Category: Food & Drink

Delicious, sticky carob syrup may taste like it belongs in the dessert-section, but it is actually an extremely nutritious product made with locally grown carob pods that can be enjoyed in place of honey and other sweeteners.

Carob syrup is perfect for drizzling on yogurt or Anari cheese for a healthy but sweet snack. It can also be used in baked goods, salad dressings, marinades and sauces in place of honey or sugar. Traditionally, a carob toffee known as ‘Pastelli’ is made with the syrup.

The syrup is made by boiling carob pods in a large bronze container with water for around four hours. The pulp is then strained to leave the resulting golden-black syrup. Many other products are produced from carobs, including carob flour and chocolate.

The carob tree is an indigenous species of the island, cultivated for four thousand years. Once the island’s major export, the carob pods or ‘black gold’, were prized for their versatility, high nutritional value and hardiness that allowed them to be stored and transported across long distances.

These delicious little pastries (similar to turnovers) have a sweet Anari cheese and cinnamon filling and are fried, then dusted with icing sugar or dipped in syrup. Some variations also add rosewater or citrus blossom water to the filling.

Tsamarella is a dish of goat meat that is considered to be a delicacy as part of the meze meal.

Large pieces of fatty goat meat are slit and salted with heavy weights placed on top of the meat, which is hung to dry in the sun for approximately 10 days. The meat is then soaked, covered in oregano and again, dried in the sun.

Like Hiromeri, Tsamarella is also an ideal accompaniment to Zivania (a strong local spirit).

The traditional, spicy village sausages known as Loukanika and Pastourma are both cured in a similar fashion and both contain red dry wine, salt, garlic and spices, including coriander seeds and black pepper. Loukanika is made with pork meat whilst Pastourma is made with beef meat.

Locals love to eat them as part of a meze, as an accompaniment in a barbecue, or fried with Halloumi and eggs for a very Cypriot twist on the fried breakfast!

Some of the mountain villages produce these sausages and other cured meats as specialty products, and you can find them in the chiller section of most supermarkets, vacuum packed to withstand the flight home!

The traditional cured pork loin of Lountza is one of the island’s most popular cured meats and is often partnered with Halloumi cheese in sandwiches, or served with fried eggs.

The pork filets or loins are salted, marinated in red wine, dried in the sun, rolled in coriander seeds and finally smoked in a specially built chimney with wood from various aromatic bushes and trees. Lountza can be served cold, fried or grilled.

When vacuum-packed, the meat has a long shelf life and makes the perfect taste of Cyprus to take back with you to enjoy at home!

Hiromeri is a flavoursome delicacy of smoked pork ham. It is salted and marinated in red wine and seasoning before being pressed under heavy weights, then finally smoked. Hiromeri is served as a snack with drinks, particularly with wine and Zivania (a strong local spirit), cut into very small pieces and served alongside other nibbles.

The island’s most famous cheese – Halloumi – is a delicious and versatile product that has a distinctive texture and is fantastic both cold and cooked (grilled or fried). In fact, it is unlikely that you will not encounter this cheese on your visit to the island, whether it is in a sandwich, as part of a traditional ‘meze’ or at breakfast!

This white, semi-hard cheese has been produced on the island for centuries and is traditionally prepared with a precise quantity of goat or sheep’s milk (mainly by the villages that produce it) in order to qualify as authentic Halloumi. It can also be made with cow’s milk (more commonly by the larger dairies), or even a mix of all three milks. Mint is often added to this salty cheese, and it has a long shelf life.

There are so many ways to enjoy Halloumi! When cold, it is traditionally eaten for breakfast with watermelon, or alongside village bread and olives. When grilled, it takes on the rubbery texture that is so popular in a Halloumi and Lountza (cured pork loin) sandwiches; as a barbequed dish in a meze meal; fried with eggs; stuffed in Cypriot ravioli; soft in ‘trahana’ or avgolemoni soups, or added to pasta dishes.

Halloumi is made in special large bronze containers where, after adding the rennet, the milk curds are removed from the heat, strained very well and then wrapped in a piece of cloth with a heavy object placed on top to squeeze out any remaining whey.

The cheese is then cut into pieces and submerged once again into hot whey until it rises to the surface. The pieces are then taken out of the container and placed in salt and mint, folded in two and left to cool. It is finally submerged once again into hot whey.

No visit to Cyprus is complete without enjoying the traditional meal of many small dishes known as ‘meze’.

This large feast, which has been a popular part of the Cypriot culture for many centuries, is more of a social event than a formal meal, with many dishes shared around the table with family and friends.

What is included in the meze varies widely from each restaurant and tavern, and largely depends on what is in season and whether you are ordering a meat meze, fish meze or a mixed meze. Typically there should be around 15-20 dishes, including the dips and bread, but some places may include up to 30 dishes.

Generally, the meal begins with olives and various dips, such as yoghurt, Tahini (sesame seed dip), Skordalia (potato and garlic dip), Taramosalata (fish roe dip), and Tsatziki (cucumber and mint dip), all served with a basket of fresh bread and a bowl of crisp village salad.

Thereafter, you might enjoy more common dishes such as grilled Halloumi cheese and Lountza (cured pork loin), or more unusual selections such as wild asparagus and other greens cooked with eggs.

If you are having a meat meze, then you can expect grilled meats such as pork chops and barbequed chicken and pork, alongside spicy Loukanika sausages, kleftiko and delicious stewed dishes such as Stifado and Tavas. In a fish meze, a variety of locally caught fish is served grilled and fried, including small-fry, sea bream with olive oil and lemon dressing, cuttlefish, calamari and octopus.

In the more traditional establishments, you may be offered watermelon, sweet pastries or preserved sweets (‘glyko’) to round off the meal.

So, ‘kopiaste ke kali orexi’, which means ‘welcome, and bon appetite’, you will soon fall in love with the social way of eating that the authentic Cypriot meze offers!