TRATA FISH TAVERNA
Plain, simple, perfect fish
Are all the best fish tavernas in Limassol away from the sea? It would seem so. I recently wrote about the marvellous Petroktisto, near the Ajax Hotel in Linopetra. Here’s another one, not so distant from the briny, and not as fully satisfying but well worth an excursion when the iodine level in our cells is getting a bit low and the urge to revisit Poseidon and his finny minions overwhelms. Besides, you know all that souvla, sheftalia and roast potatoes are not really good for you. Once a week is okay, but if you’re planning on attending more than one party this holiday season, and you still want to fit into those jeans come Epiphany, better stick to fish, vegetables and fruit the rest of the time.
To find Trata (fishing boat) you drive along the seafront near the centre of town until you see Debenham’s (which people still insist on calling Woolworth’s) and turn down the first road to the west of that establishment. Trata sits on the far left corner of the first side street you come to.
I’m giving detailed directions here because the place doesn’t exactly shout out that it’s a restaurant. If I were in Detroit or Baltimore I might mistake it for a bus station or a coat factory outlet. I suppose because they’ve been there for 15 years and regularly turn people away on the weekends they don’t feel the need to impress with a fancy fa?ade.
The interior is also simple and puts you at ease right away. No faux high-end ambience here, or a haughty maitre d’ frowning at your unfortunate choice of shoes. Just sit down, order the fish meze and a bottle of wine and relax. There are some amateurish seascapes painted on the walls but otherwise nothing to distract from your unhindered enjoyment of the food. Of course there is meat to be had (fillet steak, lamb or pork chops and grilled chicken) but you’ll get plenty of that at the brother-in-law’s next weekend. And, plain and simple, Trata knows how to cook fish.
The standard salad that starts you off is remarkable only because it is accompanied by exceptionally tasty, creamy feta – for me, it’s not a Greek salad without feta – the tahini dip is fine but the tarama seems uninspired: it was the first one I’ve had in years that I didn’t furtively finish off when no one else was looking. Next came the fried calamari which looked a bit thin but proved to be exceedingly fresh and redolent with flavour. The broiled ink fish (soupyes) is a dish I almost never like (except at the aforementioned Petroktisto) and Trata’s was no improvement on the norm; but the barbecued octopus was perfect and not over-embellished with tenderiser or whatever secret sauce restaurateurs use to give it that smokehouse flavour. Next time I’ll insist they skip the ink fish and load us up with more calamari.
The grilled king prawns arrived next and they were not wow-inducing but perfectly adequate. It seems all the kitchen’s efforts go into the preparation and precise cooking of the various whole fish that comprise the main part of the meal. And this they do exceedingly well.
You might think the simple frying of fresh fish is something any homo sapien with working opposable thumbs is physically and cerebrally well-equipped to do. Try it at home and, after a few near disasters, disappointments and perhaps lucky hits (which are not necessarily repeatable), you’ll come to appreciate the accumulated education and skill involved. The selection of the fish at the market, their condition and body temperature at prep stage, the type and amount of flour (if any) used for dusting, the brand of oil, the degree and intensity of its heat, the exact length of the fish’s brief residency in the pan, the precise timing of the whole operation in relation to the progress of the meal – all this is an art. The best practitioners are justly proud of their skill, giving them a certain cockiness, I’ve noticed, and adding a strut to their step as they cross the dining room to check on your satisfaction level. But they don’t really have to ask how it tastes. They know they did a damned good job.
Our job is much simpler: crunch in and enjoy, with the happy knowledge that all that vitamin-and-mineral-packed Mediterranean phosphorescence is good for us.
VITAL STATISTICS
SPECIALTY Fish
WHERE 4 Iacovos Tombazis Str., (behind Debenham’s), Limassol
CONTACT 25 376600
PRICE Basic Fish Meze, £11
BOOKING Yes, on weekends
