Tag: meze

Summer in Cyprus- the Glorious Food

There’s always food when I visit home.

The fridge is full with left over dinner, vegetables, sandwich fillings and whatever else you can imagine, there’s something freshly made in the oven or on the hob and plenty of snacks if you are just feeling peckish. But every time I go, I make time to try the countless cafes, bakeries, tavernas and restaurants this little island has in abundance. Hope you have a snack in hand because this will quite possibly make you hungry.

Breakfast

A typical summer breakfast can vary, from just halloumi and watermelon, toast, halloumi and lountza in pita bread accompanied by freshly cut tomatoes and cucumber, olives, fried eggs and the list goes on but what I particularly love is an ice cold frappe and warm, fresh pastries from the bakery (you can literally find one in every corner). Again the fillings can vary from spinach and feta to chicken, olives or if you have a sweet tooth, tahini and have I mentioned halloumi?

Since we were on holiday I couldn’t resist. A local traditional bakery was only a 5 minutes drive, To Prozymi and it did not disappoint.

Cyprus breakfast-pastries

Lunch

I will not even attempt to list what you can have for lunch but there’s something for everyone, from delicious salads to souvlaki, or if you are feeling very hungry and you don’t mind the heat, casserole dishes are always on offer.  The little sister and I tried a new cafe  in the Nicosia city centre, a bit hidden, called Zest and oh my, it was a-m-az-ing. Beautiful, minimal decor and the food was I kid you not, to die for. Unique recipes, beautifully executed. We had the juicy, mouth watering courgette and chicken burgers in warm pita bread topped with yogurt dressing served with fresh salad and a slice of their superb raspberry and hazelnut cake.

 

Dinner

You can’t visit Cyprus and not have a souvlaki. On our short break in Protaras I had a delicious chicken souvlaki  at  the Butchery and Co Grillhouse. I also got to try their cheese stuffed sausage. Extremely unhealthy but finger licking. It is hard to find a decent restaurant in a highly touristy area but the food there was reasonably priced and very tasty. Definitely worth a try.

 

And of course you cannot not visit a taverna and indulge in a huge amount of scrumptious Cypriot meze, our version of tapas. On a family outing, on a warm Monday evening, we visited Louis Tavern in Nicosia, a little cute restaurant in the Pallouriotissa area and we loved every dish. Kefte, halloumi, paidakia (ribs), chicken and pork souvlaki, liver, mushrooms, fried courgette and eggs, halloumi, tzatziki, salads, the whole lot. And for dessert, traditional sweet, syrup-y pastries and fruit. Each taverna do their own meze with different dishes, so you may get different variety depending where you go.

Lemonade and halva in the mountains

After a beautiful afternoon walk in picturesque Kalopanayiotis (post coming soon) we were feeling a bit peckish so we sat at the first place we found. A gorgeous hotel and spa with a restaurant and cafe area overlooking the mountains. What an amazing view. And what an incredible place.  We were unsure whether to stay there for a drink, we felt under-dressed, not worthy to be in such a scenery. But the waiters were so sweet, they made us feel welcome from the first moment we walked in.

Traditionally decorated to keep with the feel and the beauty of the little village is situated in but with a touch of luxury,  Casale Panayiotis won my heart.

I fancied something sweet and I went for halva, but not any halva, oven baked with dates and little pieces of spoon sweet. A posh version of Cypriot halva. It was unbelievable. It went nicely with my fresh lemonade. Sweet and Sour. How not to.

 

This is just a tiny flavour of the local cuisine. There’s more, much much more and every opportunity I get I’ll introduce you to it.

Eleni

A night of Real Greek meze and the Little Mermaid ballet

Happy Monday! It’s not really but this post might put a smile on your face and quite possibly make you hungry.

Today is all about last Thursday, when I got to try the meze at the Real Greek in Southampton followed by attending the premiere of The Little Mermaid by the Northern ballet at the Mayflower.

So, last Thursday my manager Suzanne, Donna, our boss Dave and I, after flipping a coin to decide where to go for dinner before the theatre, we ended up at the Real Greek. I’ve heard about it but I haven’t been before.

My review might differ to others but as a Greek-Cypriot who has had Greek and Cypriot food for years and whose father and sister are cooks, I had higher expectations than normal.

From the outside it looks lovely, I personally enjoyed the Greek greetings and signs as it reminded me of home but I heavily disliked the music. Greek pop music, and not the best  Greek pop played in the background. Initially I thought it might be just me who didn’t like it because I was familiar with the songs and that’s not the type of Greek music I’d expect at a Greek restaurant but the others agreed with me.

We decided to go for a Greek salad and the ‘Athenian’ meze. It included classic Greek starters such as flatbread, tzatziki and hummus, which were tasty but for me they lacked character. I expected the tzatziki especially to have a stronger garlic flavour.

The Real Greek Athenian Meze
The Real Greek Athenian Meze

We also had meat ‘pies’ and cheese ‘pies’, nothing like British pies, but fried or oven baked filo/puff pastry parcels/dumplings filled with meat or cheese (we usually have them as a snack or breakfast in Cyprus). I loved the cheese ones but the meat ones needed a bit more filling as most of it was pastry.

Their chicken and halloumi & vegetable skewers were delicious, probably my favourite out of the rest of the food included in the meze, although halloumi is not really ‘Athenian’.

We also had lamb meatballs, dolmades, lamb kefte and ‘loukaniko'(beef and pork sausage). The lamb kefte and the sausages were delicious, but I was a bit disappointed with the meatballs and the dolmades, not because they tasted bad but I expected traditional casserole dishes like these to be oozing with flavour and aroma from all the spices, but they didn’t, not as much as I thought they would.

 

The Real Greek Athenian meze

After all the food, we were pretty stuffed and sleepy, so I couldn’t squeeze in a pudding, although I’d have loved to but opted for Greek coffee metrio (medium- not in size but with a teaspoon of sugar). It was OK but it needed an extra minute on the hob, I shouldn’t have been able to feel some of the grain coffee in my mouth from the first sip, that’s usually just at the bottom.

Greek coffee
Greek coffee ‘metrio’

All in all the food was good. Everything was perfectly cooked, presented beautifully and tasted nice. But for me it just lacked the homeliness and personal touch and there was not enough variety or quantity. The dishes that tasted the best were the not pre-prepared ones, the salad, the skewers and the sausages. I guess that is to be expected in large chain restaurants, although is not always the case the best food I had back home and in the UK it has been from small local, independent restaurants.

If you want to try it, it will not disappoint, but if you want real Greek meze, go to Blue Island instead. The owner and chef Sotiris/Simon is Cypriot and he has been cooking his whole life. I have tried their meze and is delicious!

After our meal we made our way to the Mayflower. The sky was gorgeous, red and cloudy including people dining whilst hang from a crane. Have you seen it? It’s been heavily publicised on social media all week and I wanted to try it because I’m terrified of heights and I’d like to challenge myself but I wouldn’t pay that much. I think I’d be too scared to eat anyway but the views might have been worth it.

When we finally made it to the Mayflower I was pleasantly surprised to find out that some of my favourite colleagues and friends, Mark, Jaba and Jamie also got tickets for the ballet and our seats were actually close to each other!

 

The Little Mermaid

It was the first time I’ve ever been to a ballet show so I didn’t know what to expect but oh my. We had a little chuckle when the fish and jellyfish on a stick props came out but the whole production was just amazing. The orchestra was incredible, I absolutely loved the music, the dancing was elegant, playful, almost ethereal at times and their costumes were beautiful, showing off their amazing dancing skills.

Well done to Northern Ballet and everyone involved in the production and thank you to Solent Staff scene for the discount tickets.

It was a great night with lovely friends and good food.

Eleni