Part 20 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (2/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Cyprus Next up were a series of #ColdMeze all brought out at once with a hefty plate of bread – they do not play around. The pictured seven dishes are #Tzatziki, #Melitzanosalada (eggplant dip), #Scordalia (garlic dip), #Tahini, #Tarama (red caviar dip), #Pantzarosalada (beet salad) and #Hummus. I’m not a fan of #beets myself, but however it was prepared made that #meze palatable. The best dishes of this group were the simpler and more familiar, like the Hummus, Tahini, and Tzatziki. All I can really say is that they all tasted incredibly fresh and they were some of the best that I’ve been served. The eggplant dip was also great, I must have eaten that one the quickest. If the series of cold Meze look familiar to Meze normally found in a Greek or Turkish place, I don’t blame you. By virtue of being an island nation in the #Mediterranean near Greece and Turkey, they are bound to have a great deal of identical, or at least incredibly similar dishes. Cyprus has a great deal of history and influences, most of which is attributed from Greece and Turkey in regards to food, and to a lesser degree, Byzantine, French, Italian, Catalan, Ottoman and #MiddleEasternCuisines. Cyprus is controversially split into two parts, a Turkish North and a Greek South as a product of tensions and fighting between the two larger countries over who could gain more influence in the island nation ever since both made failed attempts of annexing the island. #ZenonTaverna #CypriotMezePlatter #KypriakiMezedes #Meze #Astoria #Queens #Mediterranean #Cypriot #cypriotcuisine (at ZENON TAVERNA)