Eat Like Ushi

The grilled meats of Cyprus (that I remember from Greece) are a primary food group. There's so many places to pick from and I did want to go to Souvlaki.gr but laziness kept me closer to the flat. Luckily there's lots around and all at reasonable prices.

To Edesma looked good when I walked past during the day, and fate would mean I had it starred on my Google maps before even entering the country. Even more fate would mean I would see the chargrilled meat and a rotating lamb outside that evening. Sadly those were reserved for a pre-order Russian table. But inside there is plenty of charcoal meat still going around.

The outdoor area was nice and when rain started, some automated roofs opened up. Impressive.

- Mixed grill €9.5 - my first taste of Cypriot meat grill was a great one. This was a large serving with lots of variety - some minimally squeaky local halloumi, soft gyro chicken, a tasty tender pork skewer with just a little fat in the pieces, an even more tender and delicious chicken skewer, a decent sheftalia (local Cypriot lamb & pork sausage wrapped in fat), keftedes (fried meatball) which was a bit average, some average fries, a good basic salad with parsley and some bread to wrap things with;
- Snails €5 for 1 serve - these tiny little snails were complete with little faces, antenna and mouths agape. It's far from the French escargot covered in butter and oblivion. A little disturbing in the end but very tasty;
- Grilled vegetables €5 - simple and good. The green padron peppers were my favourite and not spicy.

They have no fresh juice. And noone will serve tap water. So in the end it became a packet juice (a prima in Australian-speak) for €1.

It was a very satisfying meal overall with quality tender charcoal meats, snails and vegetables. It didn't seem much to order but it was plenty (and more) for 2.

I had read that Maqam Al-Sultan was a mix of Cypriot and Lebanese mezze and very good. In fact that is wrong, since it is all Lebanese. Nonetheless after the 15min burst of rain that swept through the town we ended up there.

The menu was actually more expensive than I expected. I suppose reputation, location along the waterfront and something different to the rest of town made it so.

After deliberation of how much we could eat, we opted for the Grand Mezze €39 for 2 people.

First Courses
- Tabbouleh - excellent and full of parsley;
- Fattoush - a simple fresh salad with bread;
- Hummus - strong flavours with whole chickpeas too. A very good version;
- Moutabal baba ghanouj - also a pretty good one;
- Shankleesh - sheep milk cheese in little crumbles I haven't had before. Not bad. Served with tomato;
- Muhammara - a spicy hot pepper dip I haven't had before. I did really like this especially smeared onto the Lebanese bread;
- Moussaka batinjan - a really good medley of aubergine, chickpeas and tomatoes. Apparently this is Lebanese moussaka and I like it.

There was also a couple of dolmades, some mild garlic crisps with yoghurt and chickpeas, and some other kind of cheese dip with cucumber that I wasn't so fond of.

Second Courses
- Falafel - simple and without any green herbs inside. Standard. I prefer the ones at Pilpel;
- Kibbeh makliyeh - deepfried oval pastry with minced lamb. Couldn't detect any pinenuts. I preferred the ones I used to have at Yalla Yalla;
- Sambousek lahme - another fried pastry with minced meat. Average;
- Sambousek jibne - lighter fried pastry with cheese. Average;
- Fatayer spinach - triangle pastry with spinach. Average;

Third Course
- Mixed grill - kafta (long minced earthy lamb pulled from skewers), shish taouk (very tender cubes of chicken), chicken wings (marinated and grilled), ouzi (lamb rice with pistachios) was deliciously earthy and spiced.

It was a good meal overall and plenty enough to take home to finish for dinner.

It's not an essential place to eat in Larnaca/Cyprus but for a change it's nice.

The guy here has had this souvlakia since 1948. I can't fathom that. A few locals and a taxi driver are the other guests here but I'm only for takeaway.

It's the night to eat in and the closest local souvlakia is a good one.

The regular chicken €5.5 comprised 2 skewers and was simple, tender and tasty. The large pork mix €6 includes 2 skewers and 1 skewer (of 2 pieces) of sheftalia. They all merge together with the salad and raw onions. Interestingly there was no sauce added - no tzatziki or mustard or anything. I'm unsure if that is standard, but I would have appreciated that little bit of extra moisture and flavour contrast.

Nonetheless the large is huge and a real force to be reckoned with. But I reckoned with it (to be honest regular may probably have been enough...)

I was looking to take advantage of the Mediterranean's seafood. Despite its prevalence, good seafood still isn't very cheap and so it was nice to find a conveniently located (along the beachfront road, albeit still well separated from the ocean by the road, some tents and beach) that was also well reputed. In fact without a booking there was only a handful of available tables to pick from at 2pm on a Saturday.

- Med rice balls (crispy rice & halloumi balls with herbed mayo) €3 - pretty standard and the halloumi wasn't overly noticeable or salty;
- Seafood soup (fish soup with herbs) small €3 - this was really excellent reminiscent of good bouillabaisse and even a little of the mackerel in assam laksa;
- Platter for 1 €15.5 - 4 mussels with a creamy sauce, 6 prince prawns which had very soft meat (a bit too soft) and probably could have used a longer grill time, fish fillets panfried and tasty, decent calamari, and even more decent grilled calamari heads. It was served with a buttery rice and some standard not-very-crispy fries.

Overall it was alright and I'd go back again. It would be for the seafood soup and to upgrade a platter with king prawns rather than prince ones.

After the long flight from London, finding the airport bus, then waiting for the 30min late airport bus, and finally getting to the Airbnb, there wasn't much energy or time to find something open at 1130pm. Luckily our host mentioned a 24h bakery and corner store nearby. Little did I know that Zorbas is actually a well known institution and even locals go there for their day-to-day bread needs.

They have breads, lots of cakes and pastries, and also run of the mill grocery items. Not bad at all.

Spinach pastry €2.35, coconut sweet pasty €1.75, and a type of baklava €1.5 were the late night snack and cheap to boot. Excellent.