Iconic meals, desserts, and drinks from Cyprus

 10 years ago, I started this blog. They flew, together with the hundreds of thousands of views.

As I told you before, 10 years ago I visited Cyprus for the first time.

It’s a festive occasion, so I’ll celebrate through food this week – food from Cyprus, in its entirety.

Join me!

Here’s the menu—

 

Meals  

Breakfasts in Old Lefkoşa

I’ll always remember them. Fried mushrooms and tomatoes, börek, olives, fresh butter… but my favourite was the homemade orange jam. This feast happened for two mornings at Eagle Eye, the best accommodation of the trip.  

 

Greek salad and Greek salad with falafel

What I’ll tell you may be corny, but I returned in 2012 with a love for the Ocean Basket chain even though I am an ovo-lacto-vegetarian. It didn’t disappoint me this time around either. I was even craving falafel and I was happy to find this Greek salad + falafel mix on the menu.

 

Spanakopita

The first thing that I look for in a Greek or Cypriot bakery is Spanakopita. The one at Zorbas is fantastic. It’s only got one flaw: it finishes too fast.

 

Desserts

Juicy Portokalopita

While at Ocean Basket, I also had dessert. The Portokalopita wowed me!

 

Rose-syrup baklavas, muhallabiyeh, and profiteroles regale

The baklavas soaked in rose syrup were so wonderful that we kept buying them.

Muhallabiyeh is the Levantine term that refers to the milk pudding that the area’s influences also made me find in Cyprus. 

Profiteroles served with that thick chocolate sauce that drives me crazy were excellent at Zorbas, like the aforementioned sweets.

 

Milk halva

This dessert was recommended by our kind waiter at Mezzo Fish Restaurant. Delicate, surprising, and delightful! One of my favourite desserts ever.  

 

Hot baklava served with dondurma

What is dondurma? The gooey Turkish ice cream.

The hot baklava came on a copper plate and tasted like a summer sunset by the sea, at Hemingway's Restobar.  

 

Sucuk trio

I retried the classical grape juice and walnut one, and two new flavours stepped into the picture: pomegranate and carob. Have you also tried sucuk?

 

Drinks

Rose syrup

The thickest, richest, and most flavourful rose syrup that I’ve tasted so far. It was also the first, bought while driving from Lania to Limassol, at Katerina Cyprus Sweets.

 

Fresh orange juice

My favourite was in Dipkarpaz. As the seller claimed— ‘They [the oranges] are small but they are too much [sic!] sweet’

 

Pekmez-based

At the Carob Festival in Tatlısu, I had the privilege to try a fermented drink brewed with pekmez (carob molasses). It is usually drunk ice cold.