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Autumn 2015 report

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Sellsy:
Great post Jimbo, have never travelled to SS so late in the season, weather wise guess the mind set needs to run along the lines of whatever will be will be .Glad you did OK on that front. I would imagine flights and accommodation prices are a fair bit cheaper through October?                                           It must be strange to see shutters going up and tables and chairs being stacked.                       Anyhow we are returning next year with 6 San Stef virgins, we are hoping they will soon understand why it's the only place we return to.
Fingers crossed when the chairs and tables are dusted down in May that the beach has reset itself and the winter storms don't cause any further erosion.

StevenM:
Great post Jim, thanks for sharing.

Steven

debra:
I loved your post Jimbo.  So evocative of holiday life there.  I endorse wholeheartedly the gorgeous food at the Nafsika, it was brilliant.  We spent four weeks there and I did wonder if we would get bored - but not for one second.  Agios Stefanos wove it's magic into our souls.  We stayed at Fedra Mare for three weeks and our last week at the Nafsika - but eating there several times in between.  I so enjoyed our time at the Fedra - feeling like a personal house guest of Hari and Dimitris.  Dimitris making John's holiday by including him in his drift racing and taking him out with his friends.  And then there was Stephanos at Nafsika - he's wonderful - the whole team are at Nafsika - it still runs like a well oiled car under the watchful eye of Speros - who was more relaxed than I've seen him before (as it was first week of September and before we stayed in height of season - when sometimes Chris and Nikos etc have been know to run between tables!)  I know some people say Speros can be a little brusque - but I have always seen the genuine kindness underneath the professional veneer.  I LOVED IT there when I first went in 2002 and I still do.  Could there be a better location?  Could there be a more spotlessly clean room by the marvellous amazing superwoman cleaning lady Katerina? 

I, too, felt a little upset on leaving - I am determined to go somewhere different next year and stick to every other year - but I look, contemplate and then compare.................Oh dear

Karen:
We love the Nafsika and eat there every night. Speros and the 'A' team are fantastic and the food is fabulous. Roll on next July!

Jimbo:
Thanks, Debra. I could probably write a novel set in Agios Stefanos by now.

I count Spiros now as one of my real, dearest, friends. He's a fundamentally shy, thoughtful and intelligent man who spent many years in New York and was, for family reasons, obliged to return to a village on Corfu and run a hotel. He is an evangelist for food and Greek food, and cares passionately that we should learn what Greek food really is, as opposed to the surrogate Greek food served in most tavernas (that's me saying that, not him!). He tries, for the residents, to juggle the impossible task of balancing his genuine desire to give people the best, with the very tight money that TUI decide is the budget. Yes, he does rub some people up the wrong way. Sometimes they deserve it. He is not an ever-smiling plastic sycophant, though he can be immensely charming. He is a rounded and sometimes vulnerable person.

There's much flag-waving from some people about "I only eat Greek food when I'm in Greece." Except those are also people who want their food hot and all on the plate at the same time. It's traditionally somewhat rude to serve food hot, and real Greek meals arrive in bits and bobs. For really genuine Greek food, the soups at Nafsika are a revelation. They're light, almost consomme, and full of subtle flavours. Nowhere else, as far as I know, does traditional soup.

Spiros is always sad that more people stay in the new part of the village rather than come to the old village, where at Manthos and Nafsika you can experience cuisine like nowhere else. Plus Spiros' never-ending search to take a traditional dish and put a "twist" on it.

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