Appetizers that have always had a special weight on the tables of Asia Minor, fried shrimp and papazidiko fish, moussaka, political halva… At Bengera in Smyrni, a pop-up restaurant created by Mastercard and Gastronomos in collaboration with the Benaki Museum, the Chef Nena Ismirnoglu, with roots in Smyrna, Istanbul and Cappadocia, draws on her own experience and what the Gastronomos team has gathered in their research, and returns to a kitchen with deep roots. In the Piraeus 138 building, a few steps from the entrance leading to the Museum exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the catastrophe in Asia Minor, the restaurant, dressed in black and white photographs of the waterfront, with moments from the life of the city captured on old postcards, takes Smyrna from the past today.

Mastercard, which strives to offer its holders a special experience, this time invites them on a journey full of tastes that “talk”, images, emotions. This gives them the opportunity on the priceless.com platform to take part in a master class with a chef and learn more about the cuisine of Asia Minor or combine a private tour of the Benaki Museum exhibition with dinner at a pop-up restaurant. And, in order to combat food waste, donates food portions to the NGO “Excessive Heart” and “Poroume”. Asia Minor has always respected food. They didn’t enjoy it. They honored him in many ways.

In the restaurant of the Benaki Museum – Piraeus 138, Thursday-Sunday, 21.00-00.00, until 18.12. Online booking through it benaki.org/smyrnirestaurant or by phone t/698-16.92.689