Seaside psarotavérnes offer fish , though for the inexperienced, ordering can be fraught with peril. Summer visitors get a relatively poor choice of fish, most of it frozen, farmed or imported from Egypt and North Africa. Drag-net-trawling is prohibited from the end of May until the beginning of October, when only lamp-lure ( gr?gr?), trident, "doughnut" trap ( kyrtos ) and multihook line ( paragádhi ) methods are allowed. During these warmer months, such few fish as are caught tend to be smaller and dry-tasting, and are served with butter sauce. Taverna owners often comply only minimally with the requirement to indicate when seafood is frozen (look for the abbreviation "kat.", "k" or just an asterisk on the Greek-language side of the menu).

Given these considerations, it's often best to set your sights on the humbler , seasonally migrating or perennially local species. The cheapest consistently available fish are gópes (bogue), atherína (sand smelts) and marídhes (picarel), eaten head and all, best rolled in salt and sprinkled with lemon juice. In the Dodecanese, yermanós (same as Australian leatherback) is a good frying fish which appears in spring; gávros (anchovy) and sardhélles (sardines) are late summer treats, at their best in the northeast Aegean. In the north Aegean or around Pílio, pandelís or sykiós (Latin Corvina nigra , in French "corb") is caught in early summer, and is highly esteemed since it's a rock-dweller, not a bottom feeder - and therefore a bit pricier than the preceding. In autumn especially you may encounter psarósoupa (fish broth) or kakavi?(a bouillabaisse-like stew).

The choicer varieties, such as barboúni (red mullet), tsipoúra (gilt-head bream), lavráki (seabass) or fangr?(common bream), will be expensive if wild - anywhere from ?26.50-41 per kilo, depending on what the market will bear. If the price seems too good to be true, it's almost certainly farmed . Prices are usually quoted by the kilo, and should not be much more than double the street-market rate, so if a type of bream is ?14.70 a kilo at the fishmonger's, expect it to be not more than ?30 at the taverna. Standard procedure is to go to the glass-fronted cooler and pick your own specimen, and have it weighed (cleaned) in your presence.

Cheaper seafood ( thalassin?) such as kalamarákia (fried baby squid, usually frozen) and okhtapódhi (octopus) are a summer staple of most seaside tavernas, and occasionally mydhia (mussels), kydhónia (cockles) and garídhes (small prawns) will be on offer at reasonable prices. Keep an eye out, however, to freshness and season - mussels in particular are a common cause of stomach upsets or even mild poisoning.

As the more favoured species have become overfished, unusual seafoods , formerly the exclusive province of the poor, are putting in a greater appearance on menus. Ray or skate (variously known as platy , seláhi , trígona or vátos ) can be fried or used in soup, and is even dried for decoration. Sea urchins ( ahin?) are also a humble (and increasingly rare) favourite, being split and emptied for the sake of their (reputedly aphrodisiac) roe that's eaten raw. Only the reddish ones are gravid; special shears are sold for opening them if you don't fancy a hand full of spines. Many a quiet beach is littered with their halved carapaces, evidence of an instant Greek picnic.

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