It was supposed to have Haydari on it, but didn’t. It had double hummus instead.
Then we split an entree that included Chicken Adana, Döner, Shish, and Adana kebabs.
After we boxed up over half of that, we had dessert of Künefe for her and Keşkül for me.
The only thing we didn’t much care for was the Patlican Salatasi. The Kisir was the only other thing we didn’t think was outstanding.
Our favorites were the Ezme and the Soslu Patlican. The hummus, which was the only thing we ate that I’ve ever had before, was delicious. (If anyone has recipes for any of these things, that would be awesome.)
Anyway, no idea how what we ate compares with normal Turkish food, but it was so good. I’m eager to explore more in that cuisine.
Here is the restaurant’s menu, if anyone’s curious. It’s in Columbus, Ohio.
I like Turkish food a lot. Bulgarian food is very similar and when I was in Turkey last year I was surprised to find that even the names of the dishes are often the same. (People are always surprised to hear that, I guess they think Eastern European food is all borscht and…I dunno, whatever they eat in Russia. Turkey is in Eastern Europe, too, you know!)
I recommend gyuvetch, (I think in Turkish it would be minus the y and plus two dots on the u) it’s always good on cold days.
Anyone know what that stuff they put in with the rice is? Those little light brown things? I love Turkish rice, but no one I asked knew what the English word for that stuff is.
You may already know this, but in Turkish the c is pronounced like an English j, so patlican (eggplant) is pronounced as “patlijan”.
Well, Greece is right next to Turkey, and it was part of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years. Plus, there were loads and loads of Turks in Greece (and vice versa) until the Population Exchange. So it’s not that odd. There is definitely a sort of pan-Balkan cuisine that involves a lot of peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers and feta and skewered meat, with something covered in honey at the end. In April I went to what might be the priciest restaurant in Tirana, Albania, which advertised itself as serving “Ottoman cuisine” and there was a lot of that kind of thing. (And it was SO GOOD, too. The chef came out and asked us all what sort of food we liked and then just made several dishes based on that. No menus involved. I’ve never been served like that before and the surprise made it really fun.)
Another thing to look for: lokum, or Turkish Delight. It’s not very good out of a box, it’s true, but proper lokum in Turkey (or Bulgaria) is quite tasty. You might want to try raki, too, the Turkish national drink, which is anise-flavored. (Properly there shouldn’t be a dot on that i, but I don’t know how to make that character.)
This was my first foray into Turkish cuisine, so I haven’t been to Cafe Istanbul, but in looking at their websites, I’d say they have to be owned by the same people. But it appears that Cafe Istanbul costs a little more, undoubtedly to pay for the location!
I spent a year in Turkey ending last July and got quite familiar with the local cuisine - IMHO, you got a decently authentic experience. Pity they didn’t have çiğ köfte, though! Kyla, unless I’m greatly mistaken, you’re thinking of pine nuts.
Rakı (that dotless ‘i’ is pronounced quite short, almost in the back of the throat, nowhere close to ‘oo’) will definitely take the chrome off a bumper if you drink it straight - which you’re not supposed to do. It gets cut with water and ice first and drunk slowly.
When I was in Western Europe, I would always stop off at the Turkish places for a quick snack. My favorite was a doner kabob wrapped in Turkish pizza (lahmacun). Mmmmmmmmmm.
There aren’t a whole lot of Turkish restaurants here at home, but The Boy and I happened to stumble into one when we were in NYC a couple of months ago… my reaction was somewhere along the lines of “why haven’t I eaten this before, and how can I arrange it so that I can eat it again very very soon?”
I had a bowl of manti, which are little meat dumplings in a garlic and yogurt sauce. I’m drooling just remembering it. In fact, I think I may have to look up a recipe to try making them at home. We also had baklava for dessert, which I found was very similar to the Lebanese style in that it was drier and not as sweet - as opposed to the Greek baklava I’ve had, which is usually swimming in syrup and cloyingly sweet.
If it’s not pine nuts, you might be thinking of that orzo-like pasta thing that’s in some Turkish pilavs. I’m looking online for the name, and I think şehriye is it.
I was in Turkey for vacation a few years ago, and I concur, Turkish food is the best anywhere! I have a cookbook “Classical Turkish Cooking” by Ayla Agar that’s good.
Yeah, and kofte kebab, just so you know, is basically a grilled version of the thing, cooked on a skewer, and it could come in various shapes from long and cigar-like to meatball-shaped. Kofte can also come cooked as meatballs served in a sauce, they can be steamed, fried, poached, etc. There’s a milliion variations out there, all basically revolving around the theme of meat mixed with binders/stretchers and spices.
