GOLDEN COD AND COOL RETSINA WHERE THE CITY MEETS THE SEA
Fish and retsina come together in the ideal "marriage" in a neighborhood of Thessaloniki where manual laborers, office workers and executives of large companies unite in a common goal: the enjoyment around the same table of an authentically Thessaloniki, deep-tasting charcuterie.
THE PHOTOGRAPHY WAS TAKEN AT "BAKALIARAKIA TOU ARISTOU", ON KOUNTOURIOTOU STREET.
IT SMELLED SEA (AND RETSINA).
Some areas in Thessaloniki have a special aura. They have an identity of their own, which is not limited to architecture... It is the world that circulates in their streets, their faces, their clothing, their kinesiology. It's the shops, the voices, and the sounds. It is even gastronomy – perhaps even more so: the comforting musk that wafts out of a kitchen, the one that makes us yearn, hunger, slurp.
Few places in Thessaloniki have this magic to the extent that the port generously offers it. Where the salt of the sea, sometimes even the characteristic smell of Thermaic Gulf (which for the locals over the years has become an integral part of what they love in the city's relationship with the liquid element) mingle with the smell of fish dishes and, above all, cod with fried potatoes, served with garlic and retsina. It is precisely this simple, but delicious snack that offers solace to dock workers, who prefer it for lunch at the first breath they take in their heavy schedule of the day (at times when for us, the non-port residents of Thessaloniki, the day has barely start). And not only them, as Thessaloniki-style "fish'n'chips" is now a favorite meal of many tie-dyed gentlemen and elegant ladies, who discover in this unrepeatable delicacy the essence of authentic, in-depth gastronomy.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.
It is precisely this specialization in this particular dish for almost 80 years that allows the "Aristou" cod to boast of the masterpieces that come out of its kitchen: cod golden and superbly fried, breaded on the outside and juicy soft on the inside, served as old, in greaseproof paper, with a fried potato cut into rings to complement the sweetness, garlic for the little "kick" in the taste buds, which completes the gastronomic agreement, but also a little hot pepper for the connoisseurs, for the true connoisseurs of traditional deliciousness.
Nothing is accidental, as the Keranidis family, which is at the helm of the store (or rather of the chain, which now counts two stores in the area of the first pier of ThPA and another one in Evosmos), has a long past to draw upon. It all started in 1910, when Aristos’ father (the uncle of the current owners) came from Constantinople to Thessaloniki, where he opened a small shop opposite the port. Really small, it held just the essentials. But he knew well how to cater to the needs of his customers: in the morning, before dawn, he would bake bread on the coals to feed the people who went to work. And early in the afternoon, he unleashed his magic, preparing Asia Minor snacks, sardines, and anchovies on the coals for the hungry people of the port.
Aristos takes over in 1940, who realizes how cod could become the "gagnant" of the business. Restless and active, he decides to import him himself from Russia, preparing him more or less in the logic we know today. His bet pays off: word of his shop's mouth-watering seafood spreads through town like wildfire, and before he knows it, customers are queuing outside the shop for a piece of cod on parchment paper, many sometimes even on newsprint, which they enjoy on the spot.
And then comes another change of hands, in 1987, when Aristos passes the shop to his nephews, Dimitris and Nikos Keranidis – and they prove worthy of the family tradition: they decide to import salted cod themselves from Norway, which is cleaned, and it enters the coarse salt as soon as it is fished. The importance given to excellent raw materials bears fruit – in 1999 a second "Aristou" store was opened in Evosmos and in 2005 a third, in the port.
WINNING RECIPE…
In a course of decades, with baton changes in turbulent times, some things remain, however, unchanged, constituting the recipe for success.
The cod should be well brined for three days, the water being changed every eight hours (or even more frequently if possible).
The batter has been carefully prepared, with the right proportions of the ingredients, while the cod, before being dipped in it, is dried very well with kitchen paper.
As for the frying, this is light, "just so", and it also has a little secret. While in a normal kitchen you don't confuse the fryers where you fry one or the other food (so that one fry doesn't smell from the other), here the exact opposite is preferred: the "osmosis" of the cod with the potatoes, maybe even with a pepper, as this "synchronization" literally lifts the flavor.
In the end, it doesn't take much... The fried fish is left for a few minutes on kitchen paper to drain the excess oil, and is ready to be served with homemade mayonnaise, chopped dill, potatoes, garlic (made with the family's secret recipe and is famous) and hot pepper. It is also meant with (at least) a glass of golden, transparent and musky retsina, which is, perhaps, the ideal "marriage" for such an exquisite, so fine and so deeply delicious in its simplicity fish meze.
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