Life is sweet

I'm not sure when Kate and I developed our taste for baklava, but I'm pretty sure it was back in our university days. My memory is a bit hazy, but I seem to recall that you could buy it from the student union and it was cheap and lovely. Kate discovered recently that you could get it in Waitrose, so she would buy some occasionally, but it never quite lived up to our memories.

As we got closer to Greece – and then into Greece itself - we started to see it here and there, and tried it a few times. Some was pretty good, some pretty indifferent. Kate's a particularly big fan, and was always on the lookout wherever we went, but despite going into numerous bakeries around Syros, we hadn't seen any. Then, during our exploration of the southern part of the island, I stopped at a very smart-looking bakery by the name of Ntanos in the small beach-side town of Finikas and saw what looked like a pretty good example.

And it was! Oh, my, how it was. I think we both agree that it's the best we've ever had. The pastry is crunchy on top and soft and sticky with syrup on the bottom. The syrup itself is incredibly light and just the right sweetness. There's a flavour in there that I can't quite put my finger on – it's not so coarse as to simply taste of honey - but it's so nice that I've licked the plate afterwards on several occasions. I think there might be some walnuts in there, giving it a hint of bitterness to offset the sweetness, as well as some pistachios. And I'm sure you'll agree that it looks really lovely from a purely visual standpoint.

The bakery has two other outlets in Ermoupolis but bizarrely, only the shop out in the sticks in Finikas sells the baklava. In truth, it isn't actually baklava – it's called something different here. We asked the woman behind the counter what it's really called but her reply left us none the wiser. Apparently the name refers to the place in Greece from which they come, but we couldn't decipher where that was either.

Our other great food-related discovery has been the Greek flatbreads. We were served them in 'our' restaurant in Ermoupolis and they formed the bread part of our gyros the other day – but the good news is that you can buy them from the supermarket. They come frozen in packs of ten or more and they're super cheap – a ten-pack only costs a couple of euros.

Chuck them into a hot frying pan with a tiny bit of vegetable oil and they're amazing with tzatziki and a cold beer. Even better, fry up some onion, garlic, mince, paprika, cumin seeds, ground cumin and turmeric, then smear some tzatziki onto a warm flatbread, roll it into a cone and spoon in some meat, fresh tomato and lettuce. Yum!