Cypriot Souvla: The Sunday Ritual

The foukou shapes everything

Cypriot barbecue is built around the foukou, a long charcoal trough with a motor that turns several skewers at once. That single piece of equipment shapes the whole cuisine: meat goes on in big fist-sized pieces rather than cubes, it cooks for two or three hours rather than minutes, and once it is turning it needs almost no attention.

Souvla is not souvlaki

The two get confused constantly. Souvlaki is small cubes on a short skewer cooked fast over direct heat. Souvla is large chunks on a long rotisserie spit cooked slowly for hours. They share a root word and little else. Souvla is the Sunday cook; souvlaki is a quick weekday meal.

Spare seasoning, on purpose

The seasoning is deliberately minimal: salt, pepper, dried Cypriot oregano and a squeeze of lemon at the end. There is no marinade tradition and no sauce, because the slow rotisserie technique is doing the work. Anything more is considered a way of hiding ordinary pork.

Cooking it yourself

You can approximate souvla with a rotisserie ring on a 57cm kettle, banking the coals to the sides rather than underneath. Use pork shoulder in big chunks, season simply, and turn it low and slow for a couple of hours. Serve with flatbread, lemon-dressed onions and pickled cauliflower.