Any other business

In Greece this summer, after six weeks on the beach on Naxos, we decided to drive, for the first time, up the eastern side of the Greek mainland, taking in Pelion and ending in Thessaloniki. This first ever trip to Thessaloniki would also give us a chance to go back to the little town of Vergina and see the museum there again. Which we did. And when we did, I realised that the last time I was there, in 2023, astonished though I'd been, I didn't post anything about it. The Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai , to give it its proper name, is almost certainly (I've racked my brains about this) the most extraordinary museum I've ever visited in my life - bearing in mind, of course, that I haven't been to every museum in the world. There are certainly many with fabulous collections, and many with interesting, even spectacular architecture. But I can't think of any, in my own experience, quite as extraordinary as this. (I'm thinking of museums housing collections, ...

  I got to know  spetsofai at Stelios, my 'local' taverna in Mikri Viglia on Naxos, in the Cyclades, where they make you a huge bowl of it to order - so huge that, now, I order one portion for two, with a plate of plain white rice on the side. If you look it up, you'll find spetsofai is supposed to be sausages with sweet peppers and, to make it hot, chillis. At Stelios, a family taverna, I doubt anyone has ever looked into the matter or cares much. They make it more or less like a ratatouille , with courgettes and aubergines and not hot at all, and as I first ate it there, I like it with cubes of aubergine. In any case, if you want an authentic recipe, Akis Petretzikis, whose recipes are foolproof, has one . If you don't really mind either way, here's mine. As usual, making it is easy. The problem is to find a good sausage. Greek 'country sausage', as they call it on menus - loukaniko - is more rustic in flavour and texture than anything I could find in P...