Cyprus-Forum.com

[devil]

I like good food and there are two things that the supermarkets here just don't seem to offer. The first is ham. They offer an apology of factory-made pseudo-ham which is full of chemicals and water and it does not even remotely taste of ham. Is there anywhere in the Nicosia-Larnaca region that can carve real local ham off the bone?

The other is cheese. OK, some (but not all) of the local cheeses are good, but I also like French, Swiss and English cheeses. All I've found here are factory-made Cheddars, Brie etc. That taste of, well, not cheese. Where are there shops that sell decent cheese at a reaaonable price?

[devil]

Am I the only person who cares what they eat?

Doesn't anyone remember the street souvlakia vendors who used to use the most luscious lamb pieces interspersed with slices of onion, tomato, pepper etc., or when the tavernas made their moussaka with lamb and aubergine with a soupçon of courgettes and no potato? I went to a restaurant the other day where I ordered kleftiko and I was asked whether I wanted chicken or pork kleftiko

Another recent misadventure was a visit to a Zygi fish restaurant. The service was abominable, the fish had to be sent back, it was so overcooked, the chips were soggy and imbibed with a poor oil. The only decent thing was a good, fresh, salad, which was all we ate in the end.

In 1953, a party of four of us were busy working and we finished, without lunch, at about 3 pm. We found a taverna in the country somewhere east of Paphos. The owner was the only person there and he apologised that the cook was not there but if it was OK, he could rustle up some lamb chops for us. When they came, he gave us each a whole rack of spring lamb, cooked so that it was just rosé in the middle, delicious and juicy. It was served with chips which were crisp and garden-fresh peas. With a large bottle of village wine, this gastronomic feast cost us 4½ piastres (2½ modern cents) each, with a metrio and brandy on the house. I challenge anyone to find a simple meal of that quality today and, if they did, it would cost more than 4½ pounds (>180 times more). In those days, real country ham was made and not the rubbish sold today under that name (have you ever seen a pig whose leg ham came in neat rectangles, dripping with water and nitrites?).

While on about meat, why is good meat, especially lamb and beef, often spoilt by overcooking, in restaurants? A visit to one place where I ordered lambs liver came with it as an imitation of shoe leather and, even if you order a steak as blue or very rare, it comes brown right through. As a French chef would say, "Quel gaspillage !".

[brother]

If i am not mistaken i have been told that current E.U laws require restaurants to cook there meat with no red so as the risk of disease or food poisoning is almost eradicated, also chicken now has to be tested before it is served using an electronic thermometer etc.

E.U red tape and we knowingly signed up for this but now we are there we might as well get on with it.

[devil]

If i am not mistaken i have been told that current E.U laws require restaurants to cook there meat with no red so as the risk of disease or food poisoning is almost eradicated, also chicken now has to be tested before it is served using an electronic thermometer etc.

E.U red tape and we knowingly signed up for this but now we are there we might as well get on with it.

Sorry, that is not the case: I have never, ever, been forced to eat a steak other than very rare in any EU country, other than here. And what about steak tartare? In any case, this mania for turning meat into carbonised shoe leather dates from long ago, here.

Chicken (and eggs) may be a different case, as it can harbour salmonella (rare in other meats), but can you imagine a country taverna having an electronic thermometer or knowing how to use it, if they did?

[brother]

Fair enough but wouldn't it be nice if the tavernas started to think more of customer satisfaction then profit as that can be the only reason that they insist on rushing out this inedible food they keep dishing up.

But at the end of the day maybe talking to a good newspaper who does not have a food/restaurant critic and encouraging them to give you a media space to rate and in extreme cases embaress bad restaurants could work a treat.

And at the moment i do not recall any local papers in cyprus that have such a column but do correct me if i am wrong.

[Piratis]

I challenge anyone to find a simple meal of that quality today and, if they did, it would cost more than 4½ pounds (>180 times more).

Everything costs >180 times more today. If you expect to eat great food at McDonalds prices then you will obviously be disappointed.

Another obvious thing is that almost everything is industrialized today, I don't think this is the case only in Cyprus.

For steak I go to Taurus restaurant in Limassol. Their food is good. Unfortunately they are right next to a 4 lane road and it is very noisy if you sit outside.

I haven't ate Kleftiko for ages. Have you tried "Xistouris Lisiotiki souvla" in Limassol? They are supposed to be best in kleftiko.

[brother]

Sorry guys but can you remind me what kleftiko was again.

[devil]

I challenge anyone to find a simple meal of that quality today and, if they did, it would cost more than 4½ pounds (>180 times more).

Everything costs >180 times more today. If you expect to eat great food at McDonalds prices then you will obviously be disappointed.

Another obvious thing is that almost everything is industrialized today, I don't think this is the case only in Cyprus.

I don't mind paying fair value for good food, but I still haven't found anywhere that sells it.

Yes, you can get industrial food everywhere but you can also get good food as well, at a premium. At one time in my life, I lived in Switzerland and am very fond of many of their 200-odd artisan-made cheeses and hams. A typical price for an artisan-made Gruyère cheese is CHF 20 - 25 (CYP 7.50 - 10)/ kg. This cheese is subsidised for export and you can sometimes buy it cheaper in the UK or France. The other day, I was in AlphaMega at Engomi and saw some Gruyère on the shelves at £21/kg and I thought I would give myself a treat. It tasted nothing like Gruyère or any other cheese I know; it was sheer tasteless rubbish. When the Orphanides supermarket first opened in Strovolos, they did have some good cheeses (including real Gruyère at about £14/kg) but this has been history for over 2 years now. They even had some Swiss speciality cheeses like Tête de Moine and Vacherin Fribourgeois, as well as French ones. Now they have only poor quality stuff at greatly exaggerated prices.

Is there no good foreign cheese imported into Cyprus now? [ :sob: ]

[sneezing7]

I agree with you buddy......

I also miss supermarkets with variety. I mean, I have spent the past month going to different supermarkets, and although the call them selves "mega", there is nothing mega about them.

Seriously...where can you go to buy excelent fresh ham???

[brother]

on a farm walking on its four feet