The Rotunda Menu

A city serving history since 315 BC

What would it be like to learn a city through its food, and through its time?

People abroad often ask me which island Thessaloniki is, and I don’t blame them. It doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of Greece. The city offers so much more, and it has so many stories to tell you.

Built on layers of history, cultures and peoples, Thessaloniki, its past, present and future, cannot easily be described to a person. But it can be tasted, through a menu and its recipes, in the exact order they were laid down, inspired by the one building in the city that has seen it (almost) all, the Rotunda.

Chef’s note

Why the Rotunda? Because, simply put, no other place has lived through so many of the city’s lives and stayed relevant. The Rotunda is a round brick hall built around 306 for a Roman emperor, later turned into a church, then a mosque, then a church again, with its Byzantine gold and its Ottoman minaret still reigning side by side.

And each of those layers has something to tell you. Every course that follows is one layer of the Rotunda’s story and, by extension, of Thessaloniki’s past, present and future, served in the order of history.

Each dish carries people, words and ingredients that travelled the Silk Roads and the Mediterranean to get here. It is no coincidence that Thessaloniki is a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. I wanted to unlock it the way its people do, and the way most of us understand anything, through our senses, by eating, feeding both our stomachs and our curiosity about what this city truly stands for.

G. Michalis Papadopoulos

Course I · 315 BC · Hellenistic Macedon

Tiganites vegetarian

Τηγανίτες

Honey pancakes, older than the city itself

Every city starts with a name, and mine was named after a woman. In 315 BC Cassander, king of Macedon, founded Thessaloniki and named it after his wife Thessalonike, the half-sister of Alexander the Great. Historians suspect, however, that the marriage was more politics than romance, so I would suggest you hold your “aww, how romantic” for the time being.

On the hill where the Rotunda stands today there was possibly nothing yet, only the slope down to the sea. People still had to eat, though, and the Greeks of the time fried batter in olive oil and poured honey over it. Athenian comic poets mention these tiganites more than a century earlier, which makes them some of the oldest pancakes on record.

The recipe · reconstruction

Adapted from ancient descriptions of wheat batter fried in olive oil and eaten with honey. The yogurt is a modern addition.

  1. Whisk the flour, yogurt, water, honey and salt into a thick batter and let it rest for 10 minutes.
  2. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a pan and fry spoonfuls for 1 to 2 minutes a side, until golden.
  3. Serve hot with honey and sesame, the way ancient writers describe them.

The journey

Poets in Athens were already writing about tiganites in the 5th century BC, and the word is older still. Thessaloniki was founded in 315 BC, not far from Pella, capital of the ancient Hellenistic kingdom of Macedon.

Course II · c. 50 · Roman Thessalonica

Bread and wine vegetarian

Ἄρτος καὶ οἶνος

Broken and shared, as Paul wrote

Around the year 50, a Jewish tentmaker from Tarsus reached the city along the Via Egnatia, the Roman road that ran from the Adriatic to Byzantium. His name was Paul, and he preached in the city’s synagogue for three Sabbaths. He won friends, made enemies, and was driven out of the city.

But he kept writing back. His first letter to the Thessalonians is among the oldest Christian texts that survive, and his first letter to the Corinthians holds the earliest written account of the Last Supper. His legacy to what became the world’s largest religion is worth remembering, and it is pivotal to the city’s history. He wrote of bread and wine, broken and shared, as the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The hill of the Rotunda was probably still empty, but not forever. In time, the faith Paul preached would fill its magnificent walls and dome.

The recipe · reconstruction

An everyday loaf of the period, adapted for a home oven.

  1. Mix everything except the wine and knead for 10 minutes. Cover and leave for 1 to 2 hours, until doubled.
  2. Shape a flat round loaf, score the top and bake at 220 °C for about 30 minutes.
  3. Break it by hand, never with a knife, and share it with the wine.

The journey

Paul’s route on his second journey, around 49 to 51 AD, as told in Acts 16 to 18. He probably wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians from Corinth soon after.

Course III · c. 306 · The emperor’s round hall

Moretum vegetarian

Mōrētum

Garlic, cheese and herbs, pounded before dawn

Galerius was a soldier emperor who, like other emperors of his time, persecuted Christians and loved monuments. Around 300 he made Thessaloniki his residence and built a palace, the arch we still call Kamara, and, around 306, a great round hall of brick. Its original purpose remains uncertain. It was perhaps raised as a temple, perhaps as an emperor’s tomb. If the tomb was meant for Galerius, he never lay in it. He died in 311 and was buried far to the north, at Felix Romuliana, in modern-day Serbia. By tradition, a young officer named Demetrius was executed in these years for refusing to give up his faith, the same Demetrius who would soon become the city’s saint.

Across the Roman world, working people ate simple food like moretum, garlic and cheese pounded with herbs and oil. A Roman poem once credited to Virgil describes a farmer making it before dawn.

The recipe · reconstruction

After the Roman poem Moretum. The poem also uses rue, which we leave out.

  1. Pound the garlic with a pinch of salt in a mortar.
  2. Add the herbs and pound again, then grate in the cheese.
  3. Work in the oil and vinegar until you have a rough green paste. Scoop it up with warm flatbread, which Greek would later call pita, a word first written down in 1108.

The journey

The Via Egnatia, the road that made Thessalonica matter, and Felix Romuliana, where Galerius was buried in 311.

Course IV · c. 400 · Byzantine Thessaloniki

Koliva vegetarian

Κόλλυβα

Wheat, honey and pomegranate, for those we remember

The persecutions were in vain. Within a century the empire was Christian, and the emperor’s round hall in Thessaloniki became a church. Craftsmen covered its dome with gold mosaics of saints standing before shimmering palaces, and many of them still shine today. The persecutor’s building now honoured martyrs, and Demetrius became the city’s patron saint.

Above all, the Roman Empire lived on, but with important changes. Constantine the Great made Constantinople his capital, and Thessaloniki became the empire’s second city, the symbasileuousa, the “co-reigning” city, as we still proudly call it. That empire, Greek in language and culture, lasted for more than a thousand years, a pillar of Christendom and an empire to marvel at.

Orthodox Christians remember their dead with koliva, boiled wheat sweetened with honey and scattered with pomegranate and nuts. In the 9th century two Byzantine brothers from this city, Cyril and Methodius, created Glagolitic, the first Slavic alphabet, and Byzantine faith and customs travelled north. Today koliva is shared at memorials from Thessaloniki to Belgrade, Sofia and Bucharest.

The recipe

Made for memorial services across the Orthodox world. Every family has its own version.

  1. Soak the wheat overnight, then simmer for about an hour until tender.
  2. Drain and spread it on a towel to dry for a few hours.
  3. Mix with the nuts, sesame, raisins, parsley, cinnamon and honey. Fold in the pomegranate just before serving and cover with icing sugar.

The journey

In 863 the brothers from Thessaloniki set out from Constantinople for Great Moravia, with the first alphabet made for a Slavic language.

Course V · c. 1590 · Ottoman Selanik

Rizogalo · Sütlaç · Sutlach · Sutlijaš vegetarian

Ρυζόγαλο

One rice pudding, four names, one city

The Ottomans took the city in 1430. Around 1590 the church became a mosque, and a minaret rose beside the dome, where it still stands. By then Selanik, as the Turks called it, or Saloniko to its Jews, was one of the great Jewish cities of the world, home to Sephardic families expelled from Spain in 1492.

Greeks, Turks, Jews and their Balkan neighbours lived in Thessaloniki, and they all ate much the same rice pudding but called it by different names. Its main ingredient, rice, had travelled from Asia, and some of the oldest rice ever found comes from Hunan, the province whose capital is Changsha.

The city’s Jewish community remained until the dark times of the Second World War. In 1943 the Nazis deported more than 45,000 of the city’s Jews to Auschwitz. Very few came back.

The recipe

Sephardic sutlach is often made with rice flour. Turkish sütlaç is sometimes baked until browned on top.

  1. Simmer the rice in 250 ml water until it is absorbed.
  2. Add the milk and lemon peel and cook slowly, stirring, for 30 to 40 minutes.
  3. Stir in the sugar, and the cornflour if using, and cook 5 minutes more. Pour into bowls, cool and dust with cinnamon.

The journey

Rice reached the Mediterranean from Asia over many centuries of trade. The Sephardic Jews came from the other direction, after their expulsion from Spain in 1492.

Course VI · 1912 · Thessaloniki joins Greece

Horiatiki vegetarian

Χωριάτικη

Everything from everywhere, chopped roughly and called Greek

On 26 October 1912, the feast day of Saint Demetrius, the Ottoman garrison surrendered and the city became part of Greece. The mosque became a church again, and its minaret survived, unlike almost every other one in the city.

The salad on this course is probably younger than that day. And while it is called Greek, and its olives, olive oil and feta are native to these lands, its tomato and pepper came from the Americas, its cucumber from India and its onion probably from Central Asia. It is a fair recipe for a country, too, made from many places and now served on tables all over the world.

The recipe

No lettuce. Keep bread for the salad’s juices, or you will regret it.

  1. Cut the tomatoes into wedges and the cucumber into thick half-moons. Slice the onion and pepper into rings.
  2. Salt lightly and add the olives.
  3. Lay the feta on top in one piece and finish with oregano and plenty of oil.

The journey

Tomatoes reached Europe from the Americas in the 16th century, through Spain. Cucumbers came from India in antiquity.

Course VII · 1922 · A city of refugees

Soutzoukakia smyrneika

Σουτζουκάκια σμυρνέικα

Cumin, wine-soaked bread, and a ship from Smyrna

Ten years later the city filled with people who had lost everything. When the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 ended, more than a million Greeks of Anatolia came to Greece. Thessaloniki took in more than a hundred thousand, and my great-grandmother was one of them. She left Smyrna, today’s İzmir, on a ship. Her father did not make it.

Many found their first shelter in the city’s churches and mosques, as an exhibition inside the Rotunda recalled in 2022. The refugees brought their kitchens with them, and Smyrna’s cylindrical meatballs, rich with cumin and wine-soaked bread, became a Thessaloniki classic. The exchange of populations agreed in 1923 also sent the city’s Muslims the other way, and they too left homes behind. Many families here carry a version of this story, and many of them smell of cumin.

The recipe

Serve with rice or fried potatoes.

  1. Knead the meat with the bread, garlic, cumin, egg, salt and pepper, and shape into oval fingers.
  2. Brown them in a pan, or bake at 200 °C for 15 minutes.
  3. Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes, add the meatballs and cook gently for 20 minutes more.

The journey

From Smyrna, today’s İzmir, to Thessaloniki by sea, the crossing that tens of thousands of refugees made in 1922.

Course VIII · Today · UNESCO City of Gastronomy

Bougatsa vegetarian

Μπουγάτσα

Crisp phyllo, warm cream, and a word that outlived empires

Today the Rotunda is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, a Roman hall with Byzantine gold and an Ottoman minaret, open to visitors. Since 2021 Thessaloniki has also been a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, and if you ask a local where to begin, you will be sent for bougatsa at dawn, ideally after a long night out.

Crisp phyllo, warm semolina cream, icing sugar and cinnamon. Its name is a cousin of the Italian focaccia and the Turkish poğaça, all descended from the Roman panis focacius, the hearth bread. One word, carried through every empire on this menu. Kali orexi.

The recipe

In Thessaloniki the phyllo is stretched by hand until it is paper-thin. At home, shop phyllo will do.

  1. Heat the milk with the sugar, whisk in the semolina and stir until thick. Off the heat, beat in the eggs, butter and vanilla.
  2. Butter a tray and lay 5 sheets of phyllo, brushing each with butter. Spread the cream, fold the edges over and cover with the remaining sheets, buttered.
  3. Bake at 180 °C for about 40 minutes until golden. Cut into squares and serve warm with icing sugar and cinnamon.

The journey

The Roman hearth bread lives on in many kitchens, as Italian focaccia, Turkish poğaça and Thessaloniki’s bougatsa.

À la carte

Or, honourable mentions

Still, it’s difficult to contain 23 centuries of history, and a very interesting present, in eight dishes. So here are some dishes we cannot leave without talking about. Pick the ones you like most, and enjoy!

Street bites

Koulouri Thessalonikis vegetarian Κουλούρι Θεσσαλονίκης
Sesame bread rings sold on every corner, breakfast on the move. A cousin of the Turkish simit.

Souvlaki Σουβλάκι
Pork or chicken grilled on a skewer over charcoal, eaten standing up with pita, tomato, onion and tzatziki. Homer’s heroes already roasted meat on spits, and the word comes from souvla, a spit, which Greek borrowed from Latin. It is also a subject of heated debate. In Athens a skewer is a kalamaki, and in Thessaloniki it is a souvlaki. Order it with the wrong word and you will be made fun of, if you are Greek.

Peinirli vegetarian Πεϊνιρλί
Boat-shaped bread filled with melted cheese, its name Turkish for “with cheese”. Associated with the Pontic Greeks of the Black Sea coast, whose great port Trebizond, today’s Trabzon, was one end of the caravan routes from Persia.

Mezedes

Gavros tiganitos Γαύρος τηγανητός
Fresh anchovies from the Thermaic Gulf, floured, fried and eaten whole with lemon. Best enjoyed with tsipouro, and with views of Olympus across the water. The gulf and the three peninsulas of Chalkidiki keep the city in fish, and these same seas are the locals’ favourite place to spend the summer.

Dolmadakia yalantzi vegetarian Ντολμαδάκια γιαλαντζί
Vine leaves rolled around rice, herbs and olive oil. Yalantzi comes from the Turkish for “liar”, since they leave out the meat, and dolma from “to fill”. The dish is still rolled and served in so many lands, from Istanbul to Beirut, and here too.

Main

Moussaka Μουσακάς
Aubergine, spiced meat and béchamel in layers, and arguably the dish most associated with Greek cuisine. Versions exist across the Balkans and the Middle East, yet the one that became popular is the one with the béchamel, as Nikolaos Tselementes, a Greek chef devoted to French cuisine, brought the dish to the masses with his cookbooks.

Sweet

Trigona Panoramatos vegetarian Τρίγωνα Πανοράματος
Crisp phyllo cones filled with cream, first made in Panorama, the suburb on the hill above the city.

Tsoureki vegetarian Τσουρέκι
Braided sweet bread scented with mahlepi and mastic from Chios, baked for Easter with red-dyed eggs. Thessaloniki’s pastry shops made it an everyday treat, often covered in chocolate or made with unique fillings like chestnut. The name comes from the Turkish çörek, while Armenians bake their own choreg too.

Loukoumades vegetarian Λουκουμάδες
Hot dough puffs soaked in honey. Ancient Greeks fried dough in oil, covered it in honey and called it enkrides. The modern name comes from the Arabic luqma, “a bite”, through the Turkish lokma.

To drink

Frappé vegetarian Φραπέ · Since 1957
Instant coffee shaken with cold water and ice. The story goes that a Nescafé representative at the 1957 Thessaloniki International Fair could not find hot water and improvised. Greece has been shaking ever since.

Freddo espresso vegetarian Φρέντο εσπρέσο · Since the 1990s
Espresso shaken hard with ice, the frappé’s trick applied to espresso in the 1990s to keep Greeks drinking it through the summer. The next chapter of the country’s cold coffee, and today the default order all year round, sipped slowly over hours of conversation.

After midnight

Patsas Πατσάς
Tripe soup with garlic and vinegar, served through the night at the patsatzidika, where a night out in Thessaloniki ends at dawn. The old guard swear it cures any hangover, though doctors are less sure. The name comes from the Turkish paça, and the neighbours know it as işkembe çorbası, škembe čorba and ciorbă de burtă.

About this menu

G. Michalis Papadopoulos was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, yet he has been travelling ever since, living in several countries along the way. He writes about people, places and ideas at gmpapadopoulos.com, including the series Pondering Across Europe, and is completing the Erasmus Mundus master’s in Impact Entrepreneurship (EMMIE).

How AI was used

The leaf marks vegetarian dishes. Dates marked “c.” are approximate. Each year marks a moment in the city’s life. The dish beside it may be older or younger.

Sources and further reading

Καλή όρεξη

Back to the top · All editions