Cyprus delight (Cyprus)

Member Name: Otjiwarotji

Product:	Cyprus
Date:	10/10/01 (345 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful mountain scenery, See the traditional Cyprus, Cyprus has a wonderful climate

Disadvantages: Lack of variety in some restaurants, Mountain roads can be hair-raising, the huge hornets were a bit scary and Mosquitos bit my partner

"Lets treat ourselves to a meal out tonight" I suggested to Brian.

We were staying in Cyprus for a week and this time we were staying somewhere a little different from our previous trips, we had rented a 200 year old traditional village house in a tiny ( I MEAN tiny) village in the foothills of the Troodos mountains. Agrotourism is the term used for these sympathetically restored houses in remote villages intended to give the visitor a real taste of what Cypriot rural life is all about.

It was a lovely house, originally a lacemakers cottage in the miniscule village of Vavla, about half an hours precarious, winding, mountain drive from the much larger and tourist orientated village of Lefkara, famous for lace souvenirs and Cypriot silver jewellery. We had booked it very much at the last minute, via the internet and sought only a relaxing break, the luxury of no work for a week, no phones ringing and joy of joy, wall to wall sunshine, in September.

If you fancy a get away from it all private house we rented this one through www.cyprus-villas.com ours was called Morphakis House and cost only £200 a week and although there were only 2 of us it would sleep 4 comfortably. Car hire is a must and can be arranged at either Larnaca or Paphos airport.
Flights are widely available.

We weren't disappointed, the lovely cottage, reached on foot only, by a steep winding path from the village where we could park our car, was comfortable and spacious with a lovely sun trap private garden to sit and relax in. The small kitchen was well equipped and there was a barbecue. Outside the flowers scented the air and the bees hummed (actually we discovered they weren't bees they were HUGE hornets about 2 inches long, but they still hummed) and it was very quiet and very relaxing. But there was absolutely nothing in this village and our hire car was an absolute must, for going for provisions, for days out, for anything as Vavla doesn&#
39;t even boast a shop.

Having decided, that as the mountain roads are well surfaced, fairly easy to navigate with care by day, yet pitch dark, steep and winding at night our best plan was to go out for day trips, drive around the mountain scenery, pay visits to the coast, then wind our way back up the mountain before dusk fell at around 7pm, bearing provisions for our evening meal, which we would then cook, eat and enjoy sitting outdoors in the still warm evening air whilst the crickets sang. Well that was the theory!!

After a long day driving, walking, sightseeing and a light picnic lunch we returned early on our first evening, with plenty of food, bread, pasta, saladstuffs and some lovely fresh pork we had bought that day. I began to prepare a nice casserole of Pork, onions and tomatoes which I intended to leave to simmer in the oven while we opened our bottle of Saint Pantelimon and enjoyed the fact that it was warm enough to sit outdoors until at least midnight. We do enjoy meat dishes. As I chopped and sliced I asked Brian to light the modern electric oven, which is where our problems began... It was switched on at the wall, the light was on but it just wouldn't get hot, and there was no instruction book. As we had booked our holiday at such short notice the owner was away, so we had no local contact to ask just how to use this damn thing. The hotplate too remained stone cold.

No problem, we would barbecue the meat instead, we knew there was a barbecue as we had seen it briefly when we first arrived, a big stone built one at the furthest end of the garden, and a big pile of wood (no charcoal like we use, but never mind wood would do) So we set off to the back of the garden realising that it was by now PITCH dark, we only had a tiny pencil torch and until we got the bbq lit we would have no light to cook by. We faffed and fiddled around in the dark until we gave up, we could find neither the grill which you sit the meat on to c
ook it, or anything like a spit. It was just a big kind of hole with ash in it! So we decided to leave it until daylight and make do with bread and salad that night.

In the light of day we searched and searched but had to come to the conclusion that the barbecue was incomplete, hadn't been used in a long time and we were pretty lucky we hadn't broken our necks in the dark as the paved area around it was broken and uneven. We knew it hadn't been used because of the birds nest inside! complete with baby birds tweeting and panicking. So that was the end of that, we couldn't bring ourselves to risk destroying the nest, we are both wildlife lovers. We even had another flirt with the cooker but, no would it heck as light!

So we changed plans, we would try and have a nice cooked meal at lunchtime followed by a cold evening meal, fine if you managed to find somewhere nice to eat during the day but as we were intentionally avoiding the tourist traps and keeping off the beaten track as much as possible this wasn't always the best plan and occasionally we found a "restaurant" in the mountains to find the only thing on offer on the menu was ... Omelette or salad!!

This had been the case on this particular day and as we wound our way homewards from a different direction we passed through a small village called Leyia which we had never been through before and which we realised was only a couple of miles up the mountain from where we were staying and it had a restaurant!!!!! As it was mid afternoon we decided to stop there for a cool drink and see what Leyia had to offer. It was a pretty village of about 30 houses and this cafe was the focal point of the village, spotlessly clean it was quite bright and modern with a small canopied terrace outdoors where you could watch life amble slowly by, several elderly local men sat at one table sipping their strong Cyprus coffee, and brandy, nodding to us and smiling toothless grins an
d it had a lovely relaxing ambience.

Soon the owner, a friendly maternal type came over to us and shyly placed a plate of sliced fresh melon on the table for us and attempted to strike up a conversation, with difficulty as her English was very sparse and our Greek non-existent. In these rural spots there are still villages where nobody speaks English even though it is widely taught in schools and used as a second language by the younger Cypriots.

"Eenglis?" she enquired with a broad smile and "yes" we admitted we were, she then went on with much gesticulation, a broad spectrum of facial expressions and a few words thrown in (including, food, cook, night) to inform us that this was in fact a restaurant and she would be happy to serve us a cooked meal any evening if we let her know in advance we were coming. At least thats what we think she was trying to tell us! She then left us, to enjoy our free melon although neither of us particularly likes melon, it was a nice gesture and thats when I uttered the sentence which starts this story. We thought as it was so close we would easily manage the drive in the dark and for a change we could have a hot cooked evening meal and sample the legendary Cypriot hospitality. Brian kindly allowed me to go and arrange it with the lady who's name, she had told us, was Joanna. Well, we argued the toss and I lost actually!

So I went into the cafe, where Joanna sat, peeling potatoes and watching a local tv show and tried to make arrangements to return later that evening for a cooked meal. We agreed on a time of 7pm and then I asked what was on the menu. I was met with a blank stare, then Joanna pointed to a large casserole dish, "Ah stew" said I, she nodded, we went on like this and I realised that we wouldn't have a choice of menu, we would get whatever the dish of the day was going to be, but try as I might I just couldn't find out what it was going to be. The words &
quot;green beans" were mentioned and so was the word "meat" and then a potato was waved at me and I nodded, yes we liked potatoes. But I still wanted to know what kind of meat. Joanna pursed her lips, thought hard, frowned and said "Raw meat??" .... RAW meat oh no I didn't fancy that and shook my head, but Joanna just smiled and nodded and said "you like iss nice, we eat" Well that was that really, you can't argue with that, can you.

Of course Brian and I wondered, as we were getting ready for our big night out just what we were going to be enjoying very soon, Oh yummy, potatoes, hot vegetables and maybe it would be tasty pork or some of the delicious local lamb, perhaps chicken would be the dish of the day, it might even be one of the famous Cypriot mezes which we had tried before and found this huge buffet style selection of around 20 different meat, fish and poultry dishes to be extremely filling and delicious, but whatever it was we were looking forward to it, we were famished we hoped it would be something HUGE and we would eat it, whatever it was, we wouldn't be like those typical tourists who want ketchup and chips with everything!

Upon arrival we were shown to a table, the restaurant wasn't exactly busy but there was another couple, German I think, seated at another table set for eating and then an elderly local couple turned up, obviously Saturday evening was a popular night for eating out.
We waited and waited and the smell coming from the kitchen was delicious and hot and tantalisingly unidentifiable. We continued the guessing game, my stomach rumbling unashamedly until Joanna approached, bearing two steaming plates of food, and a large platter of bread. She placed the plates in front of us beaming and said "pleess enjoy" and we picked up our knives and forks and stared at the enormous, hot, steaming plates of PEAS in front of us, looked at each other and looked back at th
e peas, each with one small boiled potato sitting glumly in the middle of this sea of peas. I lifted the potato, no, no meat hiding under there, I swirled the peas around, sniffed, tasted ... ahh I'd found something !!! Was it meat? no it was the faintest hint of a tiny fragment of tomato.

Now let me confess something to you....
I HATE peas, of all the vegetables in all the world peas are the one I can't stand. Green beans, now I love em, but peas! It's not normally much of a problem as you always get just a small portion which you can leave, or hide under something, or flick at someone but eat them, yuck, and that was ALL there was, not pea soup or stew with peas just a bloody great plate full of them. We looked at each other and began to laugh, in fact I laughed so much I cried. The Germans at the next table laughed too, I'm sure they were saying "look they've given them nothing but peas" until their plates of peas arrived too!

Of course we were too polite to say anything to Joanna, who was sitting at the back of the restaurant, with her family, all eating peas. We almost became hysterical as we began to joke about the mountain wind which was sure to get up the next day and I frantically tried to shovel peas into my handbag.The little feral cats who always seem to live around any eatery in Cyprus gathered all looking hopefully at our plates and I began to try and feed them peas, they declined the offer saying " Oh my god not peas again"

We then decided that maybe this was the first course and if we cleared our plates the main dish would soon follow so Brian manfully began to shovel peas into his mouth and I womanfully continued to hide them anywhere I could, until our plates were empty, and waited and waited then at last our plates were removed...
and we were brought...
A HUGE dish of melon!

We paid for the meal, if I had been at home I would have kicked up a fuss but it just w
asn't worth it, they would only have smiled and nodded and it wouldn't have got us anything to eat. We went home to the cottage and had bread and cheese.

It was a day or two later that we were telling some Cypriot people about it and they assured us that this strange offering is not a traditional dish in Cyprus, but the expression "raw meat" means without meat! So maybe it was a vegetarian restaurant, or maybe they just had no meat available that day, but whatever the reason we definitely won't be rushing to go back there next time we stay in Cyprus.

So if you are ever kind enough to invite me for a meal, please forgive me if I run screaming from the table if you happen to be unwise enough to present me with a portion of peas.

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