Food & Drink

Kalitsouni Festival, Kandanos — Nikos Karkanis

The Kandanos kalitsouni night: ten euros gets you the cheese pastries, the traditional treat and Nikos Karkanis on the violin.

The kalitsouni is the small cheese pastry every Cretan household argues about, and Kandanos gives it a night of its own. Ten euros at the gate covers the kalitsounia and the traditional kerasma, and after that it is a proper village glenti: Nikos Karkanis on violin with Vasilis Kryovrysanakis and Tasos Kladas on laouto and Manousos Kounalakis on daoulaki and wind instruments. It is held in the forecourt of the EPAL school, which is how these things work in the villages, and it is run by the Kandanos women's association 'I Tavitha'. Kandanos sits on the road down to Paleochora, about an hour from Chania through the gorge country, and this is one of the few reasons to be in the south-west on a Thursday night in August. Take cash.