Thursday, February 1/2018

Arrive in Famagusta noonish for their Thursday weekly market, our first visit since the construction of the new covered market. Fortunately the roof doesn't keep out the light and the oranges and tomatoes and celery still gleam in the sun. Dried fruit and all kinds of nuts, although J is amused to note that an enormous sack of walnuts in the shell has been shipped from California. Also, round the periphery, clothes, shoes, handbags, books. Outside, as in the old market, flowers and other bedding plants and hardware. 

Stop for coffee at our old café by the mulberry tree. Minder, the restaurant where we went with Fehmi and Phyllis for traditional Cypriot fare, is next on the agenda, but this leaves some confusion with my not necessarily accurate memories of the last visit, Bill's instincts and driver's knowledge of the city, and the little dot on the map not quite in harmony. We resort to asking and a small conference consisting of the café owner and a couple of friends, provides directions. It's very close, as we knew, and they point the way to the back exit from the market, but slightly to our embarrassment they point to a name on the top of a very tall building nearby: Minder. The restaurant is on the ground floor. The men joke that their friend café owner wasn't going to tell us, hoping that we would stay and eat at the café, but are quick to add that Minder is a very good restaurant. 

And it is. It's fairly full, but we're pleased to find that there is a bilingual menu, as last time Phyllis ordered for us in Turkish. Excellent food, including Cypriot meatballs, seasoned rice with bits of liver and roasted chestnut and a starter of içli köfte - minced meat and spices with maybe pine nuts wrapped in a dough made of potatoes and fine bulgar and deep fried. Delicious. At the end of the meal we leave the money, including a modest tip in the small wooden box in which the bill is traditionally presented. As we're standing up to leave the owner comes over. Have we misunderstood and underpaid? Not a bit of it. He's explaining that we've paid too much and fears it may have been accidental. We reassure him and all smiles. Our waitress was a sweetheart and quite helpful. The conclusion is not only that they are honest to a fault but that only locals come here. Cypriot tradition doesn't run to tipping, although it is customary to round up a little and not to tell the waiter to keep small change. 

Then J's dental appointment. The broken tooth is in fact a porcelain one, and Fehmi is reassuring. Yes, it can be repaired. Can we return on Tuesday? Fortunately Bill remembers, as we don't very quickly, that we'll be in Crete on Tuesday. End of week then.