Last Friday Soulla went to a Turkish Restaurant (Ishtar)

The background

I am Cypriot and I am Greek. I was born in 1982. That is nine years after 1974. If you know your history well you would know that 1974 was when the Turkish invasion took place in Cyprus with many many ugly consequences for all Cypriots. Unsurprisingly, my education in a school filled with teachers for whom the war was a fresh memory and many of whom had lost their homes and loved ones in the war, was "slightly" nationalistic. Greeks good. Turks bad. Fight for freedom. Do not forget.

I do not want to go into the political situation in Cyprus because I have to admit that my knowledge of it is more sentimental than it is historical. But growing up I have understood that what I knew as facts were potentially biased versions of a truth that no one really knows. A truth which no one will tell you because no one ever really knew. I say this because so many people who all lived through the war and the years leading to it tell a very different story. And thus, as many of the kids in my generation I am in limbo as to what I believe and can describe much better what I feel about the situation instead. In my case, its raw fear. No anger, no hatred just fear of what could happen to upset the few things in life I consider as normality.

Friday night..

In any event my introduction is only to explain why I thought it was pretty strange when last Friday while sitting in Ishtar (a Turkish restaurant in Baker Street) I had a weird feeling of "this feels like home". I felt it was a bit wrong to feel that. But tough luck, I thought of it and I had to admit it. At least to myself..

The food was excellent. The hummus was great, the yogurt dip with spinach and garlick was even better. It is one of my favourite dips and I will certainly make it the next time I have people round for dinner. The bread was warm and fresh, the chicken shish (char grilled marinated chicken cubes with rice) and the iskender (grilled lamb on toasted bread with yogurt and tomato sauce) was spot on. My only complaint from the restaurant was that the portions were too big..but that just does not sound like me so I will shut up instead.

The waiters spoke with accents which resembled mine (or at least that of the lady who reads the news in Turkish on Cypriot television) and were genuinely smiley and warm.. Most of all the price was very reasonable (£45 for two - starters, main courses, coffee and beer including service).

We kept trying to think of Turkish words we know but could only come up with naughty words (just because these are used in the Cypriot dialect). I kept trying to think what "thank you" is in Turkish..I did not know it though. Unfortunately I do not think I have ever thanked anyone in Turkish before.. I have googled it since and can proudly say that it is "seni seviyorum".

And so "seni seviyorum" to the people at Ishtar for the good food and the great service!

This Friday I am missing home..

My Friends know..

..i sometimes feel a bit nostalgic about home. Every now and then, while changing tube lines, when walking in the street, when sitting at my desk and most importantly when big things happen which concern my family or friends..i just terribly want to be at home.

Home

..is a wonderful place. Its green and you can hear birds singing and you can go to the sea whenever you feel like it and everybody makes time for you..I admit that I might have slightly idealised home during the last eight years. After all, I have never lived in Cyprus as an adult and whenever I go back I feel ten years younger which in itself makes me happier. But also, it is honestly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to :).

Today..

Dad retired from a job in which he has been since the 1980s..that is almost 30 years ago. That is a long time people. Since I remember, Dad has worked in the same airlines. And therefore today is a big day for my family. It is a celebratory / end of an era kind of day. And I desperately want to be there. I want to make sure they are all fine but also I want to sit with them and enjoy the first days of Cypriot winter. When it is a bit cold but still very sunny. When Dad makes soup and we sit by the fireplace. When the leaves start to fall and my neighbourhood smells of smoke because every family on the street is doing the exact same thing. And therefore I have decided to make a list of the ten things I love most about home!

TOP 10 THINGS I MISS

• Gardens, sitting outside for Sunday lunch and sneaky cigarettes in peoples back yards.
• My sister and her "just got out of bed" goofy look.
• My Dad making breakfast and chatting all along the process about philosophical and yet funny subjects.
• Loukoumades, crunchy and syrupy!
• Going for coffee with friends I have not seen in a while, laughing out loud and smoking and smoking.
• The Sea. Looking it at it, swimming in it or even just listening to it.
• Sitting down for lunch or dinner with all the family!
• Driving with Greek music playing on the radio. Dancing along and singing lyrics I make up.
• Talks with my Grandma about everything (from how much she still loves my Grandpa (who has been dead since 1973) to recipes to gossiping to new songs to old books).
• Going out for drinks with people you know since always and finding other people you have known for ever and dancing and dancing.

I miss a million other things too about home..but these are my favourite ones..in the mean time I have forgotten that the purpose of this blog was to remind me of all the lovely things I enjoy in London. But every now and then we are all allowed a trip down memory lane...and my memory lane always leads home...

Last Friday, Soulla met Jack!

Zac


It all started when I went for dinner with my friend E on Wednesday night. She showed me a picture of Zac the pumpkin and I instantly fell in love. She explained that Zac is a mini pumpkin who came all the way from Luxembourg and was carved and lit in London. All I could think about was how I really wanted to meet Zac's friends!


Jack

On Friday evening I baby sat my one year old god-daughter and her three year old brother who happen to be the most adorable kids in the world. Just so cute! And they brought me a present! Unbelievably, their present was none other than Jack! A Pumpkin which they bought and carved for Halloween. As they were leaving London on Sunday, they decided Jack should stay with me! Jack is my new best friend (until he turns a bit green I guess)! I have carefully placed him on the balcony and have lit him up every night since.


The Red Cups



Even though Halloween is over, I shall keep lighting Jack right up to the day when I am allowed to decorate my Christmas tree, which I am delighted to announce that won't be long now. My boyfriend said I can decorate as soon as Starbucks brings out its red cups and guess what I saw in front of Starbucks this morning: a sign saying that "The Red Cups are coming".


Life just keeps getting better and better!

My friend the vegetarian makes afelia for her Friday night date

I have a friend..

..who has been my friend since the age of one..! I have fought with her a number of times (over a pen, over my mum, over bloody nothing) just because we are such good friends that we are actually allowed to fight.

In any case, this friend of mine has in the last few years become a vegetarian therefore abandoning the great traditions of the Cypriot cuisine..Sad. I know. But I have not yet given up on her!

Today while at work I got an email from said friend asking me for the recipe to make Pouryouri and Afelia (Cous cous and pork with wine and coriander) - a very traditional Cypriot dish. She has decided to cook for her English boyfriend and to show off her Cypriotness through her culinary skills! Bravo I say! So of course I wrote down a detailed recipe for her (even though she cooked these dishes before but pretends to have forgotten in her new found vegetarian state).

I thought I would share the recipe on my blog since to me it is a great family recipe! There is a bit too much detail and it probably does not read very well but that is mainly because when I tell people recipes I retreat to my native language..just like I only know lawyer talk in English, i only know food talk in Greek..I apologise in advance and I will make every effort to ensure that it at least makes sense.

Pouryouri (for two)

To buy

• couscous (pouryouri)
• one tin of chopped tomatoes
• fides (this is a noodle used in Cypriot cooking which is basically very thin pasta, spagettini or other thin pasta can be used instead)
• olive oil
• chicken stock (I prefer Maggi chicken stock cubes but for vegetarians as my friend vegetable stock will also do and since we live in London where Maggi stock is not available, Knorr will have to do - Yes they taste different)
• Greek yogurt (obligatory accompaniment of pouryouri)

To do

• Use a medium sized pan and put in a bit of olive oil (just to cover the base) and heat it up (should take about 1 min)
• Throw in half a cup of fides or spaghetinni (which must first be broken into 1-2 cm long pieces either by hand or by putting in a plastic bag and smashing it)
• Stir until the fides becomes golden brown (not just whiteish)
• Once it turns golden brownish, remove from pan
• In the same pan, using the olive oil left in the pan to fry the chopped tomatoes until it mashes into a tomato puree
• then throw into the tomato puree one cup of cous cous, the fried fides, 3 cups of water and one stock cube.
• Keep stirring and checking that the pouryouri does not stick to the bottom of the pan
• Cook on low heat for twenty minutes or until all the water is absorbed
• Add cold water if water is absorbed before the cous cous is cooked (i.e. is not crunchy any more)
• Once done leave to stand for five minutes by covering pan with a napkin and closing with the lid of the pan on top.

Afelia (for two)

To buy..

• 400g of pork (two pork chops without the fat, or two pork steaks or even pork escalopes which in my opinion are the easiest to cook)
• red wine
• coriander seeds (the spice not the herb)
• (bay leaves)

To do

• wash the pork and cut into small cubes (3x3 cm)
• add two glasses of red wine, crushed coriander sees, 2 bay leaves and 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• cover with aluminium foil and leave in the fridge for an hour or for as long as it takes to make the pouryouri
• put a bit of olive oil in a medium sized pan and saute the meat (keeping the marinade on the side) until it is half cooked (until it turns slightly brown)
• then throw in the marinade and two more glasses of wine and a glass of water
• season to taste, and
• cook for half an hour or until the water,wine and marinade blends to become a thick gravy!

Accompany with a Greek salad, yogurt and good red wine ;)

So good luck to my friend the vegetarian as she goes back to her routes looking for love with her English boy..

p.s. My dad who is the chef of the family always makes Afelia with mash potato instead of pouryouri. When we were kids he would make a hole in the middle of our mash and fill it up with the thick winey gravey!! Yumm!

Come on Friday....

Its only Wednesday..

..but I am already tired and have run out of motivation. It took me ages to get out of bed this morning and I was late for work. That is not very good. I hate it when I just cannot get my self to care whether I am on time or not. I am going out for a friend's birthday tonight to the Wine Rooms in Notting Hill. I have heard really good things about it so I am very optimistic. But I will revert with MY opinion once I see what it is all about. Its location (just around the corners from Notting Hill station) is definitely an advantage, for the rest we will just have to wait and see..

Looking for a bar (as opposed to a pub) in NW 1 and 3

Speaking of nice bars, I have a bit of an issue with my neighbourhood which I would like to share. Last Friday evening I put on my little black dress, my high heels and my make-up and braved the cold to go out and have a nice drink with my boyfriend. We tried Gilgamesh in Camden town which although a restaurant, also has a perfectly nice bar (with special perks such as prawn crackers and edamame as bar snacks rather than just nuts and olives). The door man was quite rude and insisted that they only let people in who had dinner reservations even when I gave him my special "nice girl" smile. To get to the point we then tried to come up/find an alternative place to have a drink which was not a stinky pub or even a nice pub, but to no avail.

We ended up having drinks at the Engineer, which I do like and is great for afternoon/relaxing drinks, but not so great for LBD, make-up, high heel boyfriend drinks..

It was fine..we had a good time in the end but.. it is a gap in the area's market. We need a bar in our neighbourhood. Pubs and student clubs are just not enough..

Work

I still have to get my work done before getting out for drinks but on a brighter note..just two working days left now before the weekend..

Rainy Friday

My week so far

Let me start by saying that my friend J is in London for a few days. To celebrate, we organised dinner at Tsunami. There were 5 of us, all girls and all Cypriots. There was amazing food, there was lots of pinot gricio for the girls and a martini for me and there were lots of laughs (especially because some of us had a bit too much to drink). It should suffice to say that J may have given all her ten credit cards to the poor waiter when the bill arrived.

Tsunami (Charlotte street)
For the moment I declare Tsunami as my favourite restaurant in London. My friend S and I arrived first at the restaurant and to award ourselves for our punctuality we ordered some Kataifi prawns to nibble on with our drinks while we waited for the others. These were really good. Not too much kataifi (which I think tends to be the issue with all food containing kataifi), big juicy prawns and an amazing pink, sweet, creamy and chiliesque sauce. Loved it. S wanted to order more (as the other girls had arrived by the time the prawns had arrived and we had to share). E dropped one in my handbag but still ate it and J missed out as she was the last one to arrive.

We also had some spicy Edamame (which was hot and spicy and wonderful) and sunkissed salmon sashimi (which E and S loved but I preferred the normal sashimi which of course we also had). We had the prawn tempura rolls, the dragon rolls and the soft shell crab rolls. I did not have any of the dragon rolls but the other two were excellent and very crunchy. We then shared three main courses (black miso cod, wasabi lamb and salmon teriyaki). The cod was silky and it crumbled nidcely. I loved it. The wasabi lamb was also very soft and tasty. It came with exotic mushrooms and some sort of leek pure which suited it perfectly. The salmon teriyaki looked very ordinary and I stayed away but the other girls liked it.

Finally we had some chocolate lava cake which might have been the one low point of the whole evening. J said the nobu one is better. S said the M&S one is better..so..you can draw your own conclusions.

By that time we were all crying with laughter for god knows what reason and therefore it did not matter at all.

Great food, great evening, great service (the waiter indulged the five drunk Cypriot girls rather than tell them off! I do not think I would have been as patient in their shoes.

The rest of my week ...

...was less eventful. And now its Friday afternoon. It is grey outside. It is raining (which is of course pretty standard in this city but the two warm weeks in September made me forget that and I was therefore just a bit suprised when Autumn finally set in),

Autunmn

But Autumn brings with it some great things such us boots and umbrellas and fireplaces and yellow leaves in the street. So, I have decided to embrace the nice things and forget about the rain. As the poem on the tag of the gorgeous umbrella which M's sister gave me last weekend says:

"You should not be sad when it rains but raise an umbrella that points towards the sky and while walking with tip-tap steps through the puddle you imagine all the flowers blooming in the rain."

And therefore off I go with tip-tap steps into the rain and out of the office...

Sunny Friday Afternoon

The language

Yeah! At last the weekend is almost here. And since it is a quiet Friday afternoon at work I have decided that a second post on my blog was definitely in order! I have decided on the language. It will have to be English in the sheer hope that one day the crowds will be following my blog. I have concluded that the crowds (at least the blog following ones) are less likely to be able to read Greek let alone Greeklish (Greek written using the English alphabet).

About me

I have told my boyfriend that I have started a blog but that I will not send him a link nor tell him the name of my blog until I become famous. On my way to fame let me swiftly introduce myself.

I have been living in London for eight years now. I am originally from Cyprus. I love cooking, I love eating, I love going to new places, I love having coffee with my girlfriends laughing about silly things, I love having breakfast with my boyfriend on lazy saturday mornings, hell sometimes I even love London! ;)

My dream is to become a writer but I have no book writing talents. Hence the blog. We all have to start somewhere. Maybe someday..

The Weekend

About the weekend now. I am off to Manchester for the weekend to celebrate the birthday of my boyfriends younger brother (P) who has just come to the UK to study. I am looking very much forward to this trip even though we have only decided to go yesterday. I really cannot wait for:

• The train trip to Manchester (I love train trips I always feel that I am going somewhere magical - perhaps I have read too many Harry Potter books).
• Catching up with my friend M who is taking life changing decisions at the moment and I am so excited and proud of her.
• Joining my cousin at his place in the Manchestrian (am Greek I have no idea what the correct word is) country and taking his dogs for a walk.
• Going out for dinner and drinks for P's birthday and laughing at their stupid brothery jokes.
• Finally, but most importantly I especially look forward to wearing my beautiful new dress which I bought from Spitalfields market yesterday (for £16 quid no less) during my lunch break!

Happy times..

P.S. I am wondering whether my blog can be read by people at the moment (i.e. is it accessible?) or if I need to take further steps if I am ever to become famous.

Soulla in London

I have been wanting to blog for a while now. Not quite sure what I want to say but to have a blog just makes me so excited that I am sure I will find something to say.

I think I want this to be a food/experience/everything else blog. I am still debating about the language..ελληνικά, english, greeklish? We can wait and see!