Recipe #5 - Coffee

cawfee.

When I was little I always noticed that my mom made my dad an instant nescafe coffee for breakfast. Not filter coffee. Not Greek coffee. Not expresso or essssspresso. Just instant coffee. With milk and sugar. Every morning.

This confused me. Even at the age of like eight, I pretty much thought, it seriously couldn't be for the amazing taste. Moreover, when we went to other non-Greek houses, filter coffee* was served essentially on tap. Not exciting. But it was actual, real coffee.

(*We also owned a filter coffee machine, but it was so old it had wrinkles. In fact, and I am not kidding, we still own and operate this machine (I say operate because it actually necessitates operation) and it is the one we use when our guests insist on filter coffee (we usually give them many other options, including hand-pressed organic baby-kiwi juice). The machine is the size of a small factory and makes approximately one cup every 3 hours. My sister, who normally refuses to speak to anyone before 1pm without having had coffee, is usually in charge of its operation.)

But now I get it. Now that I have moved to Cyprus my cawfee intake has literally quintupled since I arrived. I alternate between Greek coffee, decaf coffee, chain-coffeehouse-addict-worthy small essssspressos. In fact, I am drinking coffee right now. And I have realised two things:

1. One thing people cannot live without here is nescafe. In Canada nescafe is confined to the odd hotel room kettle or piled up high in a dusty area of Safeway permanently on special. In Cyprus, judging by the price, it is a luxury good. Don't believe me?? I took a picture. :O Exhibit A:

2. I now understand my dad's morning coffee routine. In the winter-time here, people drink hot nescafe.  In the summertime and winter people drink cold nescafe (frappes).

There are two types of coffee that I would like to introduce you to:

The first: the Greek frappe. Everyone drinks Greek frappes. Even my 80 year old yia-yia drank Greek frappes. I have attempted to make a Greek frappe. Mine were OK. But some people have the magic touch. They are the picassos of frappe making. These people will often be called on by their friends or colleagues to make them frappes.

The drink is very simple. It literally consists of a spoon full of nescafe coffee (to taste) with a little water and sugar to taste. There are three sugar levels you can request: ("sketo"** - i.e. no sugar. "metreo" - i.e. a little sugar. and "leeko" - i.e. I'd like diabetes please.) This is whipped by a "frappe maker" -- i.e. a sort of milkshake maker device -- for about 30 seconds to a minute. Once you have enough foam to your liking, you can add as much ice, water and milk as you want. Again, there are three levels: ("horis yala" - i.e. without milk, all water. "miso-miso" - i.e. half milk, half water, or "alo yala" - i.e. all milk.). Most people consume at least 3 of these things a day. They are usually served with sunshine and good gossip.

(** My English-Greek is apparently ... fascinating. As my cousin's boyfriend put it mildly: "Christina, if I spoke English like you speak Greek, people would think I was retarded." ... yeah, bite me y'all.)

 

The second:  Cypriot coffee. (Also known as Greek coffee in Greece and coffee in Turkey and bitter, yucky coffee by five year olds in Canada.) This is literally a small teaspoon full of "Cyprus coffee" with a little Cyprus coffee cup full of water, brought to a stage just below a boil on a stove in something called a "brikee". I have attached photos, as I feel like I am speaking a foreign language. Again, you can have it "sketo", "metreo" or "leeko". 

Most people have one in the morning, and one in the afternoon after their naps, or whenever visiting friends' houses. It doesn't seem like a lot of younger people like Cypriot coffee. From what I have observed, it tends to be popular with old men with staring problems at old traditional coffee shops, or sociable people over the age of 40. I like it a lot. I sometimes try to stare at people too when I drink it, but too many men have interpreted this the wrong way.

I should also add that there is a 'traditional' way of making Cypriot coffee. This is to heat the brike in hot sand so that the heat warms the coffee up evenly. I have found only a couple of places in Cyprus that make Cyprus coffee the traditional way. There IS a difference in taste, believe it or not.

OK that's all for now. ... I'm going to go and make myself another cawfee. Like that wasn't predictable. ...

Recipe #4 - Field Greens - Louvana

I'm in field. This one to be exact:

But this time with a crazy pug that thinks this is the best day of her life ... Well she always seems to think that.  Actually I think being in this field is pretty cool. The weather in Cyprus has started to turn to spring - which I am told will last all of two days until the heat hits and we essentially melt. Anyway, you can smell the change in air, slightly more cigarette smoke, and it seems people are happier. For example they only honk their horns and swear at me a little bit when I can't decide whether to go strait or turn at stop lights.

Anyway I am here in search of "horta" which roughly translated means fresh greens, although I must confess that for the longest time when my sister and I were growing up we thought it literally meant "weeds" because that's what it looked like we were eating. Horta are eaten a lot in Cyprus, but people of my generation wouldn't know how to find them if they were placed in a field. Hence, I am in a field to try and find some edible greens. Today I am searching for something called louvana. It looks like this:

And I am supposed to try and find it in this:

 

I rummaged around and found half a bag full. My guide found two full bags. We played share-sies.

Now, the funny thing about louvana - if you ask me, and well since I am writing this blog I guess I will, is that I didn't find them all that tasty. They were a bit food neutral if you asked me. They are usually served quite simply - washed and raw together with olive oil, salt and either lemon or red wine vinegar to taste.  

I am currently racking my brain to 1. figure out what 'louvana' is called in English - nobody seems to know. Neither does google. And, 2. figure out whether they would taste good if slightly stir fried with garlic and soy sauce, like bok choi. I think so. I also think they would work with a nice rasberry vinegrette, shallots, walnutes and blue cheese. As a said - they are pretty food neutral.

Anyway,  the neat thing about "horta" is that there are lots of different types in season at different times.  As such I will periodically describe some of these plants and show you pictures just in case you ever want to try to pick them yourselves.

HOW TO FIND LOUVANA AND RECIPE

So at the moment, louvana are in stock, I mean available, I mean grown, you know what I mean. In short, you can find them in early March in the mountain fields. You pick only the top 4 inches of the stems - they snap naturally. And you can serve them raw as described above - I have not found a recipe where they are cooked ... yet.

 

In other words you can make this from louvana:

Just kidding. You can't. 

What you can make, is this, with a little olive oil, salt and vinegar or lemon as you wish. See above for food-neutral warning:

Recipe #3 - Elopitas

So picture middle class North America suburbia circa 1990. When you are a kid and lunch time finally arrives you open your lunch box and peer into it to see what your mother has packed you. (Well to be honest we did this at recess, but sometimes you hoped that your sandwich would have metamorphisized into a gigantic hamburger over social studies). 

Thereafter all those who were dissatisfied with what they were given entered the lunch time barter system, which was sort of like wall street bond trading but with kids sporting only less facial hair and higher maturity levels.