Nick Mutchler, Plus3 Greece, Summer 2026
Allow me to preface something for you, I do not like tomatoes. I never have. Give me a salad and I’ll quietly pick out every single one of the tomatoes and pile them onto the graveyard on the side of my plate. Now that you know that about me, I hope you are as surprised as I was that one of the favorite things I ate in Greece was a tomato.
Before I arrived in Greece I had made a rule for myself. If it is local and in front of me, I will try it. No picking around the things I think I won’t like. The first real test of this rule came on the first full day. The whole group had a scheduled lunch at a local restaurant with a fixed menu. The first thing they brought out was a Greek salad: cucumbers, olives, feta, olive oil, and the dreaded tomatoes. I braced myself, ate the tomato, and found myself amazed. It was so delicious, and not even “just for a tomato”. It tasted entirely different from the tomatoes my family has been trying to get me to eat for the last 19 years back home.
I am glad I made myself this rule because it wasn’t just the tomato that surprised me. Once I stopped picking around things on my plate and eating whole meals it was like the parts of the meal really fell into place and eating became more of an experience. Each part of the meal had a place on the plate and removing it would take away from the dinner.
Another thing with the food in Greece, I never knew how quickly good food can make strangers friends. Obviously going to a country I had never been to with people I haven’t really met to well was a scary scenario at times. But after that first good mood it was like I’d known the people around me for years. Everyone was instantly put into a good meal, and the conversations were almost impossible to stop.
I didn’t leave Greece an entirely new man, but I did leave with a new appreciation for the quality of what I eat. And maybe a shorter list of foods that I try to avoid.
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