Thessaloniki: The Undisputed Capital of Greek Sweets by Stacey Harris-Papaioannou

Thessaloniki: The Undisputed Capital of Greek Sweets. Image: Trigona Panoramatos — crisp phyllo filled with cream is a specialty of Thessaloniki. Credit: Greek Reporter

Thessaloniki is indisputably number one when it comes to Greek sweets. Tsoureki, Bougatsa, Trigona Panoramatos and Syropiasta are the most famous of the northern city’s delectable sweet treats.

Thessaloniki: Sweet Geographic Crossroads
Legendary old pastry shops and famous desserts are a product of historical geography in Thessaloniki, which has been a crossroads between East and West for more than a millennium. The result is a cross-culture mix and-match of peacefully coexisting ethnicities and religious sects.

Ten of Thessaloniki’s most renowned delicious delights include Bougatsa, Trigono Panoramatos, Tsourekia, Baklava, Galaktoboureko, Ekmek, Rizogalo, Kazan dipi, Kunefe, Mille-feuille, Profiterol, Tavuk gogsu and Tulumba.

Diane Kochilas, the Greek-American chef and television host, combines gastronomy, travel and food history for worldwide audiences. When it comes to Thessaloniki sweets she states: “Cosmopolitan Thessaloniki is also known admiringly by its locals as the sweet mother, thanks to its longstanding pastry tradition. Almost everywhere you turn, there is a shop selling syropiasta in every shape and size; some of Greece’s leading pastry dynasties hail from Thessaloniki.”

To appreciate the popularity of these adopted sweet delights, a look back at the city’s history is required.

Long defined by the number “2,” Thessaloniki, which was the second largest city in the Byzantine Empire and the second busiest port in the Ottoman Empire, is currently the second largest city in Greece. For centuries, its importance and wealth have derived from its location in the far northeastern corner of the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea.

As a result, Thessaloniki served as an important hub of trade for the Empire and a tempting target for the growing Ottoman powers. In 1430 the Ottoman Sultan Murad II conquered and sacked the wealthy Byzantine city.

Ottoman Muslims Populated Thessaloniki
The victory had a profound effect on the population. Murad enslaved one fifth of Thessaloniki’s citizens while a large number of the Greeks simply fled. In the wake of this conquest, Ottoman Muslims flocked to the city, joining those who had remained behind.

Sixty years after Thessaloniki came under Ottoman rule, its population changed again. This was credited to the official policy of Spain under Ferdinand II and Isabella. In 1492 the Catholic monarchs ordered the expulsion of all Jews from their territories of Castile and Aragon.

Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, invited the expelled Jews to move to his lands, telling his courtiers: “You venture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler, he who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine.”

Sephardic Jews Enriched Culture, Sweets of Thessaloniki
Many of the Spanish Jews who flooded into Thessaloniki were well-educated merchants with a wide network of trading connections. The Sephardic Jews of the Benveniste family proved to be exceptionally civic-minded. They used their wealth over the next few centuries to establish libraries, and later public parks, to benefit their new city.

Within less than two hundred years, Thessaloniki had been transformed from a Byzantine, Eastern Orthodox, Greek-speaking city into a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multilingual urban port.

Visitors marveled at the colorful chaos of the place, listing the languages spoken in the city: Greek, Turkish, Albanian, Bulgarian, Vlach, French, Italian, Russian, and Arabic. The Sephardic Jewish population preserved and spoke a sixteenth-century dialect of Spanish called Ladino while the Ashkenazi Jews spoke German, Polish, and Russian.

Although the Ottoman administration welcomed all comers to the city, they did not, in fact, treat or view them all as equals. Non-Muslims were allowed to pursue their own faiths in peace but they were decidedly second-class citizens within the Empire.

This mingling of ethnicities, religions, and languages was romanticized. Tensions between the populations rose and ebbed over time. By the end of the 18th century, with concern over its shrinking physical borders and uneasy about its future, the Ottoman Empire undertook reforms, known as the Tanzimat, or reorganization.

These reforms included the establishment of schools and universities, the reform of commerce and trade, and the construction of railway networks, as well as full legal equality for Ottoman citizens regardless of their religion.

By 1912 the Greek army liberated Thessaloniki from Ottoman rule and a slow, steady exodus of Bulgarian, Jewish, and Muslim citizens transformed Thessaloniki once more.

After the tragic Great Fire of 1917, which left 70,000 people homeless — most of them Jews — the Greek authorities reimagined the city. They introduced wide boulevards, large squares and broad streets to the once-cramped city.

Fuente: greekreporter.com