Cypriot cuisine
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Cypriot cuisine is the cuisine of the island of Cyprus, shared by both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.The national dish is seftalia (greek:σεφταλιά)
Food preparation
Frequently used ingredients are fresh vegetables such as
The best-known
Meats grilled over charcoal are known as
Bulgur is the traditional carbohydrate other than bread. It is often steamed with tomato and onion; a few strands of vermicelli pasta are often added to provide a texture, fragrance, colour and flavour contrast. Along with bulgur, natural yogurt is a staple. Wheat and yogurt come together in the traditional peasant meal of tarhana/trahanas, a way of preserving milk in which the cracked wheat is steamed, mixed with sour milk, dried, and stored. Small amounts reheated in water or broth provide a nourishing and tasty meal, especially with added cubes of aged halloumi. Bulgur is also used to make koupes or içli/bulgur köfte, the Cypriot form of kibbeh, where the bulgur is mixed with flour and water to form a dough, which is formed into a cigar shape. A hollow is made through the cigar and a mixture of minced meat, onions, parsley and cinnamon is packed. After sealing the meat mixture inside the cigar they are deep-fried before serving with lemon juice.
For
Dishes
Seafood
Popular seafood dishes include calamari, octopus, cuttlefish, red mullet, sea bass, and gilt-head bream. Octopus, due to its peculiar taste and texture, is made into a stiffado, a stew with red wine, carrots, tomatoes, and onions. Calamari is either cut into rings and fried in batter or is stuffed whole with rice, cumin, cloves, sometimes adding mint to the stuffing, and then baked or grilled. Cuttlefish may be cooked like calamari or like octopus in red wine with onions. It is sometimes prepared with spinach, but without adding garden peas, which are a popular accompaniment for cuttlefish in Turkey (specially in west and south coast), some parts of Greece, and Italy. Calamari, octopus, and cuttlefish commonly feature in meze, a spread of small dishes served as an extensive set of entrées.
The most traditional
Many fish restaurants also include in the fish meze a variety of different food which include fish, for example fish souffle and fish croquettes.
Vegetables
Cyprus potatoes are long and waxy with a unique taste, exported internationally. Locals bake them in the oven, preferably the outdoor beehive fourni. Many Cypriots add salt, cumin, oregano, and some finely sliced onion. When they barbecue, some Cypriots put potatoes into foil and set them in the charcoal to make them like jacket potatoes, served with butter or as a side dish to salad and meat.
Salad vegetables are eaten at every meal, sometimes whole. More often, they are prepared chopped, sliced, and dressed with lemon and olive oil. In the summer, the usual salad is of celery leaves and stalks, parsley, coriander leaves, tomatoes, and cucumber. Summer purslane is very popular as are wild dandelion leaves.
In the early spring, artichokes are in season. Cypriots eat the leaves by detaching and biting off the fleshy base. A common preparation for the stalks and the heart is braised with garden peas, with a little onion and perhaps a chopped tomato. Meat is sometimes added.
Okra is baked in the oven with tomato and oil, and cauliflower is also given this treatment. Cauliflower is also made into moungra, a sour pickle covered with a marinade of vinegar, yeast, and mustard seeds. It is also cooked in tomato sauce, onions and minced meat.
Pasta
Makarónia tou foúrnou (Greek: μακαρόνια του φούρνου, Turkish: magarina fırında, English: oven macaroni) recipes vary, but usually the meat sauce in the middle is made of pork, beef or lamb, tomatoes are only sometimes used, and it is flavoured with mint, parsley or cinnamon. The top is sprinkled with grated halloumi or anari cheese, though cheese is sometimes added only to the white sauce. The traditional pasta shape for this dish is bucatini. This dish is also referred to as pastitsio.
Magarına bulli is a traditional Cypriot meal made of bucatini pasta and chicken. This dish is widely known as being one of the national dishes of Cyprus. Chicken is often boiled in water which is then used as the stock to cook the pasta. When the pasta and chicken are cooked the pasta is often topped with lemon juice, grated halloumi cheese and dried mint.
Meat
Prior to Cyprus' urbanisation, Cypriots traditionally ate fresh meat on weekends. This was usually a boiled chicken, served with a starch (usually pasta or bulgur) cooked in its juices. This would stretch the meat to enable the whole family to eat. Other fresh meat dishes were only enjoyed occasionally, sometimes en masse as a feast such as a wedding. Now, as people are better off and meat is widely available, traditional meat dishes are enjoyed frequently.
Afelia, when well prepared, is a saute of pork, red wine, and coriander seeds. Psito is large chunks of meat and potatoes cooked in the oven. Plenty of fat is used in its preparation; traditionally, this would have been rendered pig fat, but now sunflower oil is used. Olive oil is used as a dressing for salads, vegetables, and pulses but is not used to cook meat dishes.
Preserved pork is very popular, and before refrigeration, it was the main source of red meat available to Cypriots. Before refrigeration became widespread in the 19th century it was tradition to throw away the preserved pork in summertime. Cypriots also add red wine; therefore, there is a characteristic flavour to most of the charcuterie from the island.
A traditional practice that is dying out fast is to render pig fat for use as a cooking medium and a preservative. Loukaniko and also chunks of fried salted pork meat and fat can be stored in earthenware jars submerged in the lard for a long time, even in the heat of the island.
Lamb and goat meat is also preserved as tsamarella, made very salty to prevent the fatty lamb meat from going rancid. Very popular amongst both communities is preserved beef. The whole silversides and briskets are salted and spiced quite powerfully to make
Many Cypriots consider snails a delicacy. Snails are in season in late autumn, when the first good rains arrive after the hot summer. The most popular way to prepare snails is to barbecue them. Another popular variation is to cook them with onions, garlic and tomatoes.
Meze
Mezedes is a large selection of dishes with small helpings of varied foods, brought to the table as a progression of tastes and textures. The meal begins with black and green olives, tahini,
Desserts
Loukoumades (fried doughballs in syrup),
are well-known local desserts. There are also pastiș, cookies made of ground almonds, that are offered to guests at weddings.Cypriots also make many traditional spoon sweets that are usually made of turunch/bergamot, figs, tiny aubergines, fresh fleshy walnuts, watermelon or pumpkins processed akin to jam but without the over-cooking. The fruit is soaked for two weeks (depending upon the fruit) then boiled with sugar until the correct texture is obtained.
Sweet syrups and spreads include
Cyprus delights, or loukoumia, are one of Cyprus's
. A similar looking sweet is soujouk or shoushouko, although it is made very differently from loukoumia, being produced from boiled grape juice.Cheeses
Halloumi is a semi-hard white-brined cheese with elastic texture, made in a rectangular shape from a mixture of goat and sheep milk; it may be sliced and eaten fresh, grilled, or fried. Aged halloumi may be grated over pasta dishes. It is the national cheese of Cyprus.
Halitzia is a feta-like cheese made from goat or sheep milk. It is a slightly sour-flavored cheese, which is produced in the villages of the area of Tylliria. It can be enjoyed in salads.
Drinks
Non-alcoholic
Ayran is a traditional drink made of yoghurt. Its recipe varies from region to region. Triantafyllo, a thick concentrated dark pink syrup (rose cordial) made from the extract of the Cyprus (Damascus) rose, has water or milk added to make a refreshing sweet cordial, especially in summer. It is distinct from rodostagma (literally "rose drops") (
Alcoholic
Among Cypriots
Cyprus also has a tradition of
Gallery
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Typical bakery in Onasagorou Street
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Skordalia sauce, hummus and grilled vegetables
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Taramosalata
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Bamies (okra with tomato and oil)
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Drink, coffee /north region of the island/
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Drink, commandaria /south region of the island/
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Shoushouko, a Cypriot dessert made from grape
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Cypriot Zivania
References
- ^ Cypriot mezedes Archived 2013-05-09 at the Wayback Machine, Cyprus Tourism Organisation web site
- ^ Finding Flaounes
- ^ Maria Dembinska and William Woys Weaver, Food and Drink in Medieval Poland (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999) p.41
- ^ "mahalepi".
Further reading
- Sitas, Amaranth (1968). Kopiaste: the cookbook of traditional Cyprus food. ISBN 9963-76170-4. (first published by the author in 1968; published by Kyriakou since 1986)
- Petroula, Hadjittofi (2019). Street food: From the past to the present (2019). ISBN 9789925757701.