Off Season Greece: Author Anastasia Miari on Corfu’s thriving food scene and why spring is the best time to savour the isle

Where would we find you eating?

The places that eat in the summer tend to also be open in the winter, and I think that’s great because you are always able to rub shoulders with local clientele. One of my favorite places to eat is Marina’s Tavern in Corfu Town, because they do all of the classic yia yia, home-cooked dishes in a really great style. So I love eating a pastitsada or a stifado at Marina’s, and all of the traditional home-cooked dishes that they serve.

What’s the seasonal dish to order at this time of year?

The dish to order is tsigarelia, which are like wild greens that you find at that time of year. And here in Greece, we sauté them with lots of spices. Again, this is a sort of vestige of the Venetians, and [a result of] our being put on the spice trail by the Venetians. So it includes lots of spices like cinnamon, cloves, and cayenne pepper. So cigarella, that’s a great dish to have.

Grilled fish from Anastasia’s cookbook

Marco Arguello

Are there any areas of the island that really come alive during the off season?

In the off-season, I think Corfu Town is the place to be because even everyone else from the rest of the [surrounding] island tends to sort of congregate in Corfu Town. It’s really popping off, especially because of the universities there. There’s a high concentration of people hanging out in town, it’s very much alive. Any coffee shop you go into will be full of people. Again, Corfu isn’t one of those sort of Disneyland islands that shuts down in the winter and opens up this sort of like fake display of life in the summer. It’s very much alive all year round.