Cyprus-Forum.com

[Oracle]

Gated Streets in Harringay! Things have moved on in the ten years or so since I last made the survival trek.
As for the 'shire curtain twitchers', we had none as we lived there as we do here in grand (well slightly less than grand) seclusion as far from the maddening crowd as we can get.

We lost our way around the one way system permeating off Green Lanes and ended up at the end of a road (on more than one occasion) with gates at the end of the street which were clearly only operable by some means held only by residents.

Really they went completely down hill once most of the GCs moved further up the road to Crouch End and Palmers Green ....

We used to live in semi-seclusion in a cottage in the middle of nowhere and were regularly woken up by Hercules planes skimming our chimney pots (a nightmare for me after Turkish bombardments) and battle re-enactments on Salisbury plain ... so moved away to a "shire" of wondrous beauty but seething frustrations .... (all history now!)

[rotate]

Gated Streets in Harringay! Things have moved on in the ten years or so since I last made the survival trek.
As for the 'shire curtain twitchers', we had none as we lived there as we do here in grand (well slightly less than grand) seclusion as far from the maddening crowd as we can get.

We lost our way around the one way system permeating off Green Lanes and ended up at the end of a road (on more than one occasion) with gates at the end of the street which were clearly only operable by some means held only by residents.

Really they went completely down hill once most of the GCs moved further up the road to Crouch End and Palmers Green ....

We used to live in semi-seclusion in a cottage in the middle of nowhere and were regularly woken up by Hercules planes skimming our chimney pots (a nightmare for me after Turkish bombardments) and battle re-enactments on Salisbury plain ... so moved away to a "shire" of wondrous beauty but seething frustrations .... (all history now!)

Yes, I remember the sound of phantom jets over Famagusta very well, but working in aviation it was a ghost that I had to lay very quickly.
My father who was wounded in WW2 and my mother, a survivor of the German blitz on London and who had to be dug out of the remains of her home took charge of my wifes young nephew's and neices when they arrived in the UK from Cyprus traumatised by the then recent events of 74.
My parents would take the kids to nearby Heathrow so that they could learn to disassociate the sound of aircraft from violence, at first the children were terrified but eventually they came to terms with the sounds that they heard but not of course what they had witnessed. To this day they still talk about what they saw and while I'm not ashamed to say that as a young man I was terrified I can only but imagine what it was like for the children. None the less my parents tactics worked and all the children eventually did well at the UK schools that they had been dropped into and one of two boys went on to be a civilian pilot.
Years later when my parents eventually died the children, some of who had returned to Cyprus flew to the UK for their funerals and both boys acted as pall bearers.

[zan]

[...]The lahmadjoon was divine too...[...]

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought this particular culinary delight was confined to mainland Turkey and Iraq.

I'll let Kafenes answer you,Tim...I am not sure of the origins of lahmacun,(as it is written in Turkish).

Even in Western Turkey some people look down on it as being an eastern Turkish and Kurdish type of food. I love it, but it has to be fresh and crisp rather than soggy, as it often tends to be. I know it is widely available now in the north of Cyprus, for obvious reasons, but I did not think it was traditionally Cypriot at all.

If I am not mistaken, shouldn't I be saying "Bayramın kutlu olsun" if ozzie TCs bother with that sort of thing.

Lahmacun is definitely not Cypriot,Tim...I thought it was of Turkish origin too,but Kafenes does an Armenian version,you want to eat your fingers with it (parmaklarini yersin-loses a bit in the translation)....

Bayraminiz kutlu olsun is appropriate from Tuesday onwards,I think.
But make sure you use the correct version (preferred by Tayyip Erdogan)
"Ramazan bayraminiz kutlu olsun"...Not sheker bayraminiz...hehehehehhe
I hope you know what I am talking about.If not, not to worry,too banal to explain...

As far as I remember being told, it was the Armenian refugees who first brought Lahmadjun to Cyprus from Anatolia. The name which is from the Arabic as pointed above may be a clue as to its origins.

Lahmadjun for breakfast I think (Mon am).

Post 1974 and back in the UK I used to buy Lahmadjun from a Turkish (Cypriot?) bakery in Harringay on stock up trips to N. London for my wife and her family marooned in the culinary desert of leafy Berkshire.
Once, when I asked for Lahmadjun the very attractive young lady who served me wanted to know how someone so obviously English knew about Lahmadjun? I replied that my wife was a Cypriot and that we had once lived in Famagusta, I was then asked if my wife was a TC? Using my wife's way of answering this question I said that my wife was a Cypriot Christian, the young lady then asked why I had not married a nice Turkish girl and I replied that if I had met the questioner first I probably would have married her!
All the girls in the bakers were by now laughing and for my trouble the young lady who was serving me filled a large bag with Lahmadjun, saying as she did so that these were a present for my wife and that she hoped that one day we could return to Famagusta and that she could return to her home in Paphos.
Thirty something years have passed since that trip to the N. London bakers, but given the circumstances and the period in which it took place I've come to understand that the gesture made by that young lady was heroic enough.

My own shopping heroism died when Harringay Borough Council decided to clamp down on parking in Green Lanes during the 90's. One journey on foot carrying two bloody great water melon and god knows how many kilo's of Kolgassi to my less than convieniently parked car was enough.

You got a a parking space You lucky. ba******

[zan]

[...]The lahmadjoon was divine too...[...]

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought this particular culinary delight was confined to mainland Turkey and Iraq.

I'll let Kafenes answer you,Tim...I am not sure of the origins of lahmacun,(as it is written in Turkish).

Even in Western Turkey some people look down on it as being an eastern Turkish and Kurdish type of food. I love it, but it has to be fresh and crisp rather than soggy, as it often tends to be. I know it is widely available now in the north of Cyprus, for obvious reasons, but I did not think it was traditionally Cypriot at all.

If I am not mistaken, shouldn't I be saying "Bayramın kutlu olsun" if ozzie TCs bother with that sort of thing.

Lahmacun is definitely not Cypriot,Tim...I thought it was of Turkish origin too,but Kafenes does an Armenian version,you want to eat your fingers with it (parmaklarini yersin-loses a bit in the translation)....

Bayraminiz kutlu olsun is appropriate from Tuesday onwards,I think.
But make sure you use the correct version (preferred by Tayyip Erdogan)
"Ramazan bayraminiz kutlu olsun"...Not sheker bayraminiz...hehehehehhe
I hope you know what I am talking about.If not, not to worry,too banal to explain...

As far as I remember being told, it was the Armenian refugees who first brought Lahmadjun to Cyprus from Anatolia. The name which is from the Arabic as pointed above may be a clue as to its origins.

Lahmadjun for breakfast I think (Mon am).

Post 1974 and back in the UK I used to buy Lahmadjun from a Turkish (Cypriot?) bakery in Harringay on stock up trips to N. London for my wife and her family marooned in the culinary desert of leafy Berkshire.
Once, when I asked for Lahmadjun the very attractive young lady who served me wanted to know how someone so obviously English knew about Lahmadjun? I replied that my wife was a Cypriot and that we had once lived in Famagusta, I was then asked if my wife was a TC? Using my wife's way of answering this question I said that my wife was a Cypriot Christian, the young lady then asked why I had not married a nice Turkish girl and I replied that if I had met the questioner first I probably would have married her!
All the girls in the bakers were by now laughing and for my trouble the young lady who was serving me filled a large bag with Lahmadjun, saying as she did so that these were a present for my wife and that she hoped that one day we could return to Famagusta and that she could return to her home in Paphos.
Thirty something years have passed since that trip to the N. London bakers, but given the circumstances and the period in which it took place I've come to understand that the gesture made by that young lady was heroic enough.

My own shopping heroism died when Harringay Borough Council decided to clamp down on parking in Green Lanes during the 90's. One journey on foot carrying two bloody great water melon and god knows how many kilo's of Kolgassi to my less than convieniently parked car was enough.

Agreed! ... we similarly made stock-up trips to Green Lanes for Olive Oil, Louganika, proper BBQ charcoal etc., and felt like we had stepped into a gangster movie with gated streets, road humps and constantly blaring police sirens ... then we too thankfully retreated to our leafy "shire" (with its dogging lanes and twitching curtains) ...

You've got curtains in your car You dirty ba*****

[BirKibrisli]

They might as well call it "eid al-fitr" then.

They would if they could,Tim...
Glad you are up to speed on current afairs in Turkey...

I was wandering what occupation you are in ,Tim,if that is not a state secret???

[BirKibrisli]

Thanks for the complement Bit. My grandfather taught me to make lekhmajuns, he was originaly from Zilifke and then Hadjen. I believe the name if this dish is Arabic 'Lehim-bi-ajin' but they make it differently all around the world. You and the princess are more then welcome to my house for dinner, so is anybody else who would like to come.
Enough hijacking Oracles thread with food even though my grandfather was really a hero to me.

You are most welcome,Kafenes. The Precious princess is already packing her bags...But I must warn you,don't let her size fool you,she eats like a horse... We will give you a week's notice to get ready...
Shall I bring my darbuka???? Or shall me be considerate to your neighbours like last time...????

[BirKibrisli]

Here is a reminder that Makarios and Grivas were viewed as Heroes .. not just by GCs ... and further proof that they were fighting the Brits for Freedom and not towards Enosis as TCs and Bananiot suggest ...

Heroes at Odds

Monday, Oct. 05, 1959

In their stubborn four-year fight against Britain, Greek Cypriots had two respected chiefs. For military leadership they looked to daring, irascible George Grivas, the Greek army colonel who led their guerrilla bands. For political and spiritual guidance they relied on black-bearded Archbishop Makarios, head of Cyprus' Greek Orthodox Church and ethnarch of Cyprus' Greeks. Last week, with establishment of an independent Cypriot Republic only five months away, Cyprus' two heroes .....

I keep scratching my head at your one-eyed version of our history,Oracle...Yes EOKA was fighting for freedom but also for ENOSIS...If you can't accept this simple historical truth there is really no point in talking to you...Makarios was not a hero for 20% of Cypriots,and Grivas was not a hero either, to somewhat larger percentage of Cypriots...
We really need to find common heros for all Cypriots,and alas,they are very few...

[Bananiot]

I read the other day that about 2000 Turkish Cypriots fought with the British army in northern Greece in 1914 against the Ottomans. Perhaps these TC's may be better living Turks than dead.

[Tim Drayton]

They might as well call it "eid al-fitr" then.

They would if they could,Tim...
Glad you are up to speed on current afairs in Turkey...

I was wandering what occupation you are in ,Tim,if that is not a state secret???

One thing I share with Miltiades is that there are no secrets about me. Here is my website:

http://www.timdrayton.com

[denizaksulu]

[...]The lahmadjoon was divine too...[...]

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought this particular culinary delight was confined to mainland Turkey and Iraq.

I'll let Kafenes answer you,Tim...I am not sure of the origins of lahmacun,(as it is written in Turkish).

Even in Western Turkey some people look down on it as being an eastern Turkish and Kurdish type of food. I love it, but it has to be fresh and crisp rather than soggy, as it often tends to be. I know it is widely available now in the north of Cyprus, for obvious reasons, but I did not think it was traditionally Cypriot at all.

If I am not mistaken, shouldn't I be saying "Bayramın kutlu olsun" if ozzie TCs bother with that sort of thing.

Lahmacun is definitely not Cypriot,Tim...I thought it was of Turkish origin too,but Kafenes does an Armenian version,you want to eat your fingers with it (parmaklarini yersin-loses a bit in the translation)....

Bayraminiz kutlu olsun is appropriate from Tuesday onwards,I think.
But make sure you use the correct version (preferred by Tayyip Erdogan)
"Ramazan bayraminiz kutlu olsun"...Not sheker bayraminiz...hehehehehhe
I hope you know what I am talking about.If not, not to worry,too banal to explain...

As far as I remember being told, it was the Armenian refugees who first brought Lahmadjun to Cyprus from Anatolia. The name which is from the Arabic as pointed above may be a clue as to its origins.

Lahmadjun for breakfast I think (Mon am).

Post 1974 and back in the UK I used to buy Lahmadjun from a Turkish (Cypriot?) bakery in Harringay on stock up trips to N. London for my wife and her family marooned in the culinary desert of leafy Berkshire.
Once, when I asked for Lahmadjun the very attractive young lady who served me wanted to know how someone so obviously English knew about Lahmadjun? I replied that my wife was a Cypriot and that we had once lived in Famagusta, I was then asked if my wife was a TC? Using my wife's way of answering this question I said that my wife was a Cypriot Christian, the young lady then asked why I had not married a nice Turkish girl and I replied that if I had met the questioner first I probably would have married her!
All the girls in the bakers were by now laughing and for my trouble the young lady who was serving me filled a large bag with Lahmadjun, saying as she did so that these were a present for my wife and that she hoped that one day we could return to Famagusta and that she could return to her home in Paphos.
Thirty something years have passed since that trip to the N. London bakers, but given the circumstances and the period in which it took place I've come to understand that the gesture made by that young lady was heroic enough.

My own shopping heroism died when Harringay Borough Council decided to clamp down on parking in Green Lanes during the 90's. One journey on foot carrying two bloody great water melon and god knows how many kilo's of Kolgassi to my less than convieniently parked car was enough.

Agreed! ... we similarly made stock-up trips to Green Lanes for Olive Oil, Louganika, proper BBQ charcoal etc., and felt like we had stepped into a gangster movie with gated streets, road humps and constantly blaring police sirens ... then we too thankfully retreated to our leafy "shire" (with its dogging lanes and twitching curtains) ...

You've got curtains in your car You dirty ba*****

Was is a hearse?