Let’s talk Turkey. Not the bird, the country. (But now that you brought up the bird subject, I just want to say that the turkey we purchased from Greens Eggs & Ham for Thanksgiving was by far, the juiciest and most delectable big bird I’ve ever had. There’s something to be said for the taste of a free-range, organically fed bird. The meat is denser and holds more moisture resulting in a fuller flavour.) Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Turkey, the country.
Turkey is on our list of holiday destinations this winter so we’ve been doing some research to get into the mood. Our research included a stop at the Istanbul Food Market on 137 Ave & Castledowns Road for our favourite olives. While there we noticed a business card for the Istanbul Restaurant on 82 Street. Perfect. A few nights later we sat down for supper.
The restaurant is owned by Demirel Duzgoren (known as Demi to his friends and customers) who came to Canada from Istanbul when he was 18. Opening a restaurant seemed a good way to share his culture with Edmontonians.
Demi gave us a crash course in Turkish drinks along with tidbits of Turkish history. Once we mentioned a possible trip to Turkey in December, he gave us some “where to go and what to do” ideas, names of cities, lists of relatives…now that’s hospitality.
We already knew a lot about the Turkish beer called Efes (named after the Turkish city Ephesus). Efes is an award winning pilsner that often takes up space in our beer fridge downstairs, but another drink on the menu, Salgam Suyu, a juice made from turnips, caught our eye. It was new, strange and from a different culture; of course we had to try it. Demi tried to explain it as a Turkish Clamato juice. Okay, now that I can relate to but when the juice arrived, Steve and I looked at it like it was an alien life form. It was purple. And spicy. Zippy. Zesty. It’s hard to explain but this turnip juice made you stand up and take notice. Demi came back to see how we were doing so we grilled him a bit more on the Salgam Suyu. It is in fact beet juice but in Turkey the word for beet is turnip. Sort of. It’s a lost in translation kind of thing. What I find out now, as I write this post is that the earliest written mention of the beet comes from 8th century BC Mesopotamia and then later by Greek philosophers Aristotle and Theophrastus. So, beets actually have a longstanding place in Ancient Greece. See what you learn?
Traditionally, Salgam Suyu is served with Raki, a licorice flavoured liqueur. Sort of like how we enjoy beer and Clamato juice. It was all making sense now.
In short, the food was terrific and there was lots of it. Probably the most interesting dish was the Istanbul Special Calamari which you won’t find anywhere else in Edmonton. It’s a personal recipe where Soya Sauce is mixed with cream and poured over sautéed squid. The squid is tender and the cream sauce wickedly delicious.
Karides: Shrimp sauteed in butter, garlic and spices. You can never go wrong with that combination.
The mixed platter for two was huge, the meat tender, lots of great flavours going on there. My favourite was the adana kebob – a mixture of minced lamb and beef and grilled on a skewer. The platter also came with chicken kebobs, dolma (the Greek equivalent of dolmades), donair, nicely seasoned bulgur, a wonderful mixed salad called Salad a la Turka (I mistakenly referred to it as the Coban Salata in my CBC Edmonton AM interview), hummus, and more pita. Lots of food.
The donair plate – big on flavour, comes with warm pita on the side. My daughter, who normally eats about a half cup of food per meal, cleaned up the whole plate.
All the Turkish dishes at this restaurant are home-made and anytime we had a question, Demi was happy to oblige us with information.
Believe it or not, we ordered dessert. After all that food…but we couldn’t resist. The sutlac (rice pudding) was creamy with a hint of cinnamon and the baklava was homemade (of course) and lacked the overly sweet stickiness of honey that is common in store-bought baklavas.
