Cypriot food is very similar to Greek, we have a recipe thread in the Greek forum here

enjoy

wizard

It's worth mentioning that "meze" isn't actually a particular dish. It is basically lots and lots of small portions of various Cypriot dishes.

If you are looking to sample as many different Cypriot dishes as possible I'd recommend you order a meze (most tavernas do them, and you can have fish or meat meze), but also strongly suggest you miss lunch.

Richie

All Cypriot dishes (like any other recipe from anywhere around the world) vary depending on who makes them, where they are made and to a degree whats in season.

Kleftico, slow oven baked lamb is usually spiced with oregano, lemon, salt and pepper and cooked until its falling off the bone. Now you might find in some places its a lamb shank in others a chop. It could also have a little wine or maybe even tomato added just like you make your gravy different to how I make mine etc.

Stifado, (stifado basically means stew) Is a rich stew usually with beef (but could be with any meat and even fish, rabbit or chicken) and baby onions. It tends to be based around red wine, sometimes tomatoes and vinegar.

Spanakopita - (pita means parcel or pie) This is a spinach and feta cheese pie (sometimes slices from one large pie, sometimes individual ones resembling an Indian samosa) with filo pastry.

Dolmades - Stuffed vine leaves, rice, sometimes lamb or beef mince, parsley, garlice, lemon, oregano, mint cooked in small parcels made from vine leaves.

Koupes - (think thats the correct spelling,this is all from seeing and eating not from cook books and menus) A sort of cigar shaped snack made from finely ground cracked wheat for the outer case and filled with pork mince, parsley and I believe possibly a little white wine, you then eat either hot or cold with a squeeze of lemon. (I found these in one of the sort of supermarkets with other fresh pies and pastries)

Souvlaki - Small skewers of meat usually pork and often chicken, cooked over a bbq/charcoals and spiced with lemon and oregano - Very similar to Souvla but this is a much bigger spit roast version with large pieces of meat.

Pastitsio - (again guessing the spelling) is sort of like lasagne but made with pennes pasta and either pork or lamb mince (I detected hints of garlic and cinnamon in there)

Afelia - Pork done in wine and corriander (and a touch of vinegar), slow cooked in the oven again

Tavas - very similar to afelia but with potatos and slightly different spicing (or at least at the places I tried it, that was what it was like)

There are other things to try but off the top of my head that will do for now.. Oh and don't forget to have baked potatoes at least once near the start of the holiday - Cyprus potatoes must me amongst the best potatoes in the world !

If you want to see some of the Cypriot food and the other food available (ie Indian, Mexican, Italian and a whole lot more) I took plenty of pictures on my recent visit so have a look through the slide shows here - AskCy Food pictures

Steve

Moussaka Minced lamb, slices of potato and aubergine covered with bechamel sauce.

Sheftalia A sort of rissole/skinlesss ausage

Loukanika Spicy sausages

Keftedes Meatballs

No idea what it's called, but it consists of aubergine, (or courgette), mushroom and scrambled egg

Zestos sandwiches Buy from one of the vans you see parkd all over the island. My favourite; lountza, halloumi and tomato. (Zestos means hot.)

Cyprus cakes and deserts, any of them ALL of them!!!! Zorbas bakeries...HEAVEN!!!

Mark

wow thanks for all that info.

i dont think ill be trying everything you said i am only going for a week! lol! but the kleftico sounds the best cos i love lamb and il have to get a baked potatoe and i zesto sandwich. it does seem ages away though im just excited as i just booked it not long ago! 12 months to go yet. far to many sleeps to count!. love mel

I think the description of Kleftico given by Steve could be a little misleading.
I've been eating Kleftico for 20 years, on and off, and it usually consists of roughly chopped pieces of a sheep. Chops or shanks in Kleftico will only be in "posh" restaurants.
The best potatos you'll EVER eat are ones cooked with the Kleftico. MMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

Mark

My Kleftico miss-leading?...

Kelftico - The dish of thieves, traditionally it was made by stealling lambs/sheep and then cooking on the embers of a low fire in a sealed pot, so the fire could not be seen in the dark by the shepperd. So it was usually large chunks of meat as there wasn't much of a place for fine chopping. Its done all around Greece and Cyprus and in most places I've been to and 99% of the recipe books I own its lamb shanks (I mentioned it being chops as one place I've been to did use chops).

Steve

Almost every Kleftico I've had in the 20 years I've been going to Cyprus has included a good quantity of bone. One or two have had a little too much bone for my liking. And I don't mean just shank bones!

I doubt very much if the kleftis (thieves) were working to a recipe book.
The meat would not have been chopped. More like hacked, hence the rough quality of the meat/bone.

Mark

Yeah thats what I meant, they would just hack lumps off and stick it in the pot with a few herbs that were about. I thought you had implied that the kleftico you had been having was small cubes of meat rather more like a stew than a roast.

Steve

Real Kleftico, at Militzis, Larnaca, one of my favourite Cyprus restaurants:


Something purporting to be Kleftico:


Mark

That second pic looks like the nouvelle cordon bleu stuff from that international posh place they keep showing on one of the "this is Cyprus" type programmes on Sky (somewhere in Pafos). Its a young woman who goes in and is shown some very different versions of traditional dishes and then is treated to favourite drinks of things like American bourbon and cognacs etc

Not the sort of place I'd be showing on a programme about Cyprus and Cypriot life and culture.

Steve