About Cyprus

Visit A Market

If you really want to understand Cyprus food then take a trip to the local market and get to the root of the matter. Go early, through, before the sun gets too hot and Cypriot housewives have taken the freshest produce for lunch.

Most of the items in the market will be familiar but some may be quite new to you and this is when the fun starts. Carry a dictionary if you can, or even better, borrow a translator for the day! If you have neither, do not worry; there will be many friendly smiles and nods of encouragement as well as a taste of anything you like. Let's start with the fruit and vegetables - so fresh, much of the produce will have been picked before you got up this morning. Everything you see has been produced on the island, and the quality is guaranteed.

You will find some salad stuffs and fresh herbs in untidy bundles, parsley, rocca and leaf coriander. Then there are some exotic vegetables - okra, Swiss chard, fresh black eye beans and purple leafy artichokes. But what is Kolokasi? This is a root vegetable rather like a sweet potato and a specialty of Cyprus. It has a rich flavor and is especially good with pork (they say that Richard and Lionheart had kolokasi at his wedding feast in Limassol in 1191).

More that likely you will be offered some fresh fruit to nibble as you wander through the stalls, a generous offer given without any pressure to buy. Even after the glut of citrus fruit in the spring there are still oranges, grapefruit and lemons in the market during the summer. Strawberries, which first appear in January, are still available during the early summer’s months, but only those grown in the mountain villages. Enormous black cherries come during June, as do plums, apricots, peaches and nectarine. July and August are the months for the watermelons. Sweet seedless grapes flood the market from July to November and taste wonderful. Other varieties to look out for are Rozaki, pinkish grapes and Ampelisimo which are big and black, as are Veriko, which got their name from the British who kept saying that they tasted "very good". Do not miss the delicious green and purple figs, which ripen in August and September and taste wonderful just as they are, or even better with a little local brandy poured over.

Mounds of slithering silver fish make an attractive sight in the market but unless you have a stove handy to cook them, you will have to get to know these Cyprus fish in a restaurant. Look out for red mullet or barbouni as it is called in Greek, seabream or fangri, sorgos, skaros, or marida, which is something like whitebait, sea bass known as sfyrida or xyfias, the delicious swordfish. You will also find Cypriot favourites such as octopus, squid and cuttlefish, which are cooked in a variety of ways in the tavernas.

Moving on to the meat stalls, do not be offended by the sight of red carcasses. After all, what self-respecting cook would accept meat neatly wrapped in polythene? In Cyprus, meat is eaten very fresh, hardly hung at all, and you may well notice the difference in flavor. Lamb and beef are lean and tasty but can be expensive compared to pork, which is extremely good value and excellent quality.

Goat sells for the same price as lamb and has a pleasant, slightly gamey flavor, it is very lean and well worth trying.

The delicatessen stalls sells an enormous variety of goods, many of which come from small producers in the mountain villages. As well as honey and a range of different olives there will be tubs of cheeses submerged in brine to keep them fresh. Feta, soft and salty, and halloumi, firm and rubbery, are two such cheeses, made from goats', ewes' or cows' milk. Anari is similar to ricotta when sold fresh, but more like parmesan when salted and left to dry. Two of the hard cheeses are kefalotiri and kaskavali and are ideal for filling sandwiches. Ask the stallholder where the cheeses have come from and you will be locked into a fascinating discussion for at least half an hour.

Loukanika, the Cyprus sausage, varies in flavour depending on where it is made. The meat content is very high and usually crushed coriander and other spices are added. Before being smoked, the sausages are soaked in red wine. Loukanika taste good when fried or grilled. Another smoked pork product is hiromeri, leg of pork which is marinated and spiced like the loukanika, as is lountza, the delicious fillet of pork. A favourite with the Cypriots is pastourma, a sausage full of hot peppers and fenugreek, which adds a spicy bite to a barbecue.

Peep into the sacks of pulses stacked in front of you to discover a wide range of beans and dried peas as well as nut of every description. But perhaps it is time to leave the market? No, not quite. Let's stop at one of the mobile baking stands on our way out. Fresh, seed coated bread, eliopitta, buns full of black olives, mint and onions, sesame paste or tahini pies, halloumi pastries and sausage rolls.

Lastly, look out for delicious almond filled daktyla pastries or ladies fingers, honey soaked loukoumades which look a little like doughnuts or pisides, which literally drip with orange flower water syrup.