Food Crete 2025

Richard Ward said:
To be massively pedantic (as a science teacher), it isn't quite...

1 litre of pure water has a mass of 1kg, but of course wine isn't pure water, it contains (approx) 13% alcohol as well as various other dissolved compounds - these all have different densities, so 1 litre of wine won't be exactly 1kg. But it won't be far off.
Click to expand...
so assuming they accurately measure 500ml of wine in one of those nice Chemistry lab flasks, guesstimated to be 13% (or should I ask them to measure that?) am I getting more or less wine for my money?!

TBF their pours are to the top of the jug or flask not the line on the jug...lol

I would say the whites are nearer 11% ABV but last nights romeiko was definitely more punchy

And yes you would love the food
 
Richard Zambuni said:
When did chips become a Greek national icon? It seems that they are served with everything, everywhere.
Click to expand...
Good chips are a thing of beauty here...paging Thom Blach....because of their excellent potatoes and contrary to popular wisdom the slow cooking in olive oil...the finest I've eaten are at Dounias.
Last night's chips were average, possibly bought in and not slow cooked and an alternative to bread to mop up the sauce but yes I agree they do appear too often and can of course be left on the plate as the protein/veg options are in general much tastier.
 
Ian Russell said:
so assuming they accurately measure 500ml of wine in one of those nice Chemistry lab flasks, guesstimated to be 13% (or should I ask them to measure that?) am I getting more or less wine for my money?!

TBF their pours are to the top of the jug or flask not the line on the jug...lol

I would say the whites are nearer 11% ABV but last nights romeiko was definitely more punchy

And yes you would love the food
Click to expand...
Alcohol is less dense than water, so you are getting more volume of wine for your money. That is assuming nothing else that is present/dissolved in the wine counteracts it by increasing the density.

Alcohol has a density around 20% lower than water, so if you are at 11% alcohol, you will get just over 2% more volume for your €.
 
Richard Ward said:
Alcohol is less dense than water, so you are getting more volume of wine for your money. That is assuming nothing else that is present/dissolved in the wine counteracts it by increasing the density.

Alcohol has a density around 20% lower than water, so if you are at 11% alcohol, you will get just over 2% more volume for your €.
Click to expand...
Typical bloody Yorkshireman. Bet you go into a restaurant and ask for a 175g glass of wine :p
 
There used to be a little place in Chania which served saltfish and skordalia - it was delicious. Last time I was there it had disappeared unfortunately- I keep meaning to make it in London.

Chips slow cooked in olive oil was in Crete in the 1980s. One of the best meals I've ever had in all my life was omelette and chips in a place in Sitia. The chickens which had laid the eggs were running around the restaurant. Small fish, chips and salad is one of the great gastronomic delicacies of the world, on Crete.
 
Ian Russell said:
known as atherina, described variably as smelts or anchovies.....are they the same as whitebait? No idea but a whole lot tastier and just enough salt added to augment the chickpeas which were for once slightly under seasoned
Click to expand...
I absolutely adore them, and even more their cephalopod equivalents. An ideal food to eat in restaurants, I am not at all shy of deep frying but these make a hell of a mess and the oil doesn't really survive. Academic anyway because as far as I know we simply can't buy them here, the frozen Dutch version is always rancid.
I'm always fascinated by 19th century accounts of whitebait dinners at Greenwich, where they were a celebrated delicacy.
 
Richard Ward said:
To be massively pedantic (as a science teacher), it isn't quite...

1 litre of pure water has a mass of 1kg, but of course wine isn't pure water, it contains (approx) 13% alcohol as well as various other dissolved compounds - these all have different densities, so 1 litre of wine won't be exactly 1kg. But it won't be far off.
Click to expand...
I thought you might appreciate this graph :)
ethanol_density_graph.png
 
I do very much like atherina, but the small barbounia (red mullet) are what I always long for when I get off the plane in Crete. If it hadn't coincided with our wedding anniversary I might have jumped on a plane a few days ago to join I&G!
 
It's moderately interesting that for a given temperature the density curve isn't linear. Presumably water and ethanol molecules tesselate in such a way that the combined mixture takes up less volume than either 100% water or 100% ethanol. I suppose to be completely accurate we'd need to understand the full Tetris parameters of all the components of a given wine. I wonder if a quantity of cabernet sauvignon juice tesselates better than pinot noir, making Bordeaux seem heavier than Burgundy.....
 
Bryan Collins said:
It's moderately interesting that for a given temperature the density curve isn't linear. Presumably water and ethanol molecules tesselate in such a way that the combined mixture takes up less volume than either 100% water or 100% ethanol. I suppose to be completely accurate we'd need to understand the full Tetris parameters of all the components of a given wine. I wonder if a quantity of cabernet sauvignon juice tesselates better than pinot noir, making Bordeaux seem heavier than Burgundy.....
Click to expand...
An artful way of letting us all know about your Tetris playing skills and preference for Burgundy, whilst keeping that intellect at least partially occupied for a few minutes. Pity it doesn’t extend to finding decent cricket clubs to support…..
 
Bryan Collins said:
It's moderately interesting that for a given temperature the density curve isn't linear. Presumably water and ethanol molecules tesselate in such a way that the combined mixture takes up less volume than either 100% water or 100% ethanol. I suppose to be completely accurate we'd need to understand the full Tetris parameters of all the components of a given wine. I wonder if a quantity of cabernet sauvignon juice tesselates better than pinot noir, making Bordeaux seem heavier than Burgundy.....
Click to expand...
Pulling together what I remember from chemistry lessons/lectures and a quick google, it's a combination of how well the molecules loosely fit together, and the strength of the Van der Waals forces between the molecules. Both must vary with ABV.

As to why wine is sold by the kg: If you have electronic kitchen scales to hand, it is a lot quicker to pour a given weight than it is to measure a given volume using a line on a jug. So when cooking, I always weigh quantities of water. Maybe that's the reason wine is sold like that?

With deference to our science teacher, I decided to use the word "weight" rather than "mass", because kitchen scales don't directly measure mass. Hope that's OK.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top