The traditional Cretan Diet is one of the best known examples of healthy nutritional models, as shown by many medical researches carried out until today. Its benefits are included in the special brochure given to our customers. For a better acquaintance with this diet but also with the traditional gastronomy, we organize a day activity, a short taste trip of "initiation" to the Cretan nutritional model.
Cretan Dietary Standard
Traditional Cuisine at the Restaurant of Enagron
The Cretan diet is considered to be ideal, as it ensures a good health and longevity, while at the same time it is considered to be not only the basis but also the fundamental element of the world well-known Mediterranean cuisine.
The Cretan dietary standard and its relation to the good health and longevity of the Cretans became known through the “Seven Countries Study”. The study was first conducted by the French SERGE RENAUD and MICHEL DE LOGERIL and was later continued by the American doctor ΑNCEL KEYS. The latter proved that the Cretan Dietary Standard, given to patients that had suffered an acute myocardial infarction, reduced the percentage of death 3 years after the infarction by 70% in comparison to those patients that were given the diet of the American Heart Association.
What are the basic elements of the Cretan cuisine?
The Raw Materials
- The products of an olive tree and mainly the PURE VIRGIN OIL that is consumed in great quantities, used in cooking but also non-cooked in salads or bread
- Fresh vegetables, especially seasonable ones
- Leguminous vegetables
- The large quality of wild plants and herbs that are cooked or eaten raw in salads
- Whole grain barley or wheaten bread and dried bread
- Dairy products, mainly from milk of goats and sheep
- Many different kinds of fruit grown on the Cretan land
- Small portions of red meat- 2-3 glasses of wine per meal
Techniques - Ways of Preparation
The process of raw materials and the gentle cooking techniques mainly in a baking pan and in low heat.
Many elements of the Cretan diet originate in ancient times-the Minoan Era- where even then the basic elements were olive-oil, leguminous vegetables, vegetables, cereals and wine, as scientific researches have concluded.
The Cretan cuisine, as is inherited from generation to generation, is characterized by simplicity and it is based on products of good quality that are mixed with imagination, the latter sometimes born by the need to survive. It is quite tasty and scientifically proven to be very healthy.
The ways of preparation and cooking are those that keep the basic products as they are, bring out the flavour and are health-friendly.
At Enagron, we stay true to the basic elements of the Cretan traditional cuisine:
Raw Materials: selected fresh products of the Cretan land, pure, grown under gentle methods without chemicals and additives, many of which we produce in our farm. The basis of the food is solely the PURE VIRGIN oil.
Techniques: We follow the ways of processing and preparation of the delicacies, those taught from generation to generation, from our mothers and grandmothers, those that are taught from mother to daughter, because in Crete, the traditional cuisine is a female matter.
Cooks: Women from the villages of the area, who since they were young occupy themselves with cooking and the diet of their families, having as a helping hand only the rules of food management and hygiene.
Stavroula, Irene and Virginia are our cooks.
The restaurant of Enagron is open daily for lunch and dinner not only to those that reside with us, but to all that wish to have a meal, to all those that wish to taste and enjoy the Cretan cuisine, under the shade of oaks, in a unique environment, in nature, overseeing the canyon, sensing the essences of nature and hearing the birds' songs during the summer months, or the sensual area of the restaurant next to the fire place in the winter.
You may also watch the preparation procedure and be taught recipes during cooking lessons organised on a weekly basis.
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