Limassol

KARATELLO TAVERN, LIMASSOL This friendly tavern has a large terrace overlooking Limassol Castle and a high-ceilinged interior stacked with wine shelves. Owned by a Limassol restaurant group, this is an unpretentious place (you tick boxes on a paper menu) with good local food: fresh fish, various roasts and meatballs and lots of grilling. Around €35 (£30) per person for fresh sea bass and local wine. carobmill-restaurants.com

SANTA ELENA FISH TAVERN, ZYGI The interior is cool and oldfashioned, while the exterior seating, arranged on a pedestrianised throughway, allows for excellent peoplewatching. The fish is fresh from the sea, there are local wines to accompany, and the staff are low on English but so high on helpfulness and charm that it doesn’t matter. Around €35 (£30) per person, with local wine. facebook.com/santaelenafishtavern

AGIOS EPIKTITOS TAVERNA, ARMENOCHORI

Set in the hills above Limassol, the Armenian village of Armenochori is now a refuge for wealthy expats, a fact reflected in the wine list, which includes a Bordeaux Grand Cru at €150 (£124). The food is very Cypriot, though, with souvlakia, sheftalies (meat balls), snails and halloumi all on the menu. Guitar players circulate, as do a large family of feral cats, all with their eye on your dinner. Around €25 (£20) per person, with local wine. facebook.com/ agiosepiktitostavernalimassol

Winemaker Marcos Zambartas, the owner of Zambartas Wineries, stands among vines

Rebecca’s Viognier (surprisingly austere, for Viognier) makes a wonderful match for the sea bass. Walking off our meal, we head into the resort town of Aiya Napa, where we admire the imposing cathedral and peer into the 16th-century Kebir Mosque, its minaret poking up above the old Turkish quarter. Wandering down shady alleyways past charming shops and cafes, we begin to feel that warm, self-congratulatory glow of travellers exploring another gastronomic world. Just as Cabernet Sauvignon made here doesn’t taste like a Cab from Napa Valley or Bordeaux, so the fish, meat and vegetables that land on our plates have the specific flavours of this place — particularly the fresh sunny tomatoes, unmarred by refrigeration or air travel.

In the evening, we drive into the hills to a village with views over city and sea, to a wood-lined restaurant. Like almost everywhere in Limassol, Agios Epiktitos Tavern offers meze — here, numbering around 20 different plates: a great way to explore the menu. But the quantity is daunting. Instead, we order sparingly: zucchini and eggs; souvlakia (tasty skewered meat); and tender beef liver.

A trio of guitar players circulates; the wine, from Kyperounda Winery, whose vineyards are just too distant for our visit, is delicious. Feral cats patrol the wall of the stone terrace, neon-shiny eyes watching for the copious leftovers they’re no doubt accustomed to.

Back in town, far from such rusticity, we find Japanese-Peruvian fusion cuisine, conjured up by a chef who found fame in New York. Matsuhisa Limassol restaurant might seem an odd choice for a gastronomic exploration of Cyprus, but arguably chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s elegant sushi and famous black miso cod — which went beautifully with the local Xynisteris and Viogniers and Maratheftikos — were as much the taste of this island’s complicated history as hummus or souvlakia.

Matsuhisa made me think of Cyprus’s ancient conquerors. Not least, the Byzantines who popularised the use of spices such as cumin and coriander; the Arabs, who surely brought hummus with them and may also have introduced stuffed vine leaves, here called koupepia; and the Persians, whose word for ‘frying pan’, ‘ tavas’, has come to name a local dish of slow-roasted beef or lamb. Louvana, a puree of yellow split peas, probably came from Greece; even Cyprus’s tacky egg-and-chips joints owe something to 20th-century holidaymaking colonisers. It seems, then, that gastronomic authenticity, like architectural beauty, is sometimes simply a case of waiting a few hundred years.

Limassol’s nearest airports include Paphos and Larnaca, which are typically served from the UK by airlines including EasyJet. easyjet.com. For the latest on safe travel and border restrictions, please see fco.gov.uk