wild greens and mushrooms, dried fruits, vegetables, and also the ladies from the villages bring their homemade specialties like erişte (ancient Turkish homemade pasta), bazlama (homemade bread), and gözleme (yufka filled with greens baked over a saj). All around Bodrum one can find a market to go to each day of the week. One of my favorites is the Muğla market on Thursdays. This is where I do my vegetable shopping for my classes in Ula. I find a huge variety of the freshest cured cheeses here, like the cured cheese of Bergama and curd, çökelek, which I prefer to use in my pasta on börek dishes. I never miss a cone of salep ice cream made with the ever-unchanged recipe of Yalabık, the famous deceased ice-cream maker of Muğla. [Salep is orchid-root powder that, when frozen, becomes ice cream and, when hot and mixed with milk, becomes a popular winter drink.] In Istanbul I take my salep ice cream on the delicate su muhallebisi of Sütiş in Emirgan, which leaves the taste of milk in my mouth. Sütiş is also my latest Turkish breakfast address—I love their tea, kaymak with their delicious honey, and their cheese, pide, and all the rest—everything is yummy. Also the İstinya Park Shopping Center has one of my favorite shops, Malatya Pazarı, where I go for dried fruits and spices. My most delicious and recent find, Cafer Erol Turkish Delight shop, also has a branch here. Cafer Erol, with its history and years of expertise, is a wonderful family business where each product is mouthwatering. I go there for the pistachio çifte kavrulmuş lokum and the kaymak-filled ones, which have a shop life of only two days. I would not miss their orange peel, eggplant, and green walnut version, and not to be missed for all the things in the world are the rose-petal jams. Close to the Black Sea is Sarıyer, a neighborhood where I go for my meat böreks. Even though I make the same at home, these are somehow more special, with expertise of over one hundred years. The Sarıyer muhallebicisi is also a special shop, established in early 1900, where I stop for lemonade and tavuk göğsü (chicken-breast pudding). Hacıbey is my steady address in Teşvikiye for Bursa kebab, which is mentioned in the travel book of the famous seventeenth-century Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi—the owner moved to Istanbul over thirty years ago. Also the Balık Pazarı at İstiklâl Caddesi still has its charm. My spice shop, Bünsa, is there and I always find the freshest spices. Kadıköy, on the Asian side, also offers the best quality produce. I enjoy going there.
I would not miss the su börek with ayran (a traditional yogurt drink) or Turkish tea at Güllüoğlu’s new shop in Karaköy. Visiting Güllüoğlu also gives me an opportunity to bring home baklava and other syrupy desserts to be savored by the family. They have the best Turkish pastry desserts in Istanbul. When I am around the Grand Bazaar, I either indulge myself at Şehmuz for the purest of kebabs (his meat pide is unsurpassed so far) or if I want a more delicate and classic taste, I choose the small shop near the Nuruosmaniye gate of the Grand Bazaar, Çarşı Muhallebicisi (Çarşıkapı Nuruosmaniye Caddesi 5-7), where I have chicken soup and chicken over rice with a special yogurt on the side. Hünkar is great for grand Turkish tastes like the hamsi pilav or manti, lamb knuckle soup, and puf börek. For a more elegant address in the area I like Şamdan, where I get the purest Turkish dishes like köfte and bread kadayıf, though they also serve continental food. For evenings, Club 29 is still my favorite with its Turkish mezes of small lahmacun, köftes, etc. Really I could just go on and on.…
Q: You are not a professional chef in that you don’t cook in a restaurant, but you seem to value pure and sophisticated cuisine and perfect results, and you believe in aesthetics as well. Who were your mentors or people that you found inspiring?
A: My mother, grandmother, and aunts are my mentors. I am quite like my grandmother, who would not let anyone else go in the kitchen, even though she had help. None of my mentors would start cooking unless