Cypriot vs Dutch food & cuisine

Cyprus shares many flavors with its neighbors, but its cuisine has a character of its own. Meals often revolve around meze, small dishes served all at once, fresh local ingredients, plenty of mint and olive oil, and a fondness for slow-cooked food. Bread, sausages, and halloumi cheese show up everywhere, from breakfast to dinner.

Wheat dominates, as it does across the Mediterranean, but Cyprus uses a wider mix of grains, including barley, corn, and rice. Wheat remains essential for pita, a thick, oval, oven-baked bread eaten daily.

Cypriot cooking leans heavily on vegetables, but meat, dairy, and grains often balance or even outweigh them. Vegetables show up in salads, stews, and alongside grilled foods, usually dressed with lemon and olive oil. A typical summer salad mixes celery leaves and stalks, parsley, coriander, tomatoes, and cucumber. Purslane and wild dandelion greens are also popular.

Livestock farming has long shaped Cypriot agriculture and diet. Many villages lie inland, sometimes far from the coast, and this distance from the sea historically tied people to animal husbandry. Pork became the dominant meat, prepared through charcoal grilling, sausages, and preservation with smoke and wine. Red wine, in fact, defines much of the island’s charcuterie.

As for the island on the Mediterranean Sea, the traditional cuisine must include seafood – and it does. Locals grill octopus, squid, sea bream, and red mullet, then finish them with lemon and sea salt. Grilling is common, though locals also prepare seafood soups and stews. Cypriot meze is often ocean-focused, offering fish roe salad, squid, and small fried fish.

Milk and dairy play an important role in Cypriot cooking. It’s striking that such a small island produced a cheese as widely known as halloumi. This semi-hard, unripened, brined cheese, from goat’s and sheep’s milk, has been part of local life for centuries.  Anari is another key cheese. Soft and similar to ricotta, it works in both savory and sweet dishes and is often served with honey. Yogurt is a staple, used in cooking and served alongside rich meats.

Olive oil is a primary source of fat for salads, grilled veggies, meats, and bread dippings. Some seed oils are also used, like sunflower oil, but to a lesser extent.

Many Cypriot desserts rely on semolina or flour, sugar or honey, almonds, walnuts, sometimes fruit, rose-water, or mastic. These give sweets a warm, aromatic,  nutty or floral flavour — not overly rich, but comforting. You’ll find desserts that are crunchy outside and soft inside, flaky and nutty, dense and chewy, or silky and light.