Cyprus scenery

It is a country with a lot of ancient history and few recent beauty.

Tomb of the kings

Limassol Roman site

Paphos harbour

Grilled cheese

The most interesting local produce in Cyprus is Halloumi cheese. It is a fresh cooked sheep or cow cheese that can retain its shape on grilling, giving it a crispy outside and soft centre. It is a great snack served with honey or carob syrup.

Walnut in syrup

One of the traditional sweet in Cyprus is fruit preserved in syrup.

It is the first time I tried this done with walnut, picked when walnut was in the green fruit stage, preserved in syrup flavored with clove.

It has the contrasting textures of the skin and nutty middle.

Yam

yam

Visiting local market is a must in my travelling, unfortunately the outdoor market scene is dying in Cyprus, taken over by supermarkets. In a small vegetable market in Paphos, I saw yam, with the leave stalk still fresh, just cut from the farm.

 

yam

The flesh is pure white, after boiled with seared garlic and local smoked ham for just 20 minutes, it became creamy soft, such a light texture I have never tasted before, I credit this to its freshness.

Shoushouko

shoushoukos

A popular snack in Cyprus, almonds or walnuts are threaded into a long chain, then dip into a thickened grape syrup, when set, dip again until the required size.

Carob syrup

carob syrup on bread

evaporating carob to make syrup

It has such a remarkable rich caramel taste, instantly becomes my favorite, on yogurt, on bread, dilute with water as a non-caffeine drink, in cake etc.

carob

It is extracted from carob, a naturally sweet bean of a tree that grows in the Mediterranean area.

carob tree

The tree flowers in November and the fruit/bean take a whole year to mature. 

carob flower

During the long ripening, it drawn minerals from the ground and contains a lot of vitamins too, a healthy sweetener for all usage.

carob pulled sugar candy

It is also sold as pulled sugar candy(from pure carob syrup), the thickened syrup is pulled to add air so that the texture is soft and chewy, with that unique caramel taste. 

Cyprus snacks

Snacks in Cyprus are far more interesting and have more varieties than their main dishes.

 

Meze

Meze is a plate of different tasty eats, a bit like Spanish tapas, this one has fish roe dip, deep fried white bait, pickled hard boiled egg, olive, ham, cheese, salad and pita bread.

Souvlaki

Souvlaki is another favorite, basically skewered grilled food, here I have village sausage, halloumi cheese, minced meat with ricotta cheese, mushroom, with a salad and pita bread it is a very filling and tasty meal.

Smoky eggplant

charring eggplant

A Turkish way of preparing eggplant, grill eggplant whole in the fire until outside is charred and inside soft. When cooled down, cut into halves and scoop out flesh. Season with salt and olive oil, the burning of skin gives a lovely smoky flavor. 

smoky eggplant

 

Grilled okra

okra

A new addition to my BBQ vegetable, simply shake okra in a bowl with olive oil to coat evenly, grill until just soft, a minute each side. Cooked like this, okra is mildly sweet and has interesting texture contrast between pod and seeds. If overcooked, okra becomes slimy and not very pleasant.

okra