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( intro music )
The Mediterranean diet is the oldest
diet that is still practiced today.
You don't see people going around saying,
"hey, you need to eat like the Inuits, it's really good".
( audience laughter )
You have people... because it's something
you can still practice nowadays
it's very ancient.
So, I went to Crete
and I did not go to one specific area.
I went all around Crete.
But I ended up spending quite a lot of time in Central Crete
where the word "Kriti" is written.
There's about 600,000 people living in Crete.
This is breakfast, the first day.
And people adapt to anything.
All these areas I visited
traditionally if they eat only traditional food
they are all fit as hell.
I was lucky, I was there exactly a year ago.
And it was time of "Horta".
Horta means herbs, mean the wild herbs.
And so I see this old woman on the second or third day
walking around, you know.
And I follow her and she's got this super sharp knife
- and I'm like, "whoa, easy". - ( audience laughter )
And what is she doing?
She just laid down under the olive tree and
she started to gather all this
various wild chicory, wild fennels
All is... just goodness. It's just,
it was a really beautiful scene.
And so I followed her, you know she didn't have enough space...
into her apron, so she started to take off her stuff
and rolled all the wild herbs in it,
it was a very beautiful moment.
Vangelio her name is, 80-something year old woman.
And then she goes back and her daughters are there
and they start to go through all the hortas.
You know clean them, separate the different kinds.
Any average Cretan woman would give you
about 20-25 names of wild herbs and
go in the field and find them.
And be able to know that
this is still part of their knowledge.
I was really blown away by this.
Then they mix it with eggs
they make this Dolma with stuffed grape leaves.
And then they pulled out this dish,
geranium leaves fried in olive oil.
Even the French fries are always fried in olive oil
there is no other oil than olive.
This is tuna plant, I was told.
It's beetroot, it tastes like earth,
beautiful, with oranges they mix that.
Driving around Crete we passed vineyards.
Wine comes around 4,000-5,000 years ago
from that part of the world. It has olive groves.
Olive oil is like, you know,
the quintessential stuff you think of
when you think of Mediterranean diet.
And people in April are trimming the olive trees
to boost productivity when it comes,
you know, around September-October
when they harvest olives.
And we pass this man who is, you know, trimming
and you can see between the olive trees they till the soil
and they are going to grow fava beans.
Fava beans has a lot of nitrogen, nitrogen fixer
and it will help, you know, the soil to be...
So it's permaculture but to,
you know, very old ways of permaculture.
They harvest parsley, which is a very ancient plant
from that part of the world too.
They practice polyculture
there's not going to be massive monoculture
it's always mixed around there.
It helps because you don't need to use much fertilizer
when you do that.
And I meet a lot of people that are self-sufficient
like this guy, Nikolas
who was living off his vegetable garden more or less.
We stop in Café Neon, they are
the coffee places, coffee shops.
There's this Orthodox priest and, you know,
he's just having, you know, his breakfast.
These are peanuts.
They roll a lot of cigarettes, this crisis
they don't buy cigarettes, they roll all their cigarettes.
Oranges, a little glass of grappa.
Ten o'clock in the morning, "It's okay,
don't worry about it".
( audience laughter )
They live happy, these people are...
I mean, in Crete what I experience
was a very happy bunch.
And, we drive around, there is this guy
you know, in the field there is a fridge, you know, I stop,
I get out, you know, I get fed by very healthy looking man.
( audience laughter )
It was cool, I'm always game for that.
I love it.
- I love to be fed anything. - ( audience laughter )
And we ended up in Central Crete,
in this village called Meronas.
And you head out to the church.
And there's this grandma, "yeah, what do you want?"
I say, "hey...
you know, show me the way to the stomach, to the food."
I need to see stuff you know, "food, food, food."
She said, "okay, go over there."
( speaking in Greek )
Matthieu: Ah, these guys.
( speaking in Greek )
All are like, "he's taking a picture."
"No, I think he's doing a video."
"No, I don't know, man."
( audience laughter )
You know, this is Saturday afternoon
at the Moschonas, in this little village.
And they just eat, man.
There is wine everywhere and drinking.
They're coming back from the field, people are going
There is so much noise.
Could be in Italy!
You know, in my mind I was like
"Wow, my God, the noise level in here!"
And, so they are having chicken from the farm.
They are having lots of snails, all the time, all year round.
They have wild asparagus, they have fava beans, sardines.
You know, wine, wine, wine!
And they eat a lot of snail there, all the time.
And when you think about it
when you think about the evolution of food
seashells, snails, you don't need much hunting skills.
You don't even need bow and arrow.
You just walk there and eat them.
So, when you think of some of the oldest food we have...
we must have been eating
I am thinking it's there.
It's full of Omega-3, there's no fat in it.
It's super good for you.
So, very joyous atmosphere, very nice
and the wine spills over
and I'm like, "ah, great, you know, Crete, I love you!"
( audience laughter )