Pork loin marinated in vinegar, then cold-smoked over aromatic wood and herbs until it turns dark and dense. Cretan kitchens shave it thin over rocket and graviera, or fry it into eggs at breakfast.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Apaki is Crete's answer to the problem of keeping pork through a hot summer. The loin is steeped in vinegar with wild herbs for a day or more, then hung over a smouldering fire of sage, cypress, thyme and other mountain wood, which both dries it and perfumes it. Villages guarded their own herb mixes. It predates refrigeration by centuries and survived it because the smoke does something no fridge can. In Heraklion tavernas it now arrives sliced thin with pomegranate seeds and graviera shavings, which is a modern presentation of a very old preserve.
Tip from the editors. If you cannot smoke at home, hot-smoking then a day of rest gets you most of the way. Do not skip the vinegar stage.
Merastri keeps a serious Cretan wine list behind its wood oven in Heraklion, and the reds it pours are built to stand up to three-hour roast lamb.
Signature pour: A Liatiko red with the wood-oven lamb
Wine focus: Cretan list built around the wood oven
Food: Full Cretan menu
Order: A Liatiko red alongside the wood-oven lamb
Tip: The Cretan list is the reason to linger. Ask what is open by the glass before committing to a bottle.
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