From ancient times Cyprus has been open to many foreign invaders each bringing their
own culinary influences. With many tastes to tease and tantalise the pallet from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. With an impressively rich variety of dishes using meats, fish, pulses, fruit and fresh vegetables.

Try the Cypriot Meze which consists of up to 30 small dishes offering a wide variety of dips, salad, local delicacies, pork, chicken, pulses and much more. Usually washed down with a good carafe of the local plonk. The meze is a good way of sampling all the local cuisine in one go. Don't rush your meal! A good meze should be savoured and always accompanied with a touch of local fire water!! Don't forget to ask the waiter which each dish consists of, and the local name given. This way next time you go out to eat you will know exactly which dish to order.

Years ago when transport consisted of the local donkey and the villages where well occupied, families would come together to swap stories, gossip, play bouzouki, eat and drink. The men would sit at one table whist the woman would busy themselves in the kitchen and with their chores. The wife of the house would bring out bread to accompany the brandy, a little later a plate of olives would appear, along with a tomato salad. Other families would arrive from the village bringing with them a freshly cooked dish, meat, pulses, fish which would be eaten slowly throughout the evening. Thus the meze was born. The food would be eaten slowly and each dish picked at then returned to later.

Thehe most traditional dish of Cyprus is known as a FASOULIA. Haricot beans simmered in a rich tomato sauce with carrots and celery.

MACARONIA DOU FORNOU: Translated as macaroni cooked in the oven. Minced pork dry cooked with onions and cumin, layered with macaroni and a thick halloumi cheese sauce topping backed to perfection in the oven.r>
KLEFTIKO: : Traditional cooked using goat, however today market and the influence of tourism is cooked with lamb. Large joints of lamb wrapped in foil and slow baked in a clay oven known as the Kleftiko oven. A cook Kleftiko should melt away from the bone and meat very tender.

LOUVE: Black eyed beans cooked with spinach and spices.

KOUPEPIA: Vine leaves stuffed with rice, grated vegetables and minced meat.

SOUVLAKI: Pork or chicken cubes cooked on charcoals and served in warm pitta bread, salad and yoghurt.

SOUVLA: The Cypriot Sunday lunch. Large dangerous looking skewers laden down with large limps of meat cooked slowly over an open charcoal barbecue.