Last Friday in Larnaka, or a Day of Food

So, to continue on from my last post, Friday I was in Larnaka (after picking Brandon up from the airport on Thursday) to do some work on PKAP artifacts stored in the Larnaka District Archaeological Museum. We stayed at our usual place, the Petrou Brothers. We were able to stay in one of the rooms they had recently upgraded and I was pleasantly surprised. There were new floors, new mattresses, new curtains, new fixtures, and even a toaster oven. The first thing I did was go out and buy breakfast at Capitani’s bakery, and my breakfast of choice in Larnaka is a vanilla frosted doughnut – one of Larnaka’s best kept secrets is the high quality of its vanilla frosted doughnuts. The doughnut was fresh and perfect, even Brandon said it was the best one he ever had.

After working at the museum’s storage facility all morning, we went out to lunch. I talked Brandon into trying a souvlaki place I discovered near the museum 2 years ago – First Class Kebabs. Truth in advertising! It has what I honestly feel are the best pork souvlaki sandwiches on the island. Brandon agrees, as well as Bill who ate there earlier this summer.

After lunch, we went to visit the Athienou Archeological Project so I could give a short lecture on ceramics to their students. It was a nice visit, the people there have always been great to me and other PKAP members. The wildest thing though, was what happened there. I was talking to Derek Counts and it came up that I am from North Carolina and he asked where, and I replied Wilmington. He then yelled into one of their work rooms and asked for one of their staff members (Jeff) to come out and meet me since he was also from Wilmington. It turned out that we even had gone to the same elementary school (some years apart, but not too many). It was very strange to be sitting in Cyprus talking to someone else who had grown up in Wilmington, NC. Since Derek was originally from Charleston, we included him in the conversation and it turned into talking about Southern things, like sweet iced tea and how you know that you are back in the south when you order iced tea at a restaurant and the default is sweet, not unsweetened. Then the discussion turned to a topic near and dear to my heart, barbeque and the differences between SC barbecue (mustard based), Lexington style (ketchup based), and Eastern NC (vinegar based). While all are good, Eastern NC style is the best of the three. I mentioned living in Greenville, NC while getting my MA from East Carolina and Jeff brought up B’s Barbecue – one of the best barbecue places I have ever eaten – top 3 at least. While I was going to school there, I lived probably only 1/2 a mile from B’s and went by it everyday to school and loved eating there.

Vanilla frosted doughnut, pork souvlaki, and North Carolina barbecue. All in all……a wildly successful day.

RSM

Advertisement