Greece: Lukumades

New Year's Eve started with standing on tiptoes in Syntagma Square to catch a glimpse of the changing of guards at the Parliament Building.  This happens every morning at 11:00am, but it's an especially big production on Sundays.  While certainly impressive, the much smaller changing of guards at the Presidential Mansion that we accidentally stumbled across the next day was more up close and personal.

With the guards successfully changed, next on the agenda was lunch.  Unfortunately, the restaurant we had chosen wasn't open at the time posted on Tripadvisor.  We wandered around the area, but couldn't find another place that we were more interested in, so we decided to have dessert first at Lukumades:


Designed a bit like a coffee shop, you can order inside or at the open window:


Essentially Greek donuts, the lukumades at Lukumades (heh) are offered both topped and stuffed a variety of different ways.  We got them covered in chocolate praline and almonds (3.80€) and filled with gingerbread cream (4.20€), which was the holiday special:


My sister loved them so much that we went back the next day after making sure that it was indeed open on New Year's Day.  The two of us actually put on real people pants, left our Airbnb apartment, and walked over 30 minutes just so she could have it again.

That time around, we ordered one of the "Greek Favorites", the Sweet Sixteen (4.60€):



It came topped with tart black cherries along with a scoop of kaimaki ice cream.  Kaimaki is a mastic flavored ice cream.  The flavor of kaimaki isn't exactly distinctive, more like a neutral yogurt/vanilla taste.  What makes kaimaki interesting is its texture.  Instead of creamy, mastic ice cream is almost...chewy?  Think Turkish ice cream (dondurma).

In case it wasn't clear enough, my sister was a huge fan of Lukumades.  I didn't mind it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to seek it either.  As I said previously, lukumades have that slightly sour yeast flavor that I'm meh about.

But if that's your jam, definitely check out Lukumades.


Lukumades
Aiolou 21, Athina 105 51, Greece
+30 21 0321 0880
http://lukumades.com/

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