Turkish Forum

Tag: Kebab

  • Turkey’s best kebab restaurants

    Turkey’s best kebab restaurants

    Because there are two types of meat in this world — Turkish kebabs and everything else

    kebabs-onba-ilar4

    By Talya Arditi, for CNN

    Put any kind of meat on a stick and roast it over a flame and it immediately becomes food fit for gods.

    No country understands this sacred rule of seared meat like Turkey.

    Turkish kebabs are the incarnation of the meat lover’s most exotic fantasies, with grilled lamb, beef and chicken as skewer MVPs.

    Most kebab restaurants also have a long list of Turkish starters called meze that are as delicious as the main dishes.

    Turkey’s best alcoholic complement for all that meat is rakı — an aniseed-flavored drink that’s often diluted with water and chilled with ice. Frothy, yogurt-based ayran is a great non-alcoholic complement to heavy dishes.

    But who are we kidding — you just want the meat. Here’s where to get it in Turkey.

    Hamdi Restaurant, Istanbul

    Hamdi Restaurant in Istanbul offers extraordinary views of the Golden Horn.
    Located just steps from the Egyptian Bazaar in Eminönü, Hamdi Restaurant isn’t just a stop on the way to the bazaar but a destination itself.

    Specializing in southeastern cuisines, the venue affords a magnificent view of the Golden Horn, the Galata Tower and Eminönü.

    Since window-side tables are in high demand, making a reservation in advance is highly recommended.

    A signature dish is the testi kebabı. Cooked over charcoal in a clay jug covered with dough for three to four hours, the dish is made with veal, tomatoes, onions, garlic, pepper, oregano, tomato paste and butter.

    It’s quite a ceremony to watch this extraordinary dish being served — waiters break the jug in front of you to reveal the meal inside.

    Another must is the haşhaş kebabı made with minced veal and lamb, and mixed with capsicum, salt and pepper.

    Tahmis Caddesi, Kalçın Sokak Number 17, Eminönü, Istanbul; +90 212 528 03 90; approximately $15 for a main dish; www.hamdi.com.tr

    Kebapçı Halil Usta and İmam Çağdaş, Gaziantep

    Halil Usta’s küşleme attracts crowds.

    Two kebab restaurants reign supreme in the southeastern city of Gaziantep: Kebapçı Halil Usta and İmam Çağdaş.

    Open since 1972, Halil Usta is a humble establishment with a dedicated following.

    Its tender meat has made such a name over the years that this lunch-only restaurant runs out of meat by 3 p.m. almost every day.

    Most notable is küşleme, a velvety soft lamb kebab served in copper pots. Although a side dish, the salad (greens, tomatoes, mint, thyme, red pepper, pomegranate molasses and spices) can stand proudly on its own.

    İmam Çağdaş is one of the best kebab restaurants in Gaziantep.Unlike Halil Usta, İmam Çağdaş is large and modern.

    Standout dishes include Ali Nazik, lamb served on top of a bed of char-grilled yogurt-eggplant purée, and Altı Ezmeli Tike Kebabı, a stew-like kebab made with lamb served on top of a tomato and pepper mash.

    The restaurant’s flaky, pistachio-filled baklava is as celebrated as its kebabs.

    Kebapçı Halil Usta, Karşıyaka Semti, Gaziantep Mozaik Müzesi Arkası, Tekel Caddesi, Öcükoğlu Sokak, Şehitkamil/Gaziantep; +90 342 323 16 16; approximately $7 for a main dish;www.kebapcihalilusta.com

    İmam Çağdaş, Eski Hal Civarı, Uzun Çarşı Number 49, Şahinbey/Gaziantep; +90 342 231 26 78; approximately $10 for a main dish; www.imamcagdas.com

    Onbaşılar, Adana

    Onbaşılar has beautiful lake views.Adana kebap is one of the most famous of kebabs — visitors should try to savor it in its hometown.

    Grilled over charcoal, this spicy, minced-lamb kebab is best enjoyed here alongside charred tomatoes, peppers and onions with sumac and lavaş (thin flatbread).

    A regional drink called şalgam, made with fermented pickled carrot juice, is good alongside it, while the kadayıf, a pistachio-filled shredded pastry in syrup, is the best choice for dessert.

    Recommended: a table with a view of the Seyhan Lake.

    Onbaşılar, Karslı Mahallesi, 82046 Sokak Number 3, Çukurova/Adana; +90 322 215 00 00; approximately $8 for a main dish; www.onbasilar.com.tr

    Koç Cağ Kebabı in Erzurum

    Cağ Kebabı is an Erzurum specialty best enjoyed at Koç Cağ Kebabı.
    The eastern city of Erzurum is home to Koç Cağ Kebabı, a modest eatery where the unique cağ kebabı originated.

    Cağ kebabı is made of lamb marinated with onions, salt and pepper for 12 hours and then placed on a large, horizontal skewer and cooked over a wood fire.

    The traditional way to eat this succulent meat is with your hands or wrapped in lavaş.

    Travelers who can’t make it to Erzurum can try Şehzade Cağ Kebabı in Sirkeci.

    Koç Cağ Kebabı, Kongre Caddesi, Kongre Binası Karşısı, Merkez/Erzurum; +90 442 213 45 47; approximately $5 for a main dish; www.cagkebap.com

    Şehzade Cağ Kebabı, Hocapaşa Sokak No.3/A, Sirkeci, Istanbul; approximately $8 for a main dish; +90 212 520 33 61

  • Be transported to Turkey at Istanbul Gyro and Kebab

    Be transported to Turkey at Istanbul Gyro and Kebab

    By Michelle Washington
    The Virginian-Pilot
    © May 6, 2011

    Mixed grill and a side salad from Istanbul Gyro and Kebab in Norfolk. (David B. Hollingsworth | The Virginian-Pilot)
    Mixed grill and a side salad from Istanbul Gyro and Kebab in Norfolk. (David B. Hollingsworth | The Virginian-Pilot)

    The unassuming building between the bus station and a social services office in downtown Norfolk has hosted a variety of restaurants, from a pizza joint to a soul-food stop, in the past few years.

    Here’s hoping the most recent ethnic fare offering, Istanbul Gyro and Kebab, will stick around.

    The menu features standard Middle Eastern food such as gyros and kebabs. Where it stands out is in the care given to preparation.

    A friend and I shared lunch in the simple dining room, which offers a few seats at a counter near the grill and a row of booths against a long wall of windows looking out onto Monticello Avenue.

    Middle Eastern music played softly from overhead speakers, a continental contrast to the Greyhound sign visible next door. A giant rotisserie turned a cylinder of gyro meat, as the cook shaved slices from it with a 2-foot-long knife.

    A zesty eggplant salad ($3.95) started the meal, and we forgot all about the bus station, work and our troubles and cares. Finely chopped eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, carrots and onions – seasoned with herbs and mixed with olive oil and lemon juice – was served with warm grilled pita bread.

    The eggplant salad was lighter and more flavorful than baba ghanouj, with a hint of smoke from the eggplant and a nice bright kiss of lemon.

    Creamy hummus and slightly minty dolmas from the mixed appetizer plate ($6.95) were delectable. Although the menu described a garnish of tomatoes and black olives with that sampler, ours came with cucumber wedges and just half of a plain canned black olive.

    Another appetizer, the spinach and feta cheese pie ($2.95), was less impressive. Tasty spinach and cheese hid between layers of nicely browned phyllo that we both thought would be flaky and crisp. It wasn’t.

    Lovely lunch salads brought crunchy romaine lettuce lightly dressed with a house blend of olive oil and lemon juice. My salad carried tender chunks of nicely seasoned grilled lamb so good I almost wished I’d thrown health and diet out for the day and said “forget the salad, just bring me a giant tray of meat.” My friend said the chicken on his salad was tender and juicy.

    A later, takeout dinner was prepared exactly as ordered and ready to go when promised. A tangy, refreshing yogurt soup ($2.95) flavored with dill and with a hit of cucumber crunch tasted fantastic on a hot day. My husband wolfed down his mixed kebab platter ($11.95) with lamb gyro meat, chicken and lamb grilled kebab and kofte, a seasoned, charbroiled meatball. I scarcely got a bite. It was served with rice and a salad and a small cup of tzatziki sauce.

    Both desserts on the menu tasted pretty darn good: sweet and cinnamony rice pudding ($1.95) and baklava ($2.95) that thankfully for me was not nearly as cloying as some versions I’ve tasted. Instead of a sugary syrup, this variation used a molasses-tinged topping with nuts between layers of phyllo.

    Manager Erkan Karasow said his recipes come straight from Turkey, his homeland.

    “It’s where I learn everything,” he said.

    He sometimes offers specials for Turkish recipes whose names he can’t even translate into English, he said, although the specials board this week offered stuffed peppers, grilled salmon salad, and “real” Turkish Delight.

    He also tries to offer at least one meal prepared in a Halal manner each day, he said, because customers request it.

    Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2546, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com

    via Be transported to Turkey at Istanbul Gyro and Kebab | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com.