It wasn’t long before enthusiastic local reviews led me to ΖΟΡΠΑΣ (ZORBAS), a 24/7 Cypriot bakery chain home to my beloved tahini pie. But I didn’t always consider tahini pie to be my “beloved”…
He thinks this tastes like a cinnamon roll? I thought to myself in horror, still struggling (against my mouth’s better judgment) to swallow the bitter sesame pastry. It was all I could do to hide my disappointment and keep from grimacing, scrunching my face up in disgust. I wasn’t sure what kind of cinnamon rolls my Cypriot professor had been eating, but they certainly were not like any Cinnabon or Pillsbury delight I’d ever savored. I had tried many desserts at Zorbas bakery up to that point, and I did not think I could not go wrong with choosing any one of them—until I tried a tahini pie. It was the first and last tahini pie I tried that summer. I hoped it would be my last ever. That was during my first visit to Cyprus five years ago.
The next summer, my professor, a perfect example Cypriot hospitality, or kindness to visitors, offered to share his very last Zorbas tahini pie with me, and—just to be polite—I reluctantly accepted. I had never understood how he could stomach tahini pies, let alone actually enjoy them, and I never expected to. But to my surprise, this time I found myself intrigued by the tahini pie’s rich mix of flavors. Yes, there was a bitterness to it—but also a sweetness. It was flaky on the outside, but as I munched my way—slowly at first, then more and more eagerly—toward the center, it became softer and moister, almost like—a cinnamon roll!
