Sunday February 19, 2006 - Eros Orb Feast

We were invited to join Nichos (partner), his wife, and daughter, and the rest of the PwC team to his parent's farm for a barbeque. The farm is located about an hour from Limassol on the border with Northern Cyprus. The main road to the farm actually runs adjacent to the barbed wired, demilitarized zone and tower watched (UN, Cyprus, and Turkey are all peering on from different towers) border. Right near the farm you can gaze across the border and see what used to be quite a large pre-1974 city that since the invasion sits pilfered and abandoned.

After Nichos got the bbq fire started, he took us on a tour of the working citrus orchard where we could pick to our hearts content. The farms includes orange trees, olive trees, pomegranate trees, lemon trees, tangerine trees, avocado trees, honeybee boxes full of honey (those white boxes), and a large vegetable garden. Along the walk we found a chameleon and a cute little baby porcupine that Inigo inadvertently kicked after one of the dogs dropped it at his feet.

The barbeque consisted of farm raised lamb and chicken along with lasagne, salad (from the farm), olives (from the farm), stuffed olive leaves, bread, potatoes… FYI: a Cypriot doesn't mess around with boneless skinless, marinading… - just take a whole chicken/chunks of lamb, hack it into pieces, and ram it onto giant kebabs. The lambs "money makers, rocky mountain oysters, etc." considered a delicacy in Cyprus had also been lanced and barbequed. I, continuing with my "When in Rome" motto, was Nichos' lone wingman in the Eros orb feast. So from Tweety birds I have digressed into eating cute little baby lamb balls - what kind of monster have I turned into??? My penance you ask… a moratorium on kisses for the next several hours. The hearty bounty was topped with homemade tiramisu, this magnificent chocolate cake with a kit kat (?) crust, and caramel flan sort of dish. I have a request in for the recipes so watch for them on Justin's digital recipe box.