On most Aegean islands, fish is a basic food. That doesn’t mean, however, that every kind of Aegean fish is found on every Aegean island. Each island has its own local preferences and specialties.

Red mullets, whitebait, groupers, sea bass, and other common fish are everywhere; sardines, though, aren’t. These need shallow, calm waters in which to flourish; one such place is the sea between Paros and Naxos. In Kastelorizo, one local favorite is a small fish called germanos, with uneven black designs on its exterior. Skate is considered a prize meze in islands such as Paros; elsewhere it is shunned. Fan mussels are popular in Kea, whereas in Naxos the favorite shellfish is the tiny periwinkle, which goes into a local pilaf. On Mykonos, fried sea anemones are something of a local delicacy.

The parrotfish of Kassos, the fouskes, an iodine-rich delicacy in Leros and Kassos, and the tiny shrimp, associated mainly with Symi but found throughout the southeastern Dodecanese, are all locally renowned fruits of the sea.

Among the most unique seafood specialties are the salted and airdried fish and seafood that hold a special place in the cuisine of the Aegean, because they provided food that lasts through the winter as well as sustenance to fishermen on their long journeys out to sea. These include the salted, air-dried psarolia, small fish, usually whitebait, found in many of the Cycladic islands. Another specialty is the herbivorous parrotfish, renowned in the southern Aegean islands, especially Kassos, Karpathos, and Symi because it is the only fish eaten with its intestines intact; it is also salted and sun-dried in those islands. In Symi and Kalymnos, lobster tails were and are still sundried
and savored as a meze par excellence, especially during Lent. And, surely, one of the most unusual of all preserved seafood specialties is the spinialo, made with either fan mussels, sea urchins, or sea skirts, preserved in sea water brine and redolent of iodine. It is something fishermen still take with them for sustenance. One of the most unusual cured fish preparations is the gouna, a butterflied, sun-dried chub mackerel that is typically char grilled. It is a specialty of Syros, Paros, and several other islands.