Tava

Tava is named after the clay pot it is cooked in: a round terracotta dish with a lid that traps moisture and gives the food its slow, gentle bake. The classic filling is lamb (sometimes pork) cut into pieces, layered with potatoes, onion and fresh tomato, and seasoned simply with whole cumin seeds, which give tava its distinctive aroma. The pot goes into a hot oven and bakes for a long time until the meat is soft and the cumin has worked through everything.

Tava is particularly tied to the Paphos district, and the Paphos style often adds long-grain rice to the pot, where it soaks up the meat fat and juices. The dish has a strong Easter association in the villages of the area, where families would once take their filled pots to the communal bakery to cook while they went to church. The cumin and the clay pot are what make tava recognisably itself.

Where to try it

• At tavernas in and around Paphos, where it is a local speciality.
• In the villages toward Polis and Latchi and the Akamas edge.
• Around Easter, when it is a traditional festive dish in Paphos-district homes.

If you are based on the western coast, tava is the dish to seek out as a regional speciality you are less likely to find elsewhere on the island. It is hearty and homely rather than refined, and the cumin gives it a flavour quite different from the wine-led afelia or the lemony kleftiko. Pair a Paphos tava day with the Coral Bay coast or the Avakas Gorge walk in the Akamas.