Day 22, Rethymno, Crete

The absolute highlight for today was a phyllo dough workshop. The place opened in 1948, and the guy is one of the last traditional phyllo masters in Greece. Now it's his son who does it, and the son's grandson is learning the trade.

This is the front of the shop in Rethymno. 

This is the current master, son of the founder. He takes a round of dough, about 15" in diameter, throws a little flour on it,  then, using a large rolling pin, he rolls into roughly a 18" or 20" circle.

Then he brings it over to this burlapped-covered table, and stretches it to a circle about 30" in diameter. Then he throws it up in the air, and puff! It comes down gracefully like a silk parachute. He lets that sit for about 10 seconds which thins the center of the circle of dough. 

Then he grabs the edge of the dough circle and gives it a slight tug, going around the circumference over and over, stretching the dough bit by bit, until the circle is about 2.3 meters in diameter. The table is 2.3 meters, square. Then he stretches it over the edge of the table so that it is a square, no longer a circle. They cut off the excess dough with a knife, and cover the whole thing with a burlap cloth, and start the process over again with a new circle of dough. They can stack up a couple dozen squares of dough.

This video shows the grandson stretching the phyllo dough. 

We bought some baklava that was made with the phyllo dough. Super delicious and suuuuper sweet, as baklava is. One Greek told us that the Greeks like their desserts really really sweet, and then they drench them in honey to really make your teeth ache. So true.

Rethymno is a seaside town on the northern part of Crete. It was originally a Bronze Age Minoan civilization and later was ruled by the Venetians starting in the 1500s. There's tons of ancient history here. Also, tons of flowers. It is beautiful! 

The harbor was built by the Venetians though this light house was built later, in the 1800s, I think.

Carol