PLump parcels of rice-stuffed vine leaves might be more familiar to Greece’s millions of summer visitors than these hearty braised cabbage rolls, but, as Athens native Carolina Doriti explains in her book Salt of the Earth, dolmades come in many different guides. In many areas of the country, these landodolmades are traditionally served on Orthodox Christmas Day, the cabbage standing in for the swaddling bands of the infant Christ, and they’re especially popular “on the islands, in northern Greece and the Epirus region”.

That said, they’re not just for Christmas: Rena Salaman recalls neighbors coming round on dark mornings