| Cuisine | Globally inspired dishes with a Mediterranean influence | | Speciality | Meze is where the selection of small plates is enormous and where it is not uncommon to share 10 to 15 dishes over the course of a meal. Today this small-plate trend is in many fine dining establishments in Greece, as well as with Athen’s top restaurants, offering tasty menus of these small dishes. Abroad, especially in the United States, the growing number of restaurants that specialize in these small plates shows the popularity of meze, and now 1st in Canada, Aroma Meze and Wine is here in Ottawa to share the experience with you! | | Dress Code | Semi-Casual | | Payment Options | Cash, Interac, Visa, Mastercard, American Express | | Private Functions | Arrangements can be made for groups larger than 15 for days we are closed. | | About Us | Discover Meze: It's not the typical dining out experience.
The first in Canada and the true Greek Mediterranean way of life…
Meze is an example of the healthy Mediterranean diet...
A simple summer visit to Greece, in the summer of 2005, awakened the Greek passionate way of life in me that had been silent for so many years. I realized we Greeks have one thing in common – a zest for life. During our visit, it was also confirmed to us that no Greek meal is complete without noise - when families and friends gathered together, the decibel level goes up!
Meals become a social occasion, and often shared by all at the table. Combined by traditional Greek meal etiquette and boisterous Greek temperament, the result is a noisy, happy gathering.
To those unfamiliar with traditional Greek meals, the sights and sounds of people talking, clinking glasses, and reaching across the table from all different directions can be alarming, but it is this traditional Greek way of serving and eating food that turns everyday meals into celebrations of both the plates before them and the people around them.
Traditionally Meze diners take helpings of savoury food onto their plates from serving dishes. But, more often than not, serving oneself means leaning over and around to take a fork or spoonful directly from the serving dish to your mouth.
A typical table will include several little plates each carefully emphasizing delicate, savoury and yet controversial flavours to dazzle your appetite accompanied with Retsina and/or Tsipouro Wine or Ouzo. Long reaches, clashing forks, and bumps and spills are all part of the process. It creates an atmosphere of great conversations and hearty laughter, and leaves no room for a quiet meal of eating what's on your plate and sipping on your usual beverage of choice.
So if you're looking for a way to encourage conversation and camaraderie at mealtime, go Meze! It's hard to be silent when everyone at the table is headed for that last olive or last glass of Ouzo!
Greek cuisine is often cited as an example of the healthy Mediterranean diet, with its usage of the freshest ingredients, incorporated into a variety of classic Greek Meze dishes. Olive oil is added to almost every dish to emphasize its purity and to unveil and enhance the aromas and textures.
The Meze table is not complete without the accompaniment of sweet desserts such as katafi, galactobureco, baklava, and Attikis honey with sheep’s milk yoghurt. And don’t forget the drinks - Ouzo (“Ah, ouzo! Fragrant and powerful, say OH-PA! to Ouzo!) Raki, Tsipouro, Tsigoudia and Metaxa brandy. There is also a large variety of Greece's 6000 year old wines to choose from, like Retsina, where tradition has allowed local wineries to have a distinct identity in the worldwide marketplace. It is a must on the Meze table. | | What is Meze? | It is a food that reflects a certain way of life and culture. It is described as an eating style, ancient in origin, and favored in Greece and the Mediterranean. It’s where eating is about hospitality and celebration. A meze is not a meal course like an appetizer, but rather a dish served hot or cold, spicy or savory, served alone or with other mezethes, as a separate eating experience to compliment and enhance the taste of the drink of wines, ouzo, raki, to name a few, and to provide the backdrop of a social gathering.
In Greece it’s common for groups of families and friends to gather or go out for mezethes, and have several of these delightful dishes, with drinks, conversations and laughter.
Everyone shares those small plates at the table and the experience not only provides a wonderful variety of flavors and texture sensations, but also creates the kind of happy, convivial or perhaps noisy atmosphere for which Greeks are very well known. |
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