#FEBulousCypriotFood

You know the feeling when you have an idea inkling at you for so long. You doubt you can make it happen, so you put it to rest but it’s still there in the back of your mind? Well that was me for about 4 months until I thought “What’s the harm in trying?” And so the #FEBulousCypriotFood hashtag happened!

There are Cypriots all over the world! Young and old we are all out there, each of us with our own migration story and our own connections to the motherland. One of those connections would have to be the food, the food that we grew up with.

The food that our mothers, grandmothers and aunties cooked for us. The food that you say “Oh I wish my grandmother had shown me how to make her specialty before she passed away!”. And that is the harsh reality of it unfortunately! Somehow along the way we lose that connection as generations grow older and the younger generations lose interest.

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to have my family’s recipes documented for my daughters and for them to learn to cook these dishes as they grow up. More importantly get them accustomed to the Cypriot cuisine, the flavours and our traditions.

So if we don’t maintain our traditions and cook our cuisine how can our kids learn to pass on the baton? Building our Cypriot community through social media would have to be one way! Showing the public the much loved Cypriot recipes, which are lost in time and more importantly to show everyone how easy they are to replicate. That way they are not afraid of trying to make these and the passion for cooking Cypriot food will grow.

Details of the campaign

I have to say that the hashtag idea was inspired by another campaign #aprilisforarabfood which was orchestrated by the gorgeous ladies over at @almondandfig (Mai) and @sweetpillarfood (Nadia and Deana). The celebration of food that month was incredible! I loved following the hashtag and seeing the food variety but also the variations in method of a particular dish.

How the Instagram campaign will work is simple!

Step 1 – click on the hashtag #FEBulousCypriotFood.

Step 2 – click on Follow so you can see all the food posts/recipes being posted.

Step 3 – during the month of February participate in the campaign in one or two ways. Firstly by promoting the campaign on your stories/feed so that more people become aware of the campaign. Secondly by cooking Cypriot food to post on your feed and using the hashtag #FEBulousCypriotFood so the rest of us following the hashtag can see these dishes as well.

Step 4 – I will be going through the food posted and share as many as I can on my stories for people to see.

To help me promote the campaign and the Cypriot recipes I spoke to some other Cypriot foodies I met online, which I would like to mention. They include: Christina @afroditeskitchen, Stella @stellaand, Paola @cypriotandproud, Meliz @melizcooks, Galatia @cuisinovia, Irene @thespicyolive1, Nikoletta @nikolettaskitchen, Carolina @thecarolinski, Michalis @michalisioannou_, Georgia and Katerina @thefellatwins, Dina @eatgreekeatmeat, Angela @angelas_kitch and Alexandra @cookedbyalexandra.

Furthermore a few Cypriot pages promoting Cyprus in general have agreed to come on board and promote any tagged posts they seem fitting. They include @visitcyprus, @cypruspassion, @myguidecyprus, @about.cyprus and @enjoycypruss.

Goals of the hashtag campaign

By the end of the campaign my aim is to:

1. Promote Cypriot food around the world
2. Teach people about Cypriot food/culture
3. Get more people cooking traditional Cypriot recipes
4. Connect with other Cypriot foodies and build the online community
5. Observe some of the key similarities/differences between the Cypriot and Greek cuisine.

I absolutely can’t wait for the month to kick off!

Happy cooking!

xoxo

Eleni