to the spot where Cousteau dived, but just off it and dive deeper. Actually they did not have to dive deep, soon on the sea floor they found an area lined up with amphoras, cups and jugs.

Pseira island Crete and some underwater pottery found there

Pseira island Crete and some underwater pottery found there

Pottery from the Middle Minoan period around 1800-1700 B.C.

In 2004 she returned with a bigger team to map the site. The year 2005 saw the start of a large-scale excavation. Unfortunately, no wood from the ship survived. The assumption is that the ship capsized with the cargo down and the hull on top. That is also the most likely scenario to explain why no wood has been preserved underwater. As they excavated further they found some objects identifiable as amphoras and jars probably used for the transportation of wine or olive oil, but also cups and the fishing gear of the ships’ crew. When Philip Betancourt, a Minoan pottery expert, examined the ceramics he was convinced that the pottery all originated from the East of Crete. And, that the pieces of pottery came from the same period, the so-called Middle Minoan period around 1800-1700 B.C. In total Hadjidaki’s team brought to the surface some 209 ceramic vessels, of which 80 are nearly whole.

Collage of Minoan fresco, example Minoan ship and pottery

Collage of Minoan fresco, example Minoan ship and pottery

Coast-hopping Minoan seafarers

Based on what has been found, the ruminants of the wreck seem to indicate that the shipwreck has been busy with coast-hopping journeys. Imagine a small coastal vessel making stops along the coast of Crete. It also indicates that for local traders sea trade was much easier than crossing the mountains from north to south or east to west.

Hadjidaki and her team completed the excavations at the end of September 2009 feeling accomplished to have found the first and only Minoan shipwreck to date. Moreover, it contained the largest complete clay vessel cargo ever excavated from the Middle Minoan IIB period. And even more valuable, it provides information about the seafaring Minoan people and their success as traders.

clay seal Minoan ship found on Pseira

clay seal Minoan ship found on Pseira

A marvellous glimpse into a time when the Minoans first started building their palaces

It really gives a glimpse into a time when the Minoans first started building their palaces. The shipwreck’s cargo not only indicates local trade on the eastern Mediterranean shores, it also validates other archaeological findings. Trade was done by sea.  Minoan ships were capable of importing many of the raw materials required to fuel the development of one of Europe’s first great civilizations. This was all done by sea.

How the ships looked we don’t know exactly although there are frescoes and some old stone seals that depict images of different types of ships. The Minoans traded throughout the Mediterranean. The Minoans were good seamen, seafaring was in their blood. The Minoans maintained trade routes with Egypt, Syria, and the Greek mainland. The routes may even have extended as far west as Italy and Sicily. The world really should thank Elpida Hadjidaki-Marder for having the instinct and knowledge to look for the Pseira ship. Finding and excavating the first example of a Minoan vessel shed light on a hidden world that could change our perceptions of the capabilities and sophistication of ancient Greek civilizations.