An evening in Cyprus

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Originally uploaded by lallou.

On the recommendation of a Cult member, I invited my friend Kerry to join me for dinner in Greektown last night. We went along to a beautiful restaurant called Venus, whose specialty is Cypriot cuisine - and live music on Saturdays.

The delicious Greek red wine was going down very well on top of the two glasses we'd already had at the Cult beforehand. When I heard myself ordering shots of ouzo for us, followed by a robust OPA!, I knew I was having a good time. On reflection, I hope Kerry was too.

We were looked after by a fabulous waitress named Eva and if you ever go to the restaurant, you must make sure you're seated in her section. Eva's suggestions for food and drinks were simply spot on every time.

I had Mesogiako Calamari, which is basically squid stuffed with spinach, shrimp, feta, and roasted capsicums. Drooool. Then for my main couse, I enjoyed Kleftiko, the restaurant's signature regional lamb dish that has been slow cooked for six hours. As a result, it was so succulent that it simply fell apart when I tried to eat it but I prevailed in the end, trust me. I toasted my success and my full stomach with a bitter Greek coffee. Blissful.

Emboldened by the ouzo and Eva's encouragement, I bought a couple of shots for the two musicians who had basically been serenading the restaurant the entire night on their bouzouki (that's the traditional Greek guitar to those of you playing along at home). One of them was young and very cute, but surely you could have guessed that. Anyway, an equally young and handsome waiter brought the two shots over, gave one to the cute guitarist and downed the other himself. Whatever, two shots for two cute boys - I was doing well. The poor older musician was not doing so well, however, as he unfortunately missed out. Too bad, so sad. But even though the cute musician knew I'd bought the shot for him, he never bought me one in return - and never came over to thank me. Nothing. I was a little surprised and just a tad embarassed.

As we were leaving I felt compelled to mention this travesty to the owner, though it was entirely in jest by this stage. He politely pointed out that the guitarist is in the US on leave from the Greek Army and he doesn't actually speak a word of English. Ahem. Darling Eva overhead all this and said she'd go on a date with us and translate every word. See what I mean? What a sweetheart she is. But Kerry and I were laughing too hard at my best laid plans to take Eva's kind offer too seriously.

The owner was so disappointed for me that HE bought us drinks each. And no, he was not young and cute. But he was a very sweet man nonetheless and because we have good manners, of course Kerry and I accepted his kind offer.

And so it was that I ended my Grecian odyssey sitting at the restaurant's bar enjoying my mute musician's tunes, and sipping slowly on a refreshing Baileys on ice, dreaming of the Aegean Sea.