Pour Some Cayena On Me

It is nearly impossible to come by good Latin American food on The Rock. Local Latinophiles craving some spice generally visit one of the many Mexican restaurants (actually more Tex-Mex than real Mex) that range from lousy (El Pueblo) to just okay (Los Bandidos in Agia Napa or Aztecas in Old Lefkosia), or one of the few Cuban bars that have recently sprung across the island. There used to be a Brazilian churrascaria in Pafos but it failed to even vaguely remind me of my childhood's Sunday lunches in Rio de Janeiro. So during one of my unfocused schizophrenic Saturday morning drives through Nicosia in search of novelty, I was shocked pleasantly surprised to come across Cayena, a Latin Fusion restaurant just a stone's throw away from the American Embassy.

Last Saturday, I dragged the Wife, Ph.D., and my ORC (Official Review Crew) -- Mike Demo and the Godmother -- to give it a go. As you enter, what first captures your attention is the restaurant's sleek, minimalist and chic design. Straight lines, fluorescent lights, windows for walls, and shades of gray and brown dominate. We sat in a booth-like table set in the middle of the room, which gave us a refreshing sense of privacy. The music consisted of down-tempo electronic, jazz and a wide array of Latin rhythms, and added plenty of warmth to the space.

The menu included the usual suspects (fajitas, chimichangas and steaks) and a few more innovative dishes (for Cypriot standards) such as moqueca, a seafood stewed in coconut milk, tomatoes and aceite de dende (palm oil), Argentine empanadas and fish cebiche. Many of the boldest items like mondongo (a tripe soup), bollos (a sort of stuffed corn cake) and matahambre (a stuffed rolled flank steak from Argentina) had been scratched out from the menu, probably a result of The Rock's rather conservative palate. The wine list was decent enough, and we settled for Gaia's 2009 Thalassitis Assyrtiko from Santorini, a wonderful wine with citrus, floral, sea salt and honeysuckle notes, lively acidity and good length. Definitely the best vintage of Thalassitis I have ever tried in my short and rather uninspiring career as a wannabe wino.

We ordered nachos, stewed mushrooms and the empanadas as appetizers, the Wife, Ph.D. chose the seafood risotto as a main and I went with the moqueca. Mike Demo wanted the cebiche but I told him that my home-made version is pretty darn good (it's healthy to once in a while toot your own horn) and that I would be happy to make it for him. In all honesty, I adapted my recipe from Diane Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, my Holy (Cooking) Book along with Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and Claudia Roden's Arabesque: A taste of Morocco, Turkey & Lebanon.

In any case, shortly thereafter the food landed on our table and we dug in. The empanada's filling was quite tasty--lean ground beef with sweet (raisins) and savory (olives) flavors--but the dough (thick and bread-y) was better suited for a Cypriot cheese pie. The chimichurri sauce, however, was runny and bland, nothing like the rich, oily and spicy marinade made in Argentina. I could have done without the mushrooms, which came submerged in what seemed to be a tomato and cream sauce with some crispy tortilla chips. The nachos consisted of Doritos topped with melted cheese, a cop-out if you ask me. According to the Wife, Ph.D., a nacho connoisseur par excellence, "memorable" nachos should be served with chilli, re-fried beans, lettuce, chopped tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream, melted cheese, and fresh salsa. The seafood risotto was properly cooked and creamy but meager when it came to actual chunks of fish, shrimp and other marine invertebrates. The moqueca, jam-packed white fish, fresh salmon (?!?) and shrimp, was overwhelmed by a tomato cream sauce not unlike that served with the mushroom starter. Besides the seafood, the key to a good moqueca (at least the Bahia one) is the coconut milk and palm oil, two ingredients that were hardly discernible in Cayena's version. The fried yucca (cassava) that accompanied the fish stew added some Latin flair to the dish, though I would have preferred if they had been a tad thinner and crispier.

Overall, the food, though not truly authentic (or "Fusion" for that matter) and most definitely adapted to better suit The Rock's culinary preferences, was solid enough to merit a repeat visit. Next time, however, I will go for that sexy chimichanga that spent most of its short existence ogling me from a nearby table and later that night haunted my sleep.

Whine On The Rocks Rating: 3 out of 5 Sparkling Spatulas