The Bouganvilla Apartment Hotel in Cyprus was homebase when I spent a week there a few years ago. This little hotel, on the outskirts of a small town, was mildly shabby, but comfortable and clean. There were loquats and lemon trees and all manner of wildflowers. You could walk into town and spend hours nursing a coffee or glass of wine in a tavern on the square, watching the world go by. You could take the rental car into the hills on the dubious rocky roads, and visit a wine maker or monastery, or wander the nature preserve, searching lazily and unsuccessfully for the elusive mouflon -an indigenous type sheep pictured both on the island currency and in the ancient mosaics.
We stayed on the Greek side of Cyprus, which was full of English visitors and retirees, but I encountered no other Americans that week. I was there with my cousin, and had gone to visit her in England first. Maybe it is just too roundabout for American tourists to get there. There are, of course, Greek Islands which are more directly accessable from the US. Whether they are similar or not, I can't say, having never visited any. I had never before been any place where my accent was considered unusual. I was often asked where I came from, though L. was immediately placed as English. It is seldom an North American abroad is thought even mildly exotic.
We had a lot of wonderful food in Cyprus, including a lovely evening of seemingly endless sequential meze, as well as fabulous diverse fresh fish in little restaurants. One of the best of these restaurants was in our own small town, and was decorated with photos of the cooks and waiters, on the family boat, catching fish like the ones we ate for dinner. Either it was a coincidence in the timing of our visits, or this place was one big neighborly birthday and/or anniversary party on a daily basis.
We also enjoyed shopping the markets, where lemons and oranges were free from barrels- you could help youself, since you could easily pick these on the road all over the island. We did some simple, lazy cooking with our purchases, on the little stove in our room, and sat on our lumpy balcony consuming all manner of goodies from the pastry shop nearby. There, you just walked through a screened door into someone's kitchen, which was rather bigger than average. A woman was always inside cooking- though not always the same woman. There was a glass fronted fridge with both Cypriot and English style desserts, ready to go. We did not grow svelte.
I wonder if it was because Cyprus has been so long inhabited (there was a beautiful gnarled olive tree in the square which dated from the time of the crusaders, or before, and still bore olives), that myth sometimes seemed inseparable from fact. The two were freely mingled in the quite official looking government-issued brochures available at Aphrodite's Bath - a pretty and well-known waterfall with wildflowers all around. The brochure did not state that there were stories about Aphrodite associated with the place. Rather, it reported that this was the spot where Aphrodite liked best to bathe- back when she spent a lot of time in Cyprus.
In that spirit, here is Aphrodite's ice cream. I didn't eat this exact ice cream in Cyprus, but I ate many things with these flavors , and I am quite sure that Aphrodite will recognize it when she gets around to trying it. She will certainly enjoy the tastes of honey, thyme, saffron and walnuts, as I do. The walnut and honey combo is sold all over Cyprus, in jars. You can, of course, easily combine the two yourself. This is how you make the ice cream:
Heat 3 cups of cream or half and half in a small saucepan with several sprigs of fresh thyme , a pinch of saffron threads and honey to taste. I used a wildflower honey, but thyme honey might be best. They have it at both of the Greek markets in town here. Heat just until the honey is thoroughly mixed with and sort of dissolved in the cream, stirring. Don't overdo the saffron, you are not using it for yellow dye and you don't want the taste of saffron too strong. (I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but this ice cream is just barely off white.) Once the honey has dissolved, turn off the heat, cover, and let it steep for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh and thoroughly chill the mixture in the fridge. Freeze using an ice cream maker, and permit your ice cream to further harden, overnight at least, in the freezer. Serve in small portions; it is rich.
You can eat this with walnuts steeped in honey, or just walnuts, or just honey, or plain. Honey with walnuts is also nice stirred into your yogurt, for a more everyday dessert. Some very strong "Cypriot" coffee would go well. That is what they called Turkish coffee, on the Greek side. They also had candy there labeled "Cypriot" Delight. Go figure.
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