phýllo

Phýllo pastry. Thin pastry sheets or leaves (φύλλα in Greek) spelled filo or fillo in English, used to make many desserts and savoury pies. Unlike puff pastry, phýllo is made almost entirely of flour and water.

Used in a vast range of sweet and savoury dishes, phýllo becomes crisp and flaky when baked. A few people still make it from scratch, stretching the dough out to cover a large table until it’s so thin you can read through it—including baker Giorgos Hatziparaskos in Rethymnon, but most cooks buy the chilled ready-made version.

Φύλλο Κρητικό (fýllo kritikó): Cretan-style phýllo, made with lemon juice and raki.

Φύλλο κρούστας (fýllo krouústas): thin sheets of pie crust

χωριάτικο φύλλο (choriátiko fýllo): 'Country' phýllo, which is bit thicker, drier, and closer to the homemade (but also sold in Greek supermarkets). You usually need to sprinkle water on it to make it pliable. It is similar to Pontian γιοχάς (yiochas), used in perek and other savoury dishes.