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Anari Cheese
Similar to ricotta, this soft cheese is mainly used as a dessert along with carob syrup or honey. When salted anari becomes mature, it is used as grated cheese for pasta.
You can find Anari Cheese at the following villages:
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Cypriot Honey Puffs (loukoumades)
Loukoumades are the oldest recorded European pastry and were awarded to the victors at Olympia in the ancient Olympic Games. They are a kind of fried-dough pastry made of deep fried dough soaked in sugar syrup or honey and then sprinkled with cinnamon, and sometimes sesame.
You can find Cypriot Honey Puffs (loukoumades) at the following villages:
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Flaouna pastry
Flaouna, a traditional pastry unique to Cyprus, was customarily baked especially for Easter. Both the size and taste may vary. Offered during parties and social events, flaouna is prepared in different ways across the island, ranging from salty, to semi sweet or sweet. Another way of making flaouna is with anari cheese.
You can find Flaouna pastry at the following villages:
PELENDRI
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Glyka
A delightful local custom is to welcome guests with the traditional preserved fruit known as “glyko” (sweet) or “gluko tou koutaliou”(sweet of the spoon). Glyko may be prepared using almost any available fruit in season, and even occasionally with some kinds of vegetables. The fruit is firsts oaked in water and lime to become crispy, then in water and lemon juice to become shiny, before it is boiled in syrup. The fruit may be flavoured with“kiouli”, an aromatic bush with thick, medium-sized vine leaf shaped leaves, or with lemon vanilla flavouring.
You can find Glyka at the following villages:
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Halloumi Cheese
Halloumi, the traditional white cheese of Cyprus, has been produced on the island for centuries. A semi-hard cheese prepared from sheep milk with the addition of mint, halloumi cheese has a pleasant flavour and is delicious when grilled or fried. Halloumi cheese can be enjoyed alone, and is especially tasty in sandwiches. Halloumi has a salty taste and can be kept for over one year. Almost every village or town house is well stocked with this choice cheese as people eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, grilled, fried, boiled or fresh. In villages, it is mostly made from fresh goat or sheep milk, but the dairy industry also uses cows milk.
You can find Halloumi Cheese at the following villages:
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Hiromeri
Hiromeri is one of the island’s most traditional meat delicacies.It is made of pork ham that is salted and marinated in red wine and seasoning before being pressed under heavy weights and finally smoked. It is served as a snack with drinks.
You can find Hiromeri at the following villages:
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Kiefterka
A thick, jelly type sweet made from boiled grape juice thickened with a little flour and then dried in the sun. It flavored with rose water, cinnamon and mastic.
You can find Kiefterka at the following villages:
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Lountza
Lountza is made of pork filets or loins which are salted, marinated in red wine, dried in the sun, rolled in coriander seeds and finally smoked in a specially built chimney with wood from various aromatic bushes and trees. It can be served cold as a snack or in sandwiches and can also be fried or grilled.
You can find Lountza at the following villages:
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Palouzes or moustalevria
This is a thick-jelly like sweet which is made by adding 10 kg of clean grape must with 1 kg of flour and heating the mixture while stirring continuously until it is coagulated, adding rosewater, cinnamon and mastic towards the end so as to maintain their aroma. Palouzes is then poured into plates where it is left to cool down. Some people enjoy consuming hot palouzes which has just been removed from the heat but commonly it is served cold with a garnish of almonds or walnuts, whole or crushed. Due to its high moisture content, it has a few days of shelf life if kept in refrigeration. Palouzes that is left to dry in the shade is then cut in rectangular shaped pieces to give another traditional sweet food, kiofterka, which have a longer life. Kiofterka are a favorite energy food, often consumed along with zivania, a perfect warm-up during the winter season.
You can find Palouzes or moustalevria at the following villages:
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Resi
This is a traditional dish served at customary wedding feasts. Two or three days before the wedding, the couple’s friends gather at the house of the bride. They wash and grind coarse wheat grain using hand mills while leaving time for music and dancing. The day before the wedding, they cook and serve the resi to the guests. Resi is actually a thick velvety mixture of coarse wheat and lamb meat. The lamb meat is cooked in low heat for a long time before the wheat is added. When the mixture is ready,the lamb bones are removed and it is mixed well to become very smooth.
You can find Resi at the following villages:
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Sheftalies
Sheftalies, a very tasty dish from the charcoal grill, are minced meat shaped into small sausages and wrapped in “panna” (suet). Panna is a thin sheet of fat, like lace, taken from around the liver of the animal. The best panna is that of lamb or pork as it is thin and easy to roll around the minced meat.
You can find Sheftalies at the following villages:
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Soutzoukos
Soutzoukos is a traditional sweet made from a thick creamy mixture known as “moustalevria”. The mix is made from the boiled juice of grapes and a little flour, flavoured with rosewater,cinnamon and mastic. Almonds are threaded onto a special string that is consecutively dipped into the moustalevria and dried in the sun until the layers build up to produce a long roll approximately one inch in diameter. It is then dried in the sun for several days after which it can be kept for months.
You can find Soutzoukos at the following villages:
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Souvlakia
Souvlaki, souvlakia or kebab, irrespective which name you pick, you will get one of if not the most popular dish in Cyprus.Souvlakia are small pieces of either lamb or pork and nowadays chicken,skewered and roasted over a slow charcoal fire and eaten with chopped onion,salt and pepper in a pitta, a flat, unleavened bread. This dish is often a meal in itself, especially if served in a big 'envelope' of bread together with delicious local yogurt.
You can find Souvlakia at the following villages:
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Trahanas
Comes from dried foods based on a fermented mixture of grain and yoghurt or fermented milk, usually made into a thick soup with water, stock, or milk. As it is both acid and low in moisture the milk proteins keep for long periods. Trahana is very similar to some kinds of kishk.
You can find Trahanas at the following villages:
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Tsamarella
Tsamarella is a very popular traditional meat delicacy. It is made of large pieces of goat meat slit with a sharp knife and salted. The pieces are then pressed under heavy weights and hung in the sun to dry for approximately 10 days. The meat is then dipped in hot water, seasoned with dried oregano and dried in the sun for another day. Tsamarella is served as a snack and is ideal with zivania.
You can find Tsamarella at the following villages:
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Zivania
is a traditional Cypriot alcoholic beverage. Zivania is a distillate produced from the pomace of grapes that were pressed during the wine-making process mixed with high-quality local dry wines produced from local grape varieties of Cyprus such as Xynisteri and Mavro. The distillation of zivania takes place in special traditional apparatus similar to those used for the production of tsipouro. Zivania is characterized by its taste and aroma. It is colorless and pleasantly alcoholic with a light aroma of raisins. Its typical alcohol content is 45% by volume. Zivania contains no sugars and has no acidity.
You can find Zivania at the following villages:
