One of the main dishes of any traditional tavern is Cypriot meze. How to eat it correctly, and what can this gastronomic adventure teach us?
Кипрское мезе – это особенность местной кухни. In Greece, the same word (usually in the plural - mezedes) simply refers to snacks, often accompanied by strong alcoholic drinks. The word comes from Farsi and means “taste.”
Meze can easily be called the center and at the same time a representation of Cypriot cuisine. Over the course of an evening, a dozen dishes, or even more, may appear on the table: salads, cheese, pickles, snacks, liver, meat, seafood, fish.
The meze starts modestly: bread, olives, classic tzatziki, hummus and tahini. Then they serve hot appetizers - fried halloumi, sheftalya sausages, kebabs. The fish meze will contain seafood instead. As meat treats, you will most likely be given liver, souvlaki from different types of meat, and ribs. Sometimes this splendor is complemented by baked lamb brain and/or snails. You will be served homemade wine, white or red, with your meal, but you can also order zivania.
You don’t need to quickly eat and drink all this: you need to taste, share, try a little, as if you are conducting a dialogue with the food and with the people around you. This is precisely the essence of the Cypriot feast. Food here is not for satiety, but for unification. When you sit at a table with Cypriots, you are not just eating, you are becoming part of their hospitality - “philoxenia”, which literally translates as “love of the stranger”. This spirit makes Cyprus special: every guest is almost a relative, and food becomes a language that is understood without translation.
To love meze is to learn to slow down. In a world where we are accustomed to coffee on the run and quick meetings, the Cypriot feast teaches the opposite: to appreciate the moment here and now. In a traditional tavern, it is not customary to constantly look at the phone, there is no rush to ask for the bill, and there is no discussion of business. Time seems to dissolve in conversation and in the haze of fried meat.
To understand meze, one must abandon the idea of control. Don't try to remember how many dishes are served or ask when the "main" will be. The main thing is already in front of you - the moment, people, taste and joy.
At the end of the evening, you will understand that Cypriot cuisine is not just gastronomy, but a way of talking about life. She teaches that happiness is not one big event, but many small joys, like those plates on the table, where each one deserves attention. Having learned to taste Cypriot meze, you will understand not only the local cuisine, but also the very soul of the island.
