Happy Birthday: Two Vegetarian Mezes please

“Have I ever told you the Meze story?” This shall be the opening line for many years to come, as I will most definitely retell this hilarious story till I am old and gray.

Driving back to Lemesos after a fun visit to Aphrodite’s beach, Verse and I stopped in the old town. We wandered about a bit, checking out stores and an art gallery. Verse at this point was very hungry and really wanted to get a very small snack before going home. This small snack was meant to hold us until we went out to dinner later. Hurriedly (and hungrily), he chose a place to eat and ordered two vegetarian Mezes from the chalkboard menu at the entrance. The owner of the restaurant looked very confused and asked in broken English, “You want two vegetarian Mezes?” Verse replied yes as we sat down in the empty restaurant. At this point I had the urge to ask the man what exactly the Meze was as I vaguely remember reading about it in my lonely planet guidebook but because of his limited English and Verse’s growing hunger I didn’t want to keep back the ordering process and kept quiet. We sat waiting for our two small vegetarian pies to arrive, which in Verse’s mind was what we were waiting to receive.

A few minuets later the owner brought out some olives and Tahini and we were thankful for the appetizer to get us started. Chomping on those dishes, we soon realized more plates were coming out filled with different kinds of food. It suddenly hit us that what we were expecting was not at all what we were receiving. Before the end of the meal 20 different dishes were brought out…enough food to feed 6 people comfortably. We were shocked! Meant to be a social meal shared among a group, the Meze features a variety of local dishes brought out in batches from appetizers to vegetables to different types of meat. We sat laughing hysterically at the mistake and tried to eat all the dishes the owner proudly brought out to us. Beet root, potato salad, green salad, steamed veggies, grilled cheese, eggplant, zucchini, baked potatoes, steamed potatoes, caviar, grilled fish, dolmathakia (stuffed grape leaves with rice and herbs), toast, calamari, muscles, fried crab meat with the gundys, cous cous and macaroni were among some of the things to come out from the kitchen to feed us. The food was very tasty but because I am nearly a vegan most of the eating was done by Verse so as not to insult the owner. Needless to say we were stuffed after the meal and our small snack became my birthday dinner. Surprise for me! We rolled ourselves home and sat in the hotel in a semi comatose state laughing for the rest of the evening. (That didn’t stop us from having some more champagne and my birthday ice cream cake though.) Great company, adventure, beach trip, good food, new experiences and laughter are all the makings of an amazing birthday! What a blessed day!



Walking around the Old Town in Lemesos
Old Town, Lemesos

An art exhibition, Old Town, Lemesos
Megaro Restaurant
Plates kept coming with flavourful items
Stuffed and happy

Comments

  1. Even though I had heard the story before - it was still funny and gave me a laugh to brighten up my long night of working! - Thanks for that! M

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sure looks good, and what an interesting experience!

    ReplyDelete

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