When, in the fifties, Ansel Keys and his colleagues studied the eating habits, the state of health, and life expectancy of various peoples in seven countries, they decided that the inhabitants of Crete were faring best of all. Paximadia (barley rusks) in those days were the staple food of the Cretans.

But when their traditional eating habits became the model for the now famed Mediterranean diet, the barley biscuits were translated into "whole wheat bread" for the unaccustomed and refined Northern Europeans and Americans. Barley flour has now completely disappeared from the shelves of the supermarkets in the big cities, and one can only find it in health food stores or at wholesale distributors of animal fodder. But οn Kea as οn other islands we can get a pound or two from the local bakeries which still bake the traditional hard and dark paximadia. 

In a mortar beat the salt together with the aniseeds to get a coarse powder. In a large bowl stir together the wheat and barley flours and the aniseed-salt powder. 

The crumbled hard rusks steeped in the juices of the chopped tomatoes and the spicy aromatic olive oil sauce acquire a superb flavor and texture. Lighter biscuits get mushy.  

The few tourists visiting the Acropolis on a Monday morning, late February or early May are surprised to see a steady flow of people, young and old, walking up towards Philopappou Hill, across from the Parthenon. 

Braving the chill and occasional light rain, these locals seemed to head to a common destination for an outdoor lunch, carrying not just bags brimming with food but also multi-colored kites.

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