Greek cuisine gyro, moussaka, dolmades, yuvarlakia and keftethes with the neighboring countries. To an even greater extent it is influenced by Italian cuisine and cuisines from other neighboring south European countries, and thus, especially in southern regions and the islands it includes several kinds of pasta, like hyllopites, gogkes and tziolia. Greek cuisine has a culinary tradition of some 4,000 years and is a part of the history and the culture of Greece. Its flavors change with the season and its geography. Greek cookery, historically a forerunner of Western cuisine, spread its culinary influence, via ancient Rome, throughout Europe and beyond. It
Greek Macedonian cuisine current specialties are trahanas with crackling, phyllo-based pies (cheese, leek, spinach) and wild boar. Favourites are "tyrokafteri" (Macedonian spicy cheese spread) and "soupies krasates" (cuttlefishes in wine). Unlike Athens, the traditional pita bread for the popular souvlaki is not grilled but fried. (Information included from 'Greek Gastronomy', GNTO, 2004) Various products are produced also by buffalos meat. There is rearing especially around Lake Kerkini. Greek Macedonian cuisine Macedonian cuisine is the cuisine of the region of Macedonia in northern Greece. Contemporary Greek Macedonian cooking shares much with general Greek and wider Balkan and Mediterranean cuisine, including dishes from the Ottoman