Vegetarian/Vegan/Gluten Free Eating on Kalymnos

[Anonymous]

We recently returned from a brilliant trip to Kalymnos. Being a couple composed of a vegetarian and a vegan, we wanted to help anyone else who is thinking of coming here and happens to be on a similar diet.

Firstly: It is much easier to stay in a studio with a kitchenette, where you can make some of your own meals. This is probably a very obvious thing to state, but keep it in mind as some of the hotels will only have a fridge in the rooms. We managed in a hotel, but brought some food from home to help vary our meals.

Secondly: Soya milk can be obtained in Kalymnos! We found it in one of the smaller supermarkets in Massouri and in two of the larger supermarkets on the road from Massouri to Pothia.

Places to eat out: We found Glaros Snack Bar in Massouri to be excellent. There are lots of vegetarian snacks that can also be made for vegans and gluten-free diets, such as chickpea burgers, chilli bean burgers, falafel and dolmades. One of the owners is vegetarian herself and understands the need for a variety of tasty food! They also make sandwiches which you can take away to the crag for lunch, amongst many other things.

Noufaro restaurant, also in Massouri, was great too. The menu has helpful smiley faces next to the vegetarian dishes (although some of the fish dishes also have these, so check before ordering.) We found the houmous to be simply amazing. They also have a daily vegetarian special which is often vegan, for example green beans in a tomato sauce. Their desserts are great too!

Harry’s Paradise Restaurant on the other side of the island, Emborios, also has a selection of vegetarian food which is often home-grown as well as being home-made. Their selection is best for veggies, slightly more limited for vegans.

There are other restaurants and snack bars on the island which offer standard climber or traditional Greek food which can be vegetarian (omelettes, crepes, stuffed vegetables, salads and so on) so go explore!

We could not buy any tofu, cheese substitutes or soya slices locally (as of June 2012) so you may wish to bring these to the island if you can’t live without them. Don’t bother bringing dairy-free margarine as the local olive oil is much nicer on your bread!

We hope this has been useful!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting this, nollipop, it’s very helpful!

You’re right about tofu, soy cheese etc. not being available anywhere (I love tofu but even in Athens I can only get it at specialty shops, never at the mainstream super market). The better-known soy product in Greece is ‘textured soy protein’ (the stuff that looks like dried soya mince or dried chunks), so perhaps it’s available at one of the big super markets.

Vegetarianism is uncommon in Greece and a vegetarian is widely thought of as ‘a person who generally doesn’t eat meat’, so the smiley face next to the fish doesn’t come as a surprise. Veganism is still widely unknown here in Greece (our term for it is “strict vegetarianism”) so vegans often have to explain themselves over and over. That said, many traditional dishes are meatless and rely on seasonal produce, especially in the summer, and rarely -if ever- do we use butter in them.

For gluten-free flour or wheat alternatives, try the pharmacy in Pothia next to the national bank (inbound road, left-hand side, just before you reach the port). I’ve seen assorted grains, flour substitutes and supplements there in the past.

Lastly, for those of you cooking in the studio- oregano, thyme and sage are all around you at the crag, so you can get them straight from the source .

–katie

[Anonymous]

“Vegetarianism is uncommon in Greece”

Also in France … and everywhere in the world )

Restaurants on kalymnos are for the customers and can’t take care of all the minority ! Perhaps traveling is impossible for some of them …

[Anonymous]

Katie, thanks for the suggestions about looking for specialist foods in pharmacies. I’d never have thought of trying there. Perhaps I will discover some dried tofu next time too!

Bruno, you are very correct about most of France! Other places are much easier, although I’m sure some parts of France are better than others.

There are many places in the world that have mainly vegetarian diets, much of Asia and Africa being the most obvious examples.

I have found that restaurants on Kalymnos are indeed there for the customers, but if the customers are “minority” and require extra help, they do everything they can to understand and help. Nothing is impossible!

[Anonymous]

So, after another wonderful two weeks in Kalymnos, I thought it was time to update this thread. This time, there were 7 people in our party, including 4 omnivores, three vegetarians and one vegan (me) who now also has to avoid gluten due to a worsening health condition. Due to my ‘double-barrelled’food complication, I was slightly more nervous about the food situation this time, but again the excellent snack bars and restaurants did everything possible to accommodate us all.

In the first week, we rented a villa near Symplegades/Ourania crags which had a full kitchen, so we made our own meals for a few evenings. I brought my own rice pasta from home in case it wasn’t available on the island. However, one of our party located gluten-free pasta in one of the larger supermarkets between Massouri and Pothia. We also had no trouble purchasing soya, almond and rice milk, which are available in many of the small food shops in Massouri. I still could not find any vegan cheese substitutes or tofu, but since these have only just started appearing in the general supermarkets over here in Ireland, I did not really expect to find them just yet. Maybe they will appear on the next trip!

What we did find was gorgeous homemade houmous, gluten-free bread and vegan cake to buy from the small food shop near the restaurant BarbaYiannis (the one which also resoles climbing shoes.)The Gelataria above Mike’s Bike’s also sells vegan gelato. This was amazing, and there was often also a savoury vegan option available too.

However, by far the best place to eat for all of us was Glaros Snack Bar, near the Oasis Hotel. Highlights were the nachos with guacamole and vegan cheese (!), chickpea burgers, falafel salad and an inventive English breakfast which included delicious courgette bread. I was astounded when the very talented Sue brought out a vegan and gluten free jam sponge. She also let me taste some experimental vegan fruit-based ice cream. Our omnivore friends were also very happy with their meaty meals.

We had some astonishingly good traditional Greek food at Harry’s Paradise. We ate an assortment of vegan and veggie plates such as Gemista (stuffed vegetables) beetroot salad and grilled aubergine topped with a rich tomato sauce. It was hands-down the tastiest traditional food we’ve ever eaten and well worth the trip to Emporios to sit in the beautiful garden.

We also found that the Italian restaurant La Kambusa had gluten-free pasta and were happy to make up a vegan sauce to go with it. Their pizzas also got the thumbs up. Another Italian place, Manifesto, had a great waiter who knew exactly how to help me order, and their Briam (grilled vegetables with herbs) was the best I ate on the island. The appetiser Kalmnian chickpea dish was very tasty too.

We also had successful meals at Zorbas and a few other traditional places, trying the giant beans or green beans in tomato sauce. One new discovery was ‘steaming mushrooms’: fresh mushrooms in a hot balsamic sauce. Mmm.

Overall, it was great to see that it is getting easier for people on restricted/alternative diets to eat well in Kalymnos. We hope to return again soon.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the updated information nollipop, this is most helpful for an upcoming trip.

[Anonymous]

thanks Bruno for this incredible helpful comment. We do not eat glutenfree because its cool, but to prevent a lot of pain.

and really thanks to nollipop for the tips. I can add the new restaurant Thrimpy which also has glutenfree pasta and was very helpful. Very good food quality anyways.

Also Manifesto was very good, the only place where I got some dessert.

unfortunately the small food shop you are talking about (yannis and themis) have to give up on their location and are now (from november) at Elena village.

[Anonymous]

I’m suffering from falafel withdrawal symptoms since on the road closed and a quick hunt of the souvlaki joints in Pothia the other night failed to yield a fix. So if anyone knows where I can get a felafel pita on the island then please post here!

[Anonymous]

Its time for another update: Kalymnos has always been as much about the food and the friendliness of the people who live and work there, as it is about the climbing for me. Its so nice to see that the shops, snack bars and restaurants on the island are providing more options then ever to keep climbers of all lifestyles and diets happy and nourished.

We had a lovely honeymoon-ish trip of three weeks this year (I say ‘ish’ as we had 5 climber friends come to stay with us while we were there) and although we had the option of cooking in a kitchen, we still frequently ate out as a mixed group. We had a variety of diets in our group, including standard omnivores, vegetarians, pescatarians, vegans, gluten free and low carbohydrate eaters.

Again, the best place for all these kinds of eating was Glaros snack bar. I had a lovely vegan salad with fresh ingredients that were different from the standard Greek salad. They also make two different types of veggie burger, an English style breakfast (which can be vegan and gluten free) and veggie nachos! Sue is also still producing gorgeous homemade cakes which were simply too tempting not to try, even though I’m trying to eat less carbs these days. The proprietors understand about gluten free eating for health and cross-contamination, and cook things separately, so coeliacs are well looked after here, as are strict veggies and vegans.

For a more traditional menu, we had tasty food at Ritas Kokkinidis (Massouri), Harry’s Paradise (Panormos) and Katerinas (Arginonta). Katerina in particular was great at listing everything in the ingredients of her dishes, and could make up food with adaptations very easily. Harry’s Paradise magic-ed up an entirely vegan spread of healthy dishes and kept them coming as fast as we ate them! We had nice pizza and salad again at La Kambusa (gluten free pasta available). We ate great veggie spinach pie and vegan gelato in the amazing Italian place on the way to Kasteli. They can also make you vegan main dishes here if you ask them the day before. I almost forgot: the vegan cappuccino here was to die for!

I tried Ethereal for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised to see slabs of vegan spinach pie and zucchini pie on sale. There were also vegan biscuits and snacks. I had a nice low-carb spirulina cookie topped with sunflower seeds there. We also ventured out to Vathy and Palinosos Bay this year, and many of the starters in the local tavernas were vegan/veggie friendly, with exceptional fresh fish dishes and veggie mains. The vegan options for mains here were usually salad, but I asked for extra olives and artichokes instead of feta and managed that way.

In terms of value for money, many people in our group enjoyed On The Road as the portions were very large for the price. They advertise veggie and vegan options too.

I was super happy to see more plant-based dairy alternatives on sale in the stores around Kalymnos. The main AB supermarket between Pothia and Massouri stocks many different types of plant milk, desserts, cream etc. I also found vegan cheese (block and creamy style) on sale in Ethereal cafe and at Fani’s mini-market (they also have little vegan spinach pies to take away for crag food: wonderful!). I noticed that some of the larger shops also sold stevia-sweetened chocolate and ice cream for the low-carbers in need of a sweet snack.

I can’t wait to return again.

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