Fig

Figs have grown in Greece since antiquity and appear in classical Greek writing as ordinary, everyday food rather than anything exotic, which makes the fruit one of the oldest continuously eaten ingredients in the country's food culture. Fresh figs, in season for a relatively short window in late summer, are traditionally eaten simply, on their own or alongside a hard cheese, rather than heavily incorporated into cooked dishes.

Dried figs extend the fruit's usefulness across the rest of the year and turn up in festive baking and as a simple, honeyed snack in their own right, often stuffed with a single almond or walnut, a pairing that goes back a very long way in Greek and wider Mediterranean food culture.

Whole figs preserved in a thick sugar syrup are a classic spoon sweet, the small preserved-fruit preparations traditionally offered to a guest on a small dish alongside a glass of cold water and a coffee, a specific and genuine gesture of hospitality rather than simply a dessert.