To Koulouri tou Psyrri in Athens

Apparently, a typical breakfast in Greece is a koulouri (κουλούρι), a sesame bagel! So of course I had to check it out on my recent trip to Athens. We visited the bakery Το Κουλούρι του Ψυρρή (To Koulouri tou Psyrri), located in the Psyrri neighbourhood. We saw many carts with the To Koulouri tou Psyrri brand in different parts of the city, so it seems like they are a big supplier of koulouria (the plural form of koulouri) throughout Athens.

The koulouri tasted great! The sesame flavour came through very well. The ring is much slimmer than NY or Montreal style bagels, but this meant that biting into it produced perfect bite-sized pieces for me. The bread was soft but had a nicely toasted crust. Interestingly, according to my preliminary research of koulouri recipes, the dough is not boiled before baking, so I wonder if this adds to the crunchiness.

Here is a close-up of the delicious sesame seeds. I think this gives the Montreal sesame bagel a run for its money! Overall, the koulouri was a very pleasant snack that can stand on its own without any need for a spread.

We also tried a cheesy bread and a sugary doughnut pictured below.

Cheesy bread
Cheesy bread
Sugary doughnut
Sugary doughnut

The sugary doughnut was quite tasty. The total for all three of these treats was about 1.2 Euro, so a really great deal! I highly recommend the koulouri.

Thank you to Jake Vogel for modeling with the assets.