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Saluhallen i Chania del 1

AGORA OF CHANIA

We close the door behind us and walk out into the dark night of Crete, the time is 04.00 and Chania is very quite. Even down by the Venetian harbour the quarters are quite. The lights reflect in the calm sea, it is a beautiful view.
The harbours, the inner with the arsenali and the outer, in the old days used by fishermen and merchants ships and vessels, were constructed over a period of 300 years. Today we are lucky that they made them with such beauty.
It is easy to imagine the busy life that went on around in these two harbours.
Today the anglers have taken over and the pace is lazier, at least in the outer harbour.
We continue our walk; some cats looking for food sneak away when they see us. There are still plenty of “delicacies” to find for them in plastic bags and open dustbins.
Halidon Street and the plateia in front of the Orthodox Cathedral, Panagia Trimartiris, are deserted.
As we walk down Skridlof Street (also called Stivanadika) better known as Leather Street towards Tsouderon Street, the barking of some dogs break the night silence.
No heavy traffic at this late (or is it early) hour, just four or five cars slowly passing by.
After a few minutes, we stand in front of the Central Market “Agora”.

All the big gates are of course closed but when we look through the eastern gate, we notice some lights and one or two voices from inside.
Almost every shop has its own small entrance at the backside of the building. We knock on the one to “O Zerbos”, the place of Theodora’s.
Our good friend looks at us, as if we are two ghosts, when we enter at this early hour.
Obviously, he did not believe, we were serious, when we promised him, that one day we would come to watch him prepare and cook his daily dishes and at the same time watch Agora “wake up”.
The other voice, which we heard earlier, belongs to the neighbour next door, Agapinis. He runs the same kind of business as Theodora. They are good friends, work well together, and are always ready to help the other if necessary.
When we greet him good morning, he just shakes his head. His body language speaks in a crystal clear way; “The time is 04.30, these two must be nuts?”
Ghosts or nuts, ok we can take that, but now we are here to follow a day in Agora’s hectic life.
Theodora arrived 15 minutes earlier than we did. The first to do is to put tables and chairs on the right spots. That is easy; there are only 7 tables and about 15 – 17 chairs.
After that, he brings out four huge kettles, some filled with water and some with bouillon or broth, turns on and sets fire to the gas under them.
Now it is time to cook and the first dish will be with stomach.
Oil, onions, bouillon prepared the day before, strong pepper, salt, crushed (or is chopped the right word) tomatoes and finally of course stomach cut into small pieces, all put together in another kettle. The taste will be great.
Theodora works fast and it is easy to see that this is daily routine but made with passion and finesse. Many things, like cutting the meat for stifado, vrasto and fricassee, are prepared in advance. Some of the vegetables, for instance peeling onions, have also been prepared the day before by Theodora’s mother.

This morning Agapinis seems to be a little ahead of Theodora and is almost ready to serve his first quests but it must still be too early for food ……or?
Loud voices are heard from outside, three women and one man are looking through the eastern gate, probably discussing how to get in or if it is time to stow away some food.
Half a minute later, they enter through the backdoor to Agapinis place. They are all in a very good mood and decide to order vrasto and krasi, the time is 04.40.
After another 20 minutes, the place is crowded. From the dialogues, we learn that some guests are on their way home after work or a late night out, some on their way to their jobs and some are silent and almost asleep.
Theodora is still cooking and it smells fantastic. He puts one dish after the other into the warm water-bath desk standing along the middle aisle of Agora. From outside you can look through a pane of glass at the delicacies and of course get tempted to have a taste. You will not regret it.
I (yes, me cook, wife only eat) learn how to prepare and to cook some of the dishes but also a few tricks, simple but very effective ones.

At 04.55, the western gate opens and a white covered van appears and stops in front of the first fishmongers shop. The first delivery this morning directly from the fishing-boats down in the harbour has arrived...
It brings 10 big plastic bags of crushed ice and about 8 wooden cases of fish of different sizes.
The men put all the cases on the floor in front of their shop.
15 minutes later another van arrives and unloads ice and fish.
After a few minutes, a thick layer of ice covers the big tables, and then it is time for the fishes to be placed in nice piles. The mongers work like artists, They arrange one kind of fish at a time, take a few steps back, look, make changes, a few steps back again, accept and start to arrange the next kind of fish. One hour later, the images are completed and ready to be admired by tourists, housewives and everyone else looking for fish to put into their pan or pot or only as a great snap for a tourists camera.

Fortsättning följer........