Cyprus Food and Drink
Every traveller when travel new land and place, beside we look for taken and experience the place, people and culture, what they local eat and drink, in particular local cuisine that unique is what we looking for tasting. Since in the end, it complete our travel experience by provide the food and drink touch that authentic and only available in local, or making our unique travel experience. The more place you travel, the more you are looking for taste local unique food to complete the travel experience.
Cypriot Food, Desserts & Drinks
As you can imagine based on the geographic and culture root in the past, Cypriot Food, Desserts & Drinks is under heavy influence of Greece and Turkey, and it show in the dishes. For those who like that two national dishes, should not be miss them while travel Cyprus. Cypriot cuisine is the official cuisine of cyprus; it has also been influenced by Byzantine, French, Italian, Catalan, Ottoman and Middle Eastern cuisines.
Cypriot Seafood
As you can imagine, surround by the sea, seafood be the main source of food and inspiration for the various local dishes. Popular Crypriot seafood dishes include calamari, octopus, cuttlefish, red mullet (parpouni/barbun), sea bass (lavraki/levrek), and gilt-head bream (çipura). Calamari, octopus, and cuttlefish commonly feature in meze, a spread of small dishes served as an extensive set of entrées. Just like what you can expect when travel Greece.
The most traditional fish is salt based, be it cod, sea bass or whatever, then baked in the outdoor beehive ovens with potatoes and tomatoes in season. Modern day, fresh fish and meat are regular alternatives. Many fish restaurants also include in the fish meze a variety of different food which include fish, for example fish souffle and fish croquettes.
Cypriot Vegetables
Cyprus consider relative big island, when you compare with neighbour like Malta. As such, agriculture and farming provide range of vegetables and dishes.
Cyprus potatoes are long and waxy with a unique taste, exported internationally. Locals love them baked 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 sit 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.
Cypriot 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 pourgouri) 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 (Marinated port in red wine) is a traditional Cypriot pork dish. It is pork marinated and cooked in red wine with coarsely crushed coriander seed. In order to prepare the dish, ingredients like salt, pepper, oil etc. are included.During the British era (from 1878) the use of butter instead of oil was noted. Afelia is usually served with potato dish, bulgur and yogurt. The origin of the word “afelia” comes from ancient Greek and they were called ovelia = avelia. The word ovelias means cooked meat (usually lamb) on the spit. The traditional way of making this dish was to fry the potatoes in a lot of olive oil and then the meat. Both were then transferred to a saucepan with all the oil and the marinade, water was added and was cooked until the meat and potatoes were soft.
Ayran, non-alcoholic traditional Yogurt and mint drink. It is Turkish Yogurt drink, due to influence from Turkey and their past historical root.
Triantafyllo (Rose cordial), non-alcoholic traditional Greek drink. It 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.
The Brandy Sour is a mixed alcoholic cocktail considered the unofficial national cocktail of Cyprus. While other forms of the Brandy Sour cocktail exist, the Cypriot variety is a distinct mixture, which only shares the basic brandy and lemon flavourings with other variants. Both brandy and lemons are among Cyprus's major exports, and both have distinctive Cypriot characteristics.
The Cypriot wine industry ranks 50th in the world in terms of total production quantity (10,302 tonnes).,and much higher on a per capita basis. Although, chronologically, Cyprus belongs to the Old World of wine-producing countries, the industry has gone through changes that place it more on par with the New World. The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Cypriot economy through cultivation, production, employment, export and tourism.