Drizzle and DipOuzeri, a Cypriot Greek Restaurant in Cape City

Genuine, impressed, authentic and completely scrumptious. That is how I’d describe Nic Charalambous’s new summer time menu at Ouzeri. 

Nic spent a month travelling round Northern Greece and Cyprus this 12 months and researched many regional dishes. He has introduced these concepts again and infused them into his menu utilizing rigorously sourced native produce. Nic pays homage to his household and the meals from this area in beautiful element. Each ingredient is believed by means of and given a recent twist.

I like the finesse he applies to those parts, reminiscent of pickling fennel flowers for his coal-seared tuna with cucumber from Serifos. It’s onerous to select a favorite with this lineup so I recommend you go together with a number of individuals and share the dishes. The Anari dumplings with burnt tomato butter will keep in my reminiscence for a very long time to come back.

I’ve been consuming at Ouzeri because it opened and was a pop-up. I feel this new menu takes Ouzeri to a different stage. That is the kind of meals I all the time need to eat.

A bit of extra details about Ouzeri

Ouzeri, Cape City’s fashionable Wale Avenue eatery, celebrated for its up to date Cypriot and Greek delicacies, is serving up a bunch of thrilling new dishes. The menu stays true to its core of balancing custom and innovation, paying homage to the wealthy culinary heritage of Cyprus and Greece whereas embracing the bounty of tremendous South African produce.

At Ouzeri, a dedication to preserving conventional culinary practices is paramount, with Chef Nic Charalambous drawing from his wealthy heritage of Cypriot and Greek delicacies to create the menu. With the launch of Ouzeri he delved into his household recipes, drawing inspiration from recipes handed down by means of generations and conventional recipes found whereas travelling and deciphering them by means of his distinctive fashionable lens. 

Significantly of curiosity to Nic was how he may additional discover the normal diets of the area, incorporating a various array of fascinating pulses, grains, and plentiful greens into his dishes. 

He has additionally doubled down on his dedication to discovering the correct stability between up to date and genuine Cypriot Greek cooking, specializing in highlighting the regional cooking of the areas, respecting the historical past behind it, after which working to carry into focus the completely different flavour profiles by means of exemplary native elements.

“It has been actually thrilling for me to be taught an increasing number of, after which to move that data onto the group who then showcase this to our prospects. It’s this significance of building a connection between the origin of a dish, the panorama, local weather, geography and tradition, after which additionally merging that with Cape City’s personal identification,” says Nic. 

This connection is exemplified within the distinctive, new dishes on the summer time menu. One such dish is the Apaki, originating from Crete, which sees mountain herbs used to remedy and smoke pork loin. This season the normal dish has been made with the assistance of native artisans and producers. The famed Cape City butcher Richard Bosman is making the Apaki for the restaurant the place it’s then cooked over wild rosemary from Meuse farm, recreating the flavours of Crete in a really native sense.

One other such instance is the Gamopilafo, a standard, celebratory Cretan wedding ceremony dish. Whereas historically made with mutton, goat, or rooster and completed with goats’ butter, Nic brings his twist to this dish through the use of the best lamb and mutton from the Western Cape together with Cream of the Crop’s cultured butter to duplicate the style of the goats’ butter.

Wanting in direction of Cyprus, the Skordosxithia, a hyper-seasonal broad bean dish, sees the beans braised in a standard Cypriot technique involving vinegar and garlic, and elevated with chargrilled pork stomach glazed with a tangy vinegar sauce.

The meat tartare, hones into Central Greece, the native steak served with parts impressed by skordalia which makes use of walnuts instead of potatoes. Whereas those that search the freshness of the ocean will probably be transported to the sights and smells of Serifos, the place aromas of untamed fennel fill the air, with the brand new tuna dish. The fish is briskly charred straight on coals and wearing a textured charred spring onion salsa. The dish is additional enhanced with a sauce of fennel, cucumber, and Ouzeri’s in-house fennel flower vinegar, and completed with a sprinkling of pickled fennel flowers.

Ouzeri’s new menu is a scrumptious journey by means of the flavours and recollections of Cyprus and Greece, dropped at life with the Cape’s most interesting elements, excellent for the Summer season season.

Ouzeri – Bookings

58 Wale St, Cape City Metropolis Centre, Cape City, 8000
Lunch: Wednesday–Saturday
12 pm – 2:30 pm

Dinner: Tuesday-Saturday
6 pm – 9:30 pm

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