Fried Shrimps

Koulouma may sounds like a funny word, yet it means just Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) which in Greece is, in fact, a Monday not a Tuesday.  An alternative name of the day is Kathari Deftera meaning Clean Monday, the starting day of the Great Lent which will last until Easter. This is the day where you will see hundreds of kites flying in the Greek sky.

Cuttlefish with Spinach

Halvas

Green Salad

Beans Salad

Lagana

Taramosalata

In some European countries Shrove Tuesday is traditionally the day everyone consumes a pancake. In Greece, however, on Koulouma day people are celebrating by eating non-meat dishes and a delicious special flat shaped bread called lagana.

Traditional the dishes offered during Koulouma include:

Main dishes

Seafood such as shrimps, calamari, cuttlefish, octopus and mussels.  This seafood may be fried, grilled or cooked together with other ingredients. Shrimps, for example, may be fried or cooked in tomato sauce or even with pasta. Cuttlefish may be cooked with spinach or in an onions and wine sauce. Octopus may be grilled or cooked with special pasta.  Mussels may be cooked with rice. In addition, there is also a few more seafood such as kydonia (grooved carpet shells) and gialisteri (Venus clams) which is eaten raw with added just a few drops of lemon.

Dolmadakia vine leaves stuffed with rice and aromatic herbs and then cooked in a pan with a little water and olive oil.

Mavromatika (black-eyed peas) boiled and drained and then served with added parsley, olive oil and lemon juice.

Greek fava (yellow lentils) boiled and then served with added chopped onion, olive oil and lemon juice.

Side dishes, salads & dips

Several raw green salads with ingredients such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, spring onions.

Patatosalata (Greek potato salad)

Beetroots

Sweet red peppers grilled

Halvas (a delicacy sweet produced from tahini, a paste made from sesame seeds)

Olives

Dips

Taramosalata (fish roe dip)

Melitzanosalata (eggplant dip)

Scordalia (garlic dip)

Pickles

Gherkins Pickles

Pickled green long Peppers

Melitsanaki toursi (pickled small eggplants)