Small Cretan pies, folded open or closed, filled with fresh myzithra or with wild greens fried in olive oil. The sweet cheese ones get honey and cinnamon, the savoury ones get nothing but their own oil.
Kalitsounia are the everyday pie of Crete, and the shape changes as you cross the island. Around Heraklion they are usually small and open-topped, the pastry pinched into a star and the myzithra left exposed so it browns in the oven. In the west they are more often closed and fried. The pies belong to the calendar as much as to the kitchen: sweet cheese versions appear at Easter, greens versions through Lent and winter, when horta are at their best. Bakeries across Heraklion sell them all year now, and the Agora on 1866 Street is where most households still buy the myzithra to make them at home.
1 editor pick for Kalitsounia in Heraklion, ranked by editorial score. All Heraklion signature dishes · Kalitsounia across every city.