1) Mezze
Antalya is located on the mediterranean coast line and with 300 days of sunshine has excellent conditions for growing a range of fruits and vegetables. This means the diet is based on a variety of high quality regional (and fairly organic) produce. It meets 65% of the fresh fruit and vegetable demand in the province.
The range of mezze reflects all this beautiful produce. There are varieties of spicy tomato pastes and yoghurt dips, usually with lots of garlic - to my delight the Turkish are not afraid of raw garlic!
There are also the usual stuffed vine leaves and various bean options. The beans were much more plump and fleshy than those I tend to find in my local supermarket in tins!
The borek I sampled below was crispy and cheesy and satisfied my craving for this delicacy. It is often served as a snack and can also be found in the bakeries. It worked perfectly on this occassion with the slight sourness of the yoghurt and the fragrance of the fresh herbs through it.
The Hasanaga mezze selection had so much on there, that I can name but a few. The picture below has stuffed chilli peppers in a tangy tomato sauce, spiced lentil cakes (which were crisp and included fresh herbs), the esme, which is a spicy tomato sauce, an aubergine caviar, garlic and cheese mushrooms and also more stuffed vine leaves (they produced my favourite). Clearly, there were other options that I could not fit on my plate.
2) Ottoman/Turkish casserole
I had to choose this by default on a the first couple of occassions as the only vegetarian main course option on the menu. I tried this at the Corner Cafe and then again at Hasanaga. I loved it both times. The casserole consisted of the best of mediterranean vegetables, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes, onions etc cooked in (a lot of) really good quality olive oil and a selection of spices which were delicate and fragrant; the combination of which was unknown to me. This was then topped off with cheese. It tasted very different from the morrocan tagines which tend to be heavy with olives and preserved lemons (and lacked cheese). As stated before, this is one that I really want to recreate at home. Gipsy spread had the ottoman casserole which included minced lamb.
3) Ice cream
As mentioned in my last post, Turkey does great ice cream. It is also the range of flavours that are great and usually harder to find here. There are some very high quality nut ice creams, with absolutely no scrimping on the nuts, unusual fruit flavours and a really excellent lemon ice cream - yes, that's right, ice cream and not sorbet. It is sold everywhere and helps refresh and stave off the heat.
4) Sweets and breads
The Turkish love their breads and pastries. I love the combinations they put together. I could never be sure before biting in whether it's sweet or savoury. This includes the sesame seeded mini bagels with a tiny hit of cinammon and my favourite, the buttery brioche bread which looks like there are chocolate chips on top, which in fact turn out to be black olives. Spinach and cheese is also an all time favourite combination which they will happily insert into buttery pastry and into soft flat breads or 'pancakes'.
5) Manti
Turkey has its own version of pasta. Its equivalent of a vegetarian tortelloni was interesting to sample. I did this at the La Perla boutique restaurant. There was a meat version that Gipsy spread did not work his way around to. The pasta itself was much more dense than a very good light Italian pasta (note the tortelloni at Seraser in my previous post), but the filling was sweet and refreshing, consisting in this case of green beans and peas. The sauce though was lovely and sharp. It was light because it was made of yoghurt, with a spiced oil drizzle. I was interested to try this as there is an Ottolenghi recipe (in 'Jerusulum' - with thanks to Alice and the Cat) that uses yoghurt with pasta, peas, feta and pine nuts, which I have not yet tried. Having been inspired in Turkey, this will be on this week's dinner plan. In fact, having just finished reading 'Julia and Julie', I am contemplating whether I have the nous to take on cooking every recipe from Ottolenghi's (my favourite chef)'Plenty' each day. Gipsy spread would of course be allowed some fish or meat on the side as usual. I'll let you know what I decide!
In hot countries, a lot of drinking is required to prevent dehydration. Now, my favourite drink of all time is Champagne and as it was my birthday, of course we indulged in a nice bottle of this. Although, as this is not particularly Turkish, it can't be on my list of top fives, but I think the bottle below is 'pretty in pink' and I therefore wanted to include a picture.
1) Turkish wine
I am going to begin with my second favourite drink of all time, wine. The Turkish produce some very high quality grapes and we regularly sampled some very good quality house wines, as well as some higher end wines in the higher end restaurants. As it was so hot, I generally erred towards rose wine, which was usually very fruity, but dry. I also sampled some really good, light chilled reds - I'm guessing these were the younger wines - it was not always possible to get a look at the label and wine lists or information on these was often lacking. We did though sample an excellent Turkish Cabernet Sauvignon as per below at La Perla boutique restaurant. At £35 a bottle, this really was one of the top end wines. Gipsy spread was therefore advised to eat the steak with it!
2) Jim Lik
This venue was a bar with a very basic menu. We did not eat here. You enter through a small opening in a wall into a beautiful 'secret garden', with lots of seating under tree canopies and lanterns appearing to float in the sky above you. The menu, if you can make it out in the picture below is beset in a very cheesy 1970's Turkish magazine. In the top left is a very bawdy picture of a moustachioed man, seeming to proposition a women in a bath, her modesty, kept simply by some bubbles!
This is one of the places where I was drinking the chilled red. To be clear, whether I would receive a chilled or room temperature red wine was never made explicit on any menu and was a bit of a lottery. We would come here before dinner and also sample the popcorn that comes with the drinks.
3) Hope Inn
So why would I include somewhere called the Hope Inn? Well, this live music bijous bar is not what the name might imply, i.e some kind of Irish pub export. It has some indoor seating, but spills out onto the pavement and has both Turkish and non Turkish live music most evenings. Now, Gipsy spread and I (the aforementioned special ways of doing things) like to find ourselves a 'local' when we go on holiday. This has faired well for us in the past. In Barcelona, after going to a jazz bar around the corner from our Hotel most nights (and usually tipping well); by the last night, Gipsy spread was behind the bar with the barman, pouring his own drinks and doing shots. In Thailand, the pool island bar where we had our nightly happy hour cocktails led to us making friends with Coconut-the best name of all our favoured bar keeps over our travels. So, we ended up at the Hope Inn most evenings after dinner and made friends with the owner and bar man. The bar has a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere and is in a great location for people watching (those on the way to the Alley Club - where we did not go!). The singing is actaully also fantastic and extremelly enjoyable.
https://www.facebook.com/HopInnPub?ref=ts&fref=ts
4)Soft drinks
With all the luxurious fruits available in the area, there are many many fresh fruit stalls to be found. You must sample the fresh orange juice for about 50p. As well as the beautifully sublime home made lemonade served with fresh mint over or blended with ice. Pomegranite, watermelon and cherry are some of the other exciting options.
I sampled these, but I can't say I was a fan of the turkish tea and coffee. They were a tad bitter for me. I'm a latte girl. What I did love though, was the array of fruit teas which are definitely worth a sample. The pomegranite, apple and eucalyptus teas were fragrant and light but powerful in flavour. No shrinking violets were to be found here. Interestingly, most of the coffee and tea shops also did a range of frappes and iced coffees were often very welcome in the thirty degree heat.
I am now off to visit mother in law toast for the bank holiday weekend and will be attending the Petersfield food fayre tomorrow. I'll let you know if I find anything interesting.
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