August in Cyprus: hoping to eat out

Richard got back - eventually - on August 13th.  I'd had quite a tiring day. The family who had been staying in our guest flat had a fairly early flight, so they left about eight o'clock in the morning. They had put one load of sheets and towels in the washing machine already, but there was more to do. And there was another family coming to stay for a few days, friends of Richard's from the conference, arriving later that afternoon. 

Thankfully it wasn't quite as humid as it had been, so laundry dried very quickly. I did another load in the guest flat machine, and a load in our upstairs washing machine, and was able to run the Roomba downstairs, and re-make up all the beds. But it was hot, and everything takes me a lot longer in the summer. Richard had said he should be home before lunch and hoped to help, but more bureaucracy got in the way, and it was mid-afternoon before he arrived back. 

He suggested we go out to eat that evening, celebrating our anniversary (nearly four weeks late). And so I wouldn't have to think about food. But where to go? Local places were closed, as many businesses are during the middle weeks of August. We knew that the sea-front restaurants would be open, however, as it's high season for tourists. 

We liked the idea of going to the Al Sultan Lebanese restaurant. We've sometimes shared their 'platter for one' as a lightish lunch, but wanted something more substantial for the evening. We knew a platter for two would be a lot of food, far too much for us at one meal. But restaurants in Cyprus are always happy to offer boxes to bring extra food home. 

So we parked at the marina and walked along the sea front. It was hot and sticky, and we took it slowly. We reached the restaurant, and went in. Like many Cyprus restaurants, the front area is somewhat open to the air, and so has smokers. And it was very warm. We asked if we could go to the inside section, where smoking isn't permitted and they said we could, but that there was no air conditioning on. 

Suddenly that restaurant was a lot less appealing. 

Oh well, we decided, as we were starting to feel quite hungry, we would have to go to Alexander's, which is often our default. They also have a large semi-outdoor area, but they have an inside too. 

Unfortunately, the same was true there. The semi-outdoor smoking area was packed and full of both noise and smoke as well as heat and humidity. The non-smoking area inside was even warmer. No air conditioning. Perhaps the restaurants are trying to economise - and many people don't mind smoke around them. Our request for an indoor non-smoking section was apparently an unusual one for the summer.

And when we looked at other restaurants along the sea-front, they were all operating a similar policy. 

Okay, said Richard, let's try the Art Cafe. That doesn't have an outdoor area, and we were pretty sure they had air conditioning. 

What we had forgotten is that the Art Cafe is closed on Tuesdays. 

By then, we were both feeling very hungry and somewhat frustrated.  Yes, this is a 'first world' problem. We could have gone home and cooked something, we could have bought pastries at a bakery. We had many options. But - spoiled as we are - we had been looking forward to a Lebanese meze. So we decided to order the Lebanese meal we'd hoped for, via Foody. 

We sat down near the Post Office to order, then went back to the marina for the car, and drove home, hoping we would get there first.

We needn't have worried. It was another fifteen minutes or so before the food arrived. When we set it out on the table, it looked like a very impressive meal: 

We had ordered the vegetarian version of the platter, as Richard had been eating lots of meat for the previous week at the conference.  There were a couple of hot items (the ones in foil trays - and they were very hot) and the rest was cold.  As we had expected, it was far too much for one meal. More than half of it went in the fridge and we ate it again the next day. And some of it the following day too. 

Cyprus Meze

Some long-standing friends of ours are in Cyprus at present. We were surprised when we learned that they were here, having flown out from the UK early in October; most potential visitors have been forced to cancel. But we were delighted to hear from them, and were able to invite them for a barbecue here a few weeks ago. We were also able to lend them some books. This evening, they took us out to eat, at the Monte Carlo restaurant along the McKenzie part of the sea-front. 

It's not somewhere we've been very often. Maybe twice in the twenty-three years since we moved to Cyprus, and one of those other times was with these same friends. They suggested we have a meze, and it seemed like an excellent idea. Since none of us has an enormous appetite, we opted for what is officially a two-person meze to share between the four of us. 

Meze (pronounced something like 'MEZZ-ay') is a traditional and popular form of eating in this country. Here's a brief explanation of a meze in the InCyprus online news. Most years we have meze maybe a couple of times, with visiting friends, at a restaurant that's walking distance from here, Kura Giorgena's. Not this year, though...but then nothing much has happened normally this year. 

I wasn't keen on mezes when we first came to Cyprus, as the focus was very much on different kinds of meat and/or fish (including sea-food) and I prefer vegetarian options. But nowadays mezes usually include more than just different kinds of meat or fish, and they're great to share with friends. There's usually a minimum of two portions per party, but it's quite normal for three or even four people to share a two-person meze, as we did this evening. 

A meze is a kind of ongoing meal, starting usually with salad, bread and different dips, moving on to some vegetarian dishes and perhaps halloumi, bacon and/or sausage. Then other kinds of local meats are brought out, gradually, and usually some chips (french fries).  It's surprising how much one can eat when new, tempting foods keep arriving on the table and one takes just a spoonful... 

Tonight's meze started with a Greek salad (tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese, with a bit of lettuce), accompanied by two kinds of warm bread, olives, Greek yogurt, tzatsiki and a couple of other dips. I enjoyed that very much, and could have made a meal on just that 'starter'. 

The next things that arrived were halloumi and bacon (I had halloumi but not bacon), then three vegetarian dishes: pasta with grated cheese, mushrooms in a lemon sauce, and scrambled egg with courgettes.  

All delicious (from my point of view) and although the others had some of them, I then finished all three when the meat started arriving.  I did eat a little chicken and several of the chips, but much preferred to eat, slowly, a bit more salad, or egg, or mushrooms.  

Meze has the advantage that each person can choose as much or as little of each dish as they wish - if any of them ran out, we could have asked for an extra portion of just that. But there were so many different kinds of meat that there was plenty for both the guys who liked it, and some (though not much) left at the end. 

After we'd finished, and everything was cleared away, we were given a dessert - some Greek pastries containing anari (a bit like cottage cheese), and some candied fruit and walnuts.  I was extremely full after the first part of the meal, but couldn't resist the pastry - though I forgot to take a photo - or one of the candied walnuts.

We wore our masks as we went in, of course, and the staff of the restaurant were wearing theirs all the time. However it's fine to take them off while seated, so long as there are no more than six people at a table. 

We arrived early, around 6.15pm so were not surprised to find the place empty. One other couple came in shortly afterwards, and ate at a table several metres away.  And when we were thinking of leaving, around 8.00pm, a few others had come in. But it certainly wasn't crowded. Restaurants have been hard-hit by the Covid restrictions, and the greatly reduced number of tourists this year.

Out of Cyprus, Summer 2018: Coronado Playa, Panama

After the frustrations of our first couple of days of family holiday, we settled down to a - mostly - relaxing break together. It's the first time all seven of us have been together for about a year, so it's been wonderful spending lots of time with our grandchildren.

Today we check out and return to the area close to Panama City. Tim is going to spend a week on the Logos Hope; Richard and I will stay in a much smaller guesthouse nearby for a few days, then begin our journey home (including a brief stay in Costa Rica).

To get the negatives out of the day first: Tim's luggage still hasn't appeared, which has meant he's had to spend at least half an hour each day on the phone to American Airlines, and at least a couple of hours trying to find suitable clothes (which should eventually be refunded by his insurance). Esther hasn't been sleeping well, meaning that Daniel and Becky have had very broken nights, and in the past couple of days Daniel has had a bad sinus-ish cold.

However, overall it's been an excellent break. When looking for a suitable place to say, Richard had several criteria: he wanted it to be in a safe place, child-friendly with at least four bedrooms. he hoped for some outdoor space for the children to run around, and - if possible - a beach nearby. He found all those things in our Air BnB villa in Coronado Playa.

The whole village is in a closed area; to get in, we have to stop at a booth and explain where we're going. It's not particularly secure - usually Richard just says we're going to a friend's house, which he was told to say - but is protection against some danger. Not that it's a particularly dangerous country, but petty theft is fairly common, and this is quite a wealthy area. The owner of this villa lives in one of the cities, and this is her family holiday home. This appears to be the case for many of the owners of properties in the neighbourhood; they're mostly empty at present, although the weekend saw quite an increase in people locally.

The villa itself has a high fence around, with padlocked gates at the front. There's a caretaker who lives in a little house on site, and three large (though extremely friendly) dogs which live outside and bark at any hint of activity nearby during the night.

For me, one of the best things about a holiday is not having to cook or even think too much about food. Becky and Tim both enjoy cooking and planning meals, but we had decided to eat out a few times anyway, to save time and to experience some of the local cuisine. Not that we managed the latter. While there are some inexpensive 'fonda' restaurants (roughly what we would call tavernas in Cyprus) they're not child-friendly, and mostly only have outside eating areas near the street. Many only offer breakfast and lunch.

We've eaten twice at the closest child-friendly restaurant, an Italian one.

There are plenty of vegetarian options, although rather limited in dairy-free items at first glance. But they were happy to make a cheese-free pizza for Tim and were excellent with the children. There was a high chair for Esther, pictures and crayons offered almost immediately to both, and their food was ready before ours.

One lunch-time, after finding a department store that sold clothes suitable for Tim, we decided to have lunch at what looked like a fast-food non-chain place. There wasn't much that was dairy-free, but I had an excellent vegetarian lasagne, and once again there were pizzas, though not as high quality as at the Italian restaurant.

Mostly we've eaten at the villa: Becky organised fajitas for the first evening that Tim was with us, after picking up ingredients at a large supermarket in the afternoon. One evening Tim made some curries, which we ate with Arabic bread (available here, though naan doesn't seem to be). One evening we had a barbecue:

We ate outside, and asked the caretaker to join us. But there were a lot of mosquitoes around, and this rather high-class barbecue didn't produce any smoke to drive them away. So the rest of the time we ate indoors.  We had cold lunches - or evening meals, when we ate out at lunch-time - with bread and cheese and eggs and salad, and whatever random bits were left from other meals.

Yesterday we ate out again, this time at a Tex-Mex place called CBC which seems to be an international chain.

We weren't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be excellent as well as very reasonably priced. There were tortilla chips with dips 'on the house' as a starter, and cinnamon fried tortilla chips with a caramel sauce as an extra dessert.

Becky managed very well communicating in Spanish as we tried to make our order, but when it was done, hoping it was correct, a friendly American guy (apparently the owner) appeared and ensured everything was correct, as well as chatting to us all and being extremely helpful.

So much for meals... though I mustn't forget the excellent ice creams, to which Tim treated us all on a couple of afternoons. The closest place, not far from the CBC restaurant, was called 'gelarto'. We found the spelling rather odd, as if it were a nod to British pronounciation. But hardly a problem.

There were many choices, including some sorbets which Richard and Tim could eat. I tried a Belgian chocolate cone the first time, and it was so good I had the same the second time.

David did very well with his cones (chocolate brownie the first time, mint choc chip the second) but Esther, who tends to eat quite slowly, had to have some help. Here's a standard toddler-eating-ice-cream photo...

There was the added bonus of a shoe shop next door, where I was able to find some very comfortable flip-flops for indoor wear, and also some soft, light walking shoes. Esther, who likes shoes very much, thought it a wonderful shop.

Shopping inevitably took up more time than we had hoped, as we had to try and explore various supermarkets to find such essentials as bread, fruit, toilet paper and so on. We had to buy containers of drinking water too, as the tap water isn't good for drinking (though fine for brushing teeth and washing fruit). And Tim had to find suitable shirts and underwear, as his luggage continues to be missing.

The beach is about 500 metres from where we are staying, an easy walk down a country-type lane and a short alleyway. The sand is black in places, something new to us, and rather messy when walking on it! We've been a couple of times when the tide was quite high, and yesterday Richard and Tim took David to make a castle when the tide was much lower. There's no shade, so it's not a place to stay for more than a hour or so, and I haven't been other than in the early evening.

When we (or some of us) have been, one of the dogs usually accompanies us.

One late morning, when Daniel, Becky and Tim took the children to the beach, Esther's hat blew away and was swallowed in the sea; the waves were quite strong and there was no sign of it. On the off-chance that it appeared at high tide, we went for a walk the following day, and found some rocks to sit on a little way down the beach, while David hunted for shells.

The hat didn't turn up, however.

We had thought about making some day trips a bit further afield, but none of us really wanted to spend an hour or more in the car, and then another hour or more back. The only real attraction locally other than the beach is a golf course, and as none of us play golf, we haven't explored that.

But it hasn't been a problem. The children have played outside for at least half an hour or so each day (other than one day when it rained). It's been hot and quite humid, so it hasn't been possible to spend as much time outdoors as we had hoped. But David and Esther have had fun in the tree house, or on the trampoline, or running around with the dogs. Esther was very nervous of the dogs at first; as Daniel commented, she's seen more crocodiles than dogs in the past year. But now she's much happier around them.

We've read lots of stories to them; Esther immediately accepted Tim as one of the family, and David loves the way he reads, so he's been a popular choice:

and we've played some games with David....

He has reached the age where he likes simple board games, and is also beginning to be able to play games intended for slightly older children, such as Uno.

Becky brought a selection of toy cars/trains, and building blocks, and activity books and it's been great just to hang out and enjoy spending time together, rather than rushing around doing things or seeing places of interest (which probably wouldn't interest the children).

Both children are usually in bed and asleep by around 7.30pm, sometimes earlier. So we(or some of us) have played board games every evening. Becky brought Above and Below (confusingly in a Settlers expansion box), Ticket to Ride (even more confusingly, in a Carcasonne box) [with the game boards separately], and, most importantly, Settlers of Catan. We've played that four times in all; it's still our default favourite game, one we never really tire of.

Last night, our final night in the villa, all five of us played.

Daniel won in the end but it was a high-scoring game where any of us could have won. Almost all the cities were built and we used up just about every building spot.

This morning we're tidying up and packing in preparation for leaving about noon. As we have no idea what wi-fi access we'll get in the next week, I've hurried to finish this so I can post it before we leave.

So long, farewell... as the family depart from Cyprus

Today, we said our sad goodbyes to our older son and his family, who have been here, staying in our guest flat, for almost three months. They're on their way to Canada for a week, to catch up with relatives, and then to Central America.

But I should back-track nearly three weeks. I returned home after a couple of weeks away, bringing Tim with me. It was wonderful to have an extra pair of hands.. and on the first Sunday he cooked most of our lunch, meaning I was relaxed enough to take a photo of our entire family - or, at least, all our descendants - together, probably for the last time in a couple of years.

Tim loves to cook, and while he was here he made some of his classic one-bowl brownies, and some double chocolate chip cookies... he also made a batch of naan bread, assisted ably by David who loves helping in the kitchen.  There was a slight misunderstanding in that David thought they were making banana bread, but he liked it anyway.

It's said that children really don't need many toys; that they play with new things for a few days, and then the enthusiasm wears off. David does love his little trains, and figurines from Postman Pat and other favourite stories, but he also spends a lot of time playing pretend games with whatever items he finds, inspired by his tremendous imagination. Here he is with my beanbag, which he first decided was a Santa sack, then a sleigh, and - in this photo - it became reindeer pulling a sleigh:

The cushions in our living room have been used, by turn, as sacks of corn, presents to be unwrapped, sticks for a barbecue, bread for sandwiches... and probably much more besides.

More recently David's been playing at going to Canada, so the beanbag became an aeroplane seat. I was amused when he produced a backpack that he'd found, and told me it was his 'hang luggage'. When I asked what he'd put in it, he looked at me with a 'duh!' expression, and said, 'Books!'

About a week ago, he suddenly announced that he wanted to wear a jumper. We were somewhat bemused - the temperature outside has been at least 32C in the shade for the last couple of months, and it wasn't much cooler in the house. But Becky thought it a good opportunity to let him try on the Postman Pat jumper I had made him for his birthday. I was worried it would be too small by now, but happily it fit him with some room to spare:

Esther, meanwhile, has mastered the art of crawling, and pulling herself up to standing, and she's started cruising around furniture too.

Before I left, attempts were made at potty-training David. Current wisdom is that around three is the right time to start for boys, if they haven't already shown interest. Daniel explained that modern nappies are so absorbent and comfortable that there's almost no motivation for most toddlers and young children to give them up, so parents very often have to persuade their children to go through a 'training' period, with 'toilet times' and stickers and all kinds of other motivational ideas.

While I was away, after a few false starts, they embarked on a full nappy-free week. David spent a lot of time sitting on one or other of the loos, with one of his parents reading to him.  (Richard asked if the choice of book in our upstairs bathroom was deliberate.... )

After what was, I gather, rather a traumatic week for all concerned, David had mostly got the idea and was beginning to ask to go. There were some accidents, but happily they've reduced significantly in the past couple of weeks.

The problem with August is that almost everything shuts down. In June David was able to go to some drama sessions, and the local toddler group.  In July, there was less and less going on... by August, almost nothing at all. He had really outgrown the Early Learning Centre Tuesday afternoon sessions, which didn't change much from week to week, and the indoor soft play places are too noisy and busy for more than the occasional visit.

In addition it was far too hot to be outside during most of the day, making the side yard less appealing. Sometimes in late afternoon David played outside, and a few times went to the park, plus Fridays to the beach with friends... but mostly we were confined to the inside, with air conditioning. Not easy for a lively child who wants to run around.

As with so many difficult periods of life, it sometimes felt confining and almost endless at the time, but looking back, the time has flown past. Suddenly it was their last Friday evening:

We played a last Cities and Knights game, all together, sitting outside:

There was a last Tuesday morning. Most of my friend Sheila's children are away at a youth camp, but E (four years older than David) came over, and they spent the time making paper cakes and other goodies, and asking us to order things to eat and drink, which they then delivered on trays or cushions:

I continued reading to David for at least an hour every day; I collected the books I'd read aloud on one day, not long ago, and was quite surprised to find there were twelve:

While most are quite short, a couple (the Roald Dahl ones) take over half an hour each to read.

On Wednesday morning, we all went to Richard's favourite ice cream place, and David had his favourite so-called 'Facebook' ice cream one more time:

I shouldn't have gone, really. It was so hot out that I didn't feel well for about an hour after getting home again. In the afternoon we took Tim to the airport, to return to the UK.

Then this afternoon, it was the turn of the rest of the family.  They managed to get all their belongings into three large cases and one lighter one (plus hand luggage). Sheila helped with transport. Check-in was quick, so Richard and I didn't stay long at the airport.

I'm pleased that they're on their way to the ship where they've wanted to return for some time, and that the details eventually worked out. I'm delighted they're able to spend a week seeing some of Becky's family en route. I've loved getting to know the children better, seeing them develop and pass milestones, enjoying David's wonderful sense of curiosity and imagination and hunger for stories.

Tomorrow we'll get the guest flat back to its usual state (one of the beds was dismantled in David's room, and the cot needs to be put away) and work out where to store the sand pit and toys.  On Saturday I hope to catch up with my book reviews blog, on which I'm about three weeks behind. On Monday I'll resume scanning negatives, and writing, and website updating.

Meanwhile, the house feels very quiet. I haven't done anything constructive since returning from the airport six or seven hours ago. I've shed a few tears, tidied away a few things, vegged out at the computer. I'm going to miss them all very much.

Another meze at Kira Georgena taverna

About four months ago, some visiting friends took us out to eat at a local taverna whose name in English is Kira (or Kura) Georgena.  We liked it so much that when other friends were visiting last week, and wanted to take us out for meze, we suggested the same place.

Meze is a wonderful way for groups of people to eat in Cyprus. The idea is to have small portions of large numbers of different kinds of food, brought out gradually through the evening.The price per person is typically between about 15 and 18 euros, which sounds like a lot; but with four people it's usual to ask for a meze for three people, as there's always a vast quantity of food and not everyone likes everything. So that's what we did.

I remembered to take photos, this time, and we even attempted to count the dishes; we kept losing track, but think there were about thirty in all, excluding the dessert.

The starter - which comes very quickly - is typical for a meze: a Greek salad (mainly cucumber, tomatoes and feta cheese), a plate of pickled vegetables and quail eggs, bread and dips.  There were two kinds of bread with the starter: some toasted bread dipped in olive oil and herbs (delicious!) and some pittas, and four dips: tzatsiki (cucumber in yogurt), tashi (a specialist tahini dip), humus (the well-known chickpea dip, oozing with olive oil and very tasty), and an egg-feta dish which, the waitress informed us, was their own speciality.

In addition, the starter included some raw root vegetables, some olive paste, a small plate of ham/cheese slices, and a small plate of dried goat meat.

So that was twelve different dishes just for the 'starter'.  It would be very easy to fill up on this - and I liked the dips so much that I had quite a bit, although I didn't have any of the meat or cheese.  But we hadn't finished when the next two dishes arrived:  some freshly grilled halloumi, and this, a tomato/cheese dish which I don't remember seeing before, somewhat reminiscent of pizza:

One of our number is a vegetarian, and I incline that way myself, so I wasn't going to take photos of the meat dishes; but the two meat-eaters said that the next item to arrive, two different kinds of sausage, was so good that it needed a picture:

Then some baked eggs arrived with some hot olives (we didn't know whether to count that as one dish or two - but it was on one plate) and some warm local fluffy bread:

There were a couple more meat dishes that arrived while I was still eating salads and dips, and some mushrooms cooked in scrambled eggs, which I enjoyed very much.  Then a medium sized plate of chips (french fries to any US readers):

Not all mezes include chips, which I suppose are a gesture to the international nature of many visitors and residents of Cyprus, and we were all feeling quite full by the time they arrived... but when we started eating 'just one or two' each, we discovered that they were light and perfectly cooked, and so delicious that we managed to finish them.

By this stage we had been given about twenty-five dishes, including several kinds of meat. We were asked if we wanted 'escargots', and declined politely but firmly.

A bigger plate of meat then appeared; this usually signals the end of a meze, and as we were all very full by this stage, we decided that we would probably ask to take most of this home with us:

We counted that as one 'dish' but there were three kinds of meat on the plate.

And food kept coming. The deep-fried courgettes, as last time, were my favourite:

I ate very slowly, as I was extremely full but wanted to enjoy them.  I didn't even touch the rocket-and-egg dish which arrived at the same time, although it looked good, nor the pasta with grated halloumi:

I don't think I've remembered everything, but that's most of our meze.  We were even given an extra dish of humus as we'd finished the first one.

Thankfully we were given ten minutes or so to digest before the dessert was brought out - all part of the meze.  Fresh seasonal fruit, candied fruit, and cherries in liqueur.  I didn't even try the candied fruit or the cherries, but very much enjoyed a strawberry and a couple of slices of orange:

Then... fresh loukoumades.  They're not something I ever make, or buy; but these were very good ones, and since our visitors only wanted one each. I ate (blush) three of them...

Then, when I was wondering if I would be able to get out of my chair and walk, one of our friends, who plays one of the Pokemon games on her phone, announced that there was a Pokemon just in front of the wall, next to me.  I said I couldn't see it, feeling slightly spooked, so she took a photo:

Meze at Kura Giorgina in Larnaka

A few weeks ago, some friends stayed in our guest flat, and, during the course of the week, offered to take us out for a meal. When they were here a year ago they took us to a meze at a taverna called Kura Georgina. It's in William Weir Street, about a kilometre away from where we live, so easy walking distance. We all liked it, and they suggested going there again.

We had booked a table, although it wasn't necessary when arriving at 6.30, as we tend to do. Cypriots often eat much later, arriving at restaurants at perhaps 8.00 or even 9.00pm. But my metabolism doesn't do well with late eating, and we much prefer to be in an uncrowded environment, free from smoke. Cypriot restaurants are now smoke-free indoors, but there's still usually smoking outside making it unpleasant to go in and out.

Kura Giorgina's is a traditional building with a bar near the entrance, and tables laid out in typical Cyprus style:

Since there were five of us - our younger son was visiting too - we ordered a meze for four. There's always so much food that it's normal to ask for fewer portions than the number of people, unless everyone has a huge appetite. We debated ordering for just three, and in retrospect that would have been plenty.

Two of us drank water, but the other three ordered a bottle of wine. It came in an unusual traditional bottle, and was poured into pottery cups, which were quite attractive:

The 'first course' of a meze, if one thinks of it that way, is usually a Greek salad, complete with feta cheese, bread of some kind, and dips.  That's exactly what arrived on our table within a few minutes of our order:

Unusually the bread was neither pittas nor village bread, but a warm, apparently freshly baked bread that was very good. There were also some slices of processed meat and cheese, and some capers. I had a lot of salad, some bread, tahini dip, tsatsiki, and a pepper/yogurt dip which was delicious. It's all too easy to eat a lot of the starter, when one is the most hungry, and feel almost full by the end but I know from experience that this is a bad idea.

It wasn't long before other dishes started to arrive. There were plates of meat of varying kinds, baked eggs, a plate of freshly cooked chips, and - my favourite of all - some deep-fried aubergine slices with Greek yogurt.  I had a lot of those!

There was a great deal more which I forgot to photograph: halloumi, other vegetables, scrambled eggs with courgettes, olives, and much more. Each dish arrived just as we were wondering if we had come to the end. And, as so often, there was a large dish of different kinds of fried meat near the end.

We were told that this was the end, which was fine since we were all quite full. I eat almost no meat but I had a small piece of chicken, and it was very good. The rest of the party managed to finish most of what remained.

We chatted a while, and nibbled at bits and pieces, and then, after the waitress cleared away most of the dishes, it was time for dessert. This is often included as part of a meze, but we were still pleasantly surprised and very impressed with what they brought.

There was a selection of fresh fruit, clearly only just prepared, and some candied fruit which was a bit too sweet for me, but which the others liked:

And then, when we thought we couldn't manage another bite, they brought out loukoumades:

These are a sort of deep-fried doughnut batter with honey; probably very unhealthy, but rather scrumptious. And despite our order being for four people, they brought five loukoumades... so we decided we should each have one....

We were probably there for a couple of hours, and could see that the area outside was getting quite full. People started arriving to eat inside, too, but we thought it was about time to leave. We could have had coffee if we'd wanted to, but that would have kept us awake all night.

Here's what the front looks like after dark since I forgot to take a photo on the way in:

All in all, we thought it an excellent meal.  While some mezes can be very meat-focused, we liked the wide range of non-meat options at this one, and the friendly family atmosphere. 

Coffee at Al Dente on Greek Good Friday

For perhaps the first time ever, we've had coffee out for two weeks in a row. That's three times so far this year - more than I think we've ever had coffee out in the space of four months.

We parked at the music school on Friday morning and wondered how many shops would be open, as it was a religious holiday for the 'Eastern' Good Friday. The local population are almost entirely Greek Orthodox here, and while for many of them it's quite nominal for most of the year, they make a big effort on the special and most holy days.  As we passed St Lazarus Church, we saw people emerging, dressed in black; presumably from a service to mark the day.

It was quite warm and sunny, and by the time we'd walked down to the sea front and past several restaurants, I was feeling already as if I'd been for too long in the sun. So we stopped at the first suitable looking place we came to.  Al Dente is an Italian restaurant, with photos outside showing, among other things, pizza and pasta dishes:

In between the restaurant buildings and the main part of the street, are more temporary structures where people sit to eat or have coffee; there are several of these, with plastic 'windows' that will be removed when the weather gets warmer:

We went inside and sat down at a comfortable corner table. Nobody else was there, and it felt quite peaceful despite plenty of noise in the areas outside. There was gentle romantic music from the 1970s coming through the speakers in the ceiling, but it was quiet enough that it was not at all intrusive, and we hardly noticed it, other than when we recognised songs from our teenage years.

A waiter brought us a menu; there were various coffees and frappés available, mostly at €2.90. Richard decided on an Americano hot coffee, and I opted for a frappé as I was still feeling quite warm:

We liked the fact that they came in a real mug and glass rather than plastic disposable ones. We also liked the comfortable, if slightly odd decor:

So on all aesthetic counts, we liked this place rather more than last week's Coffee Island. It was more comfortable, much less crowded, played quieter, more pleasant music, and had soft furnishings to improve the acoustics. It was nice to be waited on, too, rather than having queue; then again, we were paying almost half as much again.

Unfortunately, the drinks were not as good as those of Coffee Island. They were nice enough: we appreciated the break, and the caffeine boost, and there was nothing wrong with either the coffee or the frappé - no bitter or strange taste.  But nowhere near as good as last week's.

We sat in comfort for maybe half an hour, and one or two other customers wandered in.  When we left it started spitting with rain, and I felt quite chilly after my iced drink.

As we walked back to the car, past St Lazarus Church, we saw a queue of people - mostly locals, again - waiting to go in by a side door. The larger windows had been covered so it must have been very gloomy inside. We don't know if they were waiting for another Good Friday service, or perhaps going in to light candles and pay their respects to the ikons.

The banks and post offices were closed, but all the shops were open.  For most people, it was simply a day off work.