Greece

Greek cooking is an olive-oil civilization stretching from island tavernas to mountain villages, built on vegetables, legumes, seafood, lamb, and tangy feta and yogurt. Simple, sun-drenched ingredients and a Mediterranean rhythm of long, shared meals define it.

Foraged wild greens, horta, are a genuine part of the diet rather than a garnish: blanched, then dressed with olive oil and lemon, or folded into a pie. They matter most during nistia, the long Orthodox fasting stretches when meat, dairy and often fish are set aside and the everyday cooking becomes, in effect, vegan.

Two things worth keeping straight. Moussaka's bechamel top is not classical at all but an addition by the chef Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1920s, and the word itself is Arabic. Feta holds an EU protected designation of origin restricted to particular Greek regions and must be at least seventy per cent sheep's milk, so the name is a legal category, not a style.

Skewers of lemon-and-oregano marinated chicken grilled and wrapped in warm pita with tzatziki, Greece's favorite fast lunch.