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Cypriot Souvla: the island’s Sunday barbecue

Charcoal, patience, and everyone gathered around the foukou

Souvla is Cyprus’s great communal barbecue — the dish that turns an ordinary Sunday into an occasion. Large pieces of pork, lamb or chicken are threaded onto a long metal spit and set to turn slowly over charcoal on the foukou, the trough-shaped grill found in nearly every garden and village square on the island. There is no marinade to speak of and no rush: just salt, oregano, smoke and time, which is exactly what gives souvla its crisp, charred edge and its tender, smoky centre.

Pork, lamb or chicken

Pork is the everyday choice — shoulder cut into generous, fist-sized pieces that render slowly and stay moist. Lamb souvla is the richer, more festive version, often reserved for Easter and name days. Chicken souvla cooks faster and lighter, and is what most tavernas will suggest if you are after something a little less heavy. All three follow the same method: big cuts, a slow rotating spit, and enough time over the coals for the fat to baste the meat as it turns.

The wait is the point

A souvla afternoon starts hours before anyone eats. The charcoal is lit mid-morning, the spit goes on soon after, and then everyone waits — with coffee, a game of tavli, and the smell of the smoke doing most of the work. Souvla is rarely cooked for one or two people; it is a dish for family and friends, the kind of slow, sociable cooking that turns the process into as much of an event as the meal itself.

The reward, finally — souvla with potatoes, the classic Sunday plate.

Order it at a taverna and it usually comes with roast potatoes, salad and pitta; cook it at home and it is the centrepiece of the whole afternoon. Either way, souvla is less a recipe than a ritual — one of the clearest tastes of Cypriot food, and a good reason on its own to time a visit for a Sunday.

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