What to Eat & Drink in Paros: Grilled Gouna, Revithada, Karavoles and Moraitis Wine

Behind the cosmopolitan menus of Naoussa harbour lies a deeply rooted, maritime-and-mountain Parian culinary tradition shaped by fishermen who preserved their catch in the dry Aegean sun and farmers who baked chickpeas overnight in wood-fired village ovens.

Five Signature Parian Dishes & Cheeses to Order

1. Gouna (Sun-Dried & Charcoal-Grilled Chub Mackerel): the #1 seaside meze of Paros. Fresh mackerel or bonito is butterflied open along the spine, rubbed generously with coarse sea salt, oregano and paprika, and hung on wooden frames along the fishing piers of Naoussa, Piso Livadi and Aliki to dry for several hours in the hot sun and sea breeze before being grilled for two minutes over glowing charcoal, crispy outside, moist and smoky inside, served with lemon wedges and cold ouzo or souma.
2. Revithada (Overnight Wood-Oven Baked Chickpea Stew): soaked local chickpeas are placed inside a lidded earthenware pot (skepastaria) with whole pearl onions, extra-virgin olive oil, bay leaf and fresh rosemary, and baked slowly for 8 to 10 hours overnight in the residual heat of a village wood-fired bread oven until caramelized and velvety.
3. Karavoles (Giant Snails with Garlic Skordalia, Lefkes & Prodromos Specialty): in the mountain villages, large field snails are boiled with wild rosemary and vinegar or fried in olive oil and served alongside a punchy dip of almond-and-garlic skordalia.
4. Salatouri (Marinated Skate Wing Salad) & Kakavia: a unique Parian fisherman's delicacy made exclusively in Naoussa and Piso Livadi, boiled skate wing (ray) shredded by hand and dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, chopped parsley and spring onion.
5. Parian Cheeses (Touloumotyri, Xynomyzithra & Kefalotyri) & Matsi: try spicy touloumotyri (aged inside a goatskin), sweet-and-sour mizithra pies with thyme honey, and sugar-coated almond amygdalota.

Tasting PDO Paros Wine at Moraitis Winery (In Naoussa Since 1910) & Souma

Paros holds one of Greece's rare island PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) wine appellations: uniquely, PDO Paros red wine is crafted by co-fermenting red Mandilaria grapes with aromatic white Monemvasia grapes. Walk 7 minutes east of Naoussa harbour to the historic 1910 stone cellars of Moraitis Winery for an afternoon tasting flight of crisp white Monemvasia, rare indigenous Aidani Mavro and sweet aged Malvasia, and finish every tavern meal with a chilled shot of Parian Souma (grape pomace spirit distilled across the island each October).