The 25 Travel Experiences You Must Have
On November 17,2022 the New York Times posted
A pair of internationally minded writers, a chef, an architect and a landscape photographer made a list of the most extraordinary adventures a person should seek out. Here are the results.
By Alwa Cooper, Ashlea Halpern, Debra Kamin, Aileen Kwun, Miguel Morales, Dan Piepenbring and Michael Snyder
One July morning, a five-person jury — including the writers Pico Iyer and Aatish Taseer, the architect Toshiko Mori, the chef and food scientist David Zilber and the landscape photographer Victoria Sambunaris — gathered over Zoom to debate what, exactly, constitutes a “travel experience” and how some might rise above the rest. To get the conversation started, each panelist had nominated at least 10 selections in advance of the call; their job now was to slash that list from 55 to 25.
Here is what they wrote about Ntounias, and as a result, we have decided to include a lunch visit to our 2023 Greek Islands itinerary:
Savor an Unforgettable Lunch at Ntounias in Western Crete
Stelios Trilyrakis, the chef behind Ntounias in Crete, pats one of his heritage cows, a rare Cretan species called Gidomouskara.
Credit... SteMajourneys
A typical lunch spread might include a seasonal salad, bread baked in a wood oven, homemade cheese and manaroli, a type of Cretan bean stew.
It takes a 45-minute drive from Chania, Crete, through the Greek island’s White Mountains to reach this mecca of homespun cooking in Drakona.
Through scenic Therrisos Gorge, with occasional stops for sheep crossings, the journey is best made with the windows down, cooled by the hillside breeze and dazzled by the sun winking across limestone mountain caps. Expect a warm greeting upon arrival — the view from the terrace of the valley below will make up for any bumps in the rugged and twisty road — but don’t expect a menu. Along with his wife, Evmorfili, Stelios Trilyrakis, the chef, farmer, shepherd, butcher, owner and maître d’, takes care of all that. The daily bounty comes from an organic garden, part of the tavern Trilyrakis took over from his parents in 2004 after years of working as a chef in Chania. Guests are invited to tour the grounds and the nearby apiary as well as the wood stoves and ovens in the kitchen, though the meal rightfully remains the primary attraction. There might be a village salad (horiatiki), farm-baked bread and freshly churned butter, stuffed vegetables cooked in a traditional clay pot, potatoes fried in olive oil for close to an hour, goat sizzling in its own fat and house wine made on-site. In a country known for its cuisine, Ntounias stands apart. — Miguel Morales
D.Z.: This man used to be a chef in Chania and then seemed to think, as I did, that the world of restaurants is just not where it’s at. So he left and founded a little biodynamic farm. He has this plot of land that overlooks a verdant gorge, and he cooks everything on an open fire. You get snails, lamb stew, whatever is in season. It’s not complicated food; it’s never going to be in the Michelin Guide or on the “World’s 50 Best” list. But it’s the closest I’ve tasted to soul food.
T.M.: I love Crete. It’s a very beautiful place and it still has a certain authenticity about it. The roads sometimes dead-end, and when I was there, you needed at least three maps to figure out where you were. It’s a real physical landscape.
D.Z.: The island itself is one of the oldest continually inhabited civilizations in all of Europe. It has a crazy history, and just going there and eating this food, the way that he cooks it, it’s so honest.
