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Funny enough my friends around me have been asking me to make kısır for them, like all my life… It started in high school as far as I remember, being alone at home frequently, I had the whole gang at … Continue reading
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5.00am, first buzz, snooze. 5.15am again then jumped out of bed around 5.30am remembering why! I was on my way to Ali Haydar for morning liver kebab! How could I forget! I took a taxi and at 6.00am and one … Continue reading
Pistachio, fıstık, is a true delicacy and one main ingredient for baklava, in Gaziantep. The pink smooth skin covers the shelled pistachio inside which still has a softer skin then the usual roasted one.
The ones which have already cracked, growing their way outside he skin, pressuring it to open its mouth, called çıtlak and preferred by the locals. There are many street seller in the city, walking around heaped carts, with the eye catching contrast of blue nylon and pink pistachios.
The fruit is hidden inside the pink skin, then the semi soft outer skin. It has a taste like any other, mellow, moist and a little fatty taste, but bursting you with its flavor, the fruit inside has all the tones of green. The more vivid green, the more it has a unique taste, yellower green the taste becomes lighter. As I told these are the fresh ones, not roasted, so they are not salted and I prefer this other than the roasted ones. The fıstık season has ended so, these are the last ones I could catch in Gaziantep.
Now, this particular gadget is for cracking open the pistachio shells rather then trying to break you teeth, trying to get the delicious fıstık out from its skin, if the shell is closed, or you do not want to ruin your nails. As seen, it has many kinds made from brass, metal and covered with hand decorated figures, motives…
Will be back for more delicious Gaziantep.
Inside the small shop there are couple of tables in the mini börek store, all covered with muşamba, the thick faded oilcloth with big sugar containers, a tradesman type. You share your table, your sugar. And outside couple more tables people waiting for their börek or eating, enjoying their tea.
Tevfik Usta is an artisan making serpme börek over 40 years in his tiny place, with a vintage oven. He is a passionate man about what he does and how he does it.
Serpme börek is prepared on order, so you wait Tevfik Usta to finish the order in hand and turn to you to ask your choice. Then the process begins over again.
He swirls and turns the dough in the air,then stretches it on the oiled marble surface. The oiled, stretched, paper thin dough is then topped with mince meat or beyaz peynir filling.
Mince meat is veal meat precooked with onion, black pepper, salt and parsley, this old school mixture is a very traditional börek filling, but the balance of onion, meat and pepper is the most important thing. Beyaz peynir filling is made with Turkish white cheese, as you have read on the previous posts, and with parsley.
After he tops the filling in the middle of the börek, he closes it like an envelope and then he lays your börek in the blackened, old oven trays. Then into the vintage oven. He checks every once in a while as you wait impatiently, seeing other full plates served.
When the börek is cooked to perfection, he slices it thinly so you could tuck in with your hands. Using fork and knife would destroy the börek so don’t be a stranger and just copy what the others are doing, you will be satisfied with the result.
We had two rounds of mince meat and cheese börek, admiring the taste of them both. My favorite was the mince meat, well, how could I resist to that meat and dough taste, the mince meat filling was something else when combined with that magical dough!
I could not thank enough to my friend Tijen İnaltong for taking us there and letting us meet Tevfik Ekizoğlu. He is the last usta of serpme börek, I hope you get the chance to taste his exquisite masterpiece.
Phone : (242) 241 5813
Open from early morning till noon.
I recall the days, when I was a small girl with pony tails, my granny sending me to our neighbourhood baker to get the pide for dinner, before they break their fast. I got in the line, wait for the hottest, sweetest pide with money tucked in my hands. The elder ones pat on my head, pinch my cheeks with the lovely words, sending their regards to my granny. I always saw my friends in the line, sent by their families.
I remember the wiggling movements when the shovels came out with pide on them. The line starts to move, the ones who got their pide moving out of the baker with full hands and happy faces, passing the the newspapers wrapping pide from one hand to another, trying to avoid the heat of it.
When we got the pide we used to race till home trying not eat the pide or drool over and always rewarded for our patience, me and my friends. Everyone knew each other, everyone trusted each other, we all shared our tables those days, not long about 30 years ago…
If you feel like you are lost, and this place is so wrong for a fish restaurant, it means you are in the right place. Tarihi Karaköy Balık Lokantası is located in Karaköy, in a rumble place. This place was used to be a fish tradesman restaurant, in the good old days. At this small lokanta you eat fish, the best grilled fish from a big eighty years old charcoal grill.
You enter from the mini door, with a display on your left side with the prepared fish, all beautifully lay in front of your eyes making you more hungry, shellfish on skewers, big full parchment papers, colorfully surrounded with tomatoes, peppers…
There are couple of fish served everyday, seasonally what is available. Muharrem Usta is the man, the grill master. He mostly got his fish from Büyükada. He choose the fish, cleans, prepares, cooks. I told you, he is the man! And he is the only man in İstanbul for me who can grill fish perfectly, flawlessly, dreamy. Muharrem Usta has been a master for 21 years now. Being a master, a real master is not easy, he started his way in the kitchen from washing dishes, cleaning, being a commis. He learned grilling from the real master, earning his way up to the grill.
Muharrem Usta greets you, if he is not already busy on the grill, we say his and ask for the fish, already written on a small board right in front of us. We order salad, prawn on skewer, sole again on skewer and sea bass in parchment paper. We feel safe and happy, leaving everything to its master, we sit at our table, nearest one to him if possible.
First he put the small custom made bread on the grill, then he sends it with the simple, fresh salad, topped with olive oil from Ayvalık. So the feast begins. We tuck in the humble green, arugula and tomatoes with that bread. Oh, that bread! Then comes the big prawns with their tails on, grilled to perfection, drizzled olive oil.
Then comes the sole. Beautifully curled fillet, the sole is tender, seared on the outside, grilled fast to keep it moist and one bite it is bursting with the real flavor of the fish, the sole is out of heaven. You never ate anything like this! For me this is the signature dish.
Followed by the silky sea bass in parchment paper, cooked on the grill, the tomatoes did not melt but only left their flavors on the fish, olive oil is the finishing touch. Melt in your mouth, you never want it to end. We ask for more bread, mopped and scraped the juices, left with the paper and literally had to stop ourselves from licking the paper.
As fish needs its sweet, so did we, so he sliced us a thin piece of helva with pistachio, coming from Manisa. Just the right amount, the right taste, mellow with the oil of sesame.
Tarihi Karaköy Balık Lokantası is only open for lunch and close around 3.00pm, so act up, prepare to wait if busy and don’t sit at my table!
Address: Tersane Cad. Kardeşim Sok. No:45/A, Karaköy
Phone: (212) 251 1371
