“A La Turk” Lezzetleri
An Authentic Turkish Cuisine
Hellooowww there food lovers! Today post is going to be a tricky short-ish post since its 1:15 a.m, October 15th, 2018 when I wrote this. Me and my dearest old friend, procrastination. Again. Anyways, on this particular post, one of our great lecturers, Chef Secord, gave me and a bunch of other fabulous students a task. To seek a “new” food that we’ve never tried before and perform a sensory evaluation on it. Such a fancy words. Basically, we need to judge the food based on what we have learned from the previous weeks. So it begin.
The assignment sounds pretty simple, but it’s not. I was having difficulties searching for places to go to because I feel like I tried all of them. Well, more like most of them and I’m running out of ideas until I found this place while I was doing my research online on blogTO.com. I think that this place just recently open. Just like the title of this post, the restaurant is called “A La Turk“, It’s a Turkish restaurant that specialized in Kebab and Pides. What is PIDES anyway?? That’s a good question actually. Pide is a Turkish bread that has fillings in it. I’ll explain a little bit more below. So, I look up the location and find out when its going to open. The location is near Yonge St & Lawrence Ave area, to be exact, its on 3443 Yonge St, North York, ON M4N 2N1, and its open at 4 – 11 p.m. on the weekdays, and 2 – 11 p.m. on the weekends.
A Humongous Free Fluffy Bread
So, I was there sitting and looking at their menu for about 3 to 7 minutes then I called the server to order. Around 2 minutes after I ordered my meals, the server came back with something. Something big and probably tasty.
Me : “Is this mine?? I don’t think I ordered this.” I asked.
Server : “Oh, this is free, Sir.” smiled.
Me : “Oh, really? Thank you.” trying to act cool and normal.
I was surprised by looking at the size of it. I was like “This what you are going to eat while you’re waiting for main course???” in my mind.
I KNOW RIGHT, IT’S HUGE!! This Turkish bread sometimes called with Balloon Bread because of the round volume of the bread that expanded by the baking process in the oven perfectly coated with butter and sesame seed on top.
The fluffy bread comes with these 3 dipping sauces. From my research, the dipping sauces changes in time. This time I got 3 fresh dipping sauces. I usually don’t enjoy yogurt and squishy fruits or vegetables like eggplant, but this time this grilled mashed eggplants taste is incredible! It’s sweet, sour , and a little bit salty. It has a little bit of everything in one sauces, so many spices as well. And the yogurt sauce, not even taste like a yogurt. It’s more like creamy with a little bit of both saltiness and sweetness.
IT GETS BETTER!! What I did was I tear a quarter of the fluffy bread effortlessly, very soft texture. Then I open the quarter bread that I tore, I filled with all the 3 sauces combined together, and wrap it back together. Made myself a Turkish wrap haha. When I chewed it, all those flavor that I mentioned earlier on those 3 sauces were mix perfectly. I can feel the crunchiness of the fresh long beans and the carrots on the yogurt sauce. The best thing about this meal was it’s not the main course yet, and it’s free. Who doesn’t love a free tasty meal?? Haha.
The Mixed Pide is The Next Best Thing
Have you ever get tired of eating Pizza?? WELL, YOU SHOULD!!! Because Pide is the next best thing that will ever happened to you.
As I mentioned earlier in the beginning of the post, Pide (Read || Pee – Day) is a Turkish bread that has fillings in it, and the fillings can be vary. Cheese, beef, lamb, veal, soujuk (sucuk – Turkish Beef Sausage), vegetables or even can be all mixed together just like what I ordered for the next meal. Basically, pide is Turkish style pizza and probably contain more nutrients and spices.
The two pictures above is the same pide, taken by me. It looks different because I did’t use the flash. ANYWAYS, this is my actual first meal that I ordered. A Turkish style pizza, with a mixed fillings which is cheese, mixed with both tender ground beef and strong flavor of veal fillet, added some vegetables , and with some soujuk (Read || Sucuk) slices, a Turkish Beef Sausage. What makes this dish unique is that the shape of it, similar to the shape of a boat. Also the flavor of soujuk that really rich of spices (pepper garlic) and strong taste of it made the pide even better. The crust on the side of the pide filled with a cheese gave both crispy and mushy cooked cheese texture.
Marvelous Sarma Beyti Kebab
Sarma Beyti Kebab. First of all, I would like to apologize that I have lost for words for this dish. Look at it. Just look. This is how you reward yourself folks. The presentation is just WOW. It’s a fresh hand chopped lamb and veal, wrapped in lavash bread. Topped with tomato sauce, butter, and yougurt. Garnished with my favorite nuts, pistachios. Whats the word? The Umami, yes? Oui. Strong scent and flavor of both veal and lamb chopped well paired. Too well. You can taste fatty meat when you chew. And lavash bread, OH MY GHAWD, very thin and soft texture. The vegetables and the pickled onion at the and balance all the fatty flavor of the dish, when you combine both kebab and vegetables it will taste less fatty, and gave a little bit of fresh vegetables flavor to it. Just perfect.
Earthy Turkish Coffee
Well, you’re at the end of the meal session. Coffee time. More like espresso time. I had two of these bad boy, and this is probably the reason why I’m still working on this post on 4:52 a.m. early in the morning, October 19th, 2018. Haha. I know, it’s not a good, but you gotta do what you gotta do. So, yes. This Turkish coffee is great. It doesn’t taste like coffee, that’s why I had two of these. The taste is very earthy, and strong. You can almost smell the scent of wet dirt or sand, but in a good way. Also, the like any other espresso, bitter but more. You noticed that white small cube beside the coffee, that is some kind of a sweet rubbery candy coated with icing sugar to balance with the Turkish coffee. The server told me that the candy called “Turkish Delight” . Well, at least that’s what I heard.
The Lessons
Will I comeback? Oh, Yes. Absolutely! If I have time, extra money and enough space in my stomach yes!
Why? Well, it’s obvious that’s they have different kind of unique taste of dish. And I’d like to try some more, and maybe bring my family or a couple of friends for this place has a great atmosphere and perfect for groups. Also based on what I experienced last night, they served the dish as in sharing plates so that people can try a little bit of this and that. which is good everybody’s tried everything. Furthermore, the atmosphere. It’s very cozy and homey. Another thing that make this place unique was that all the kebabs were charcoal grilled with vegetables.
Opinions? Personally, I’m not s fan of sour food or squishy texture food, so maybe less of that on the menu. On the other hand, these guys really great job on those two things I prefer not to eat, made me think twice a little bit about sour and squishy food.
Work Cited
“A La Turk.” BlogTO, http://www.blogto.com/restaurants/a-la-turk-toronto/.
“Sucuk: Turkish Sausage.” Bodrum, bodrumnyc.com/sucuk-turkish-sausage/.
Elliott, Lorraine. “How To Make Your Own Amazingly Delicious Turkish Pide!” Not Quite Nigella, 13 June 2016, http://www.notquitenigella.com/2016/06/13/best-turkish-pide-recipe/.
Clay, Xanthe. “Move, over Pizza: It’s All about Turkish Pide Now.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 9 Sept. 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/recipes/move-over-pizza-its-all-about-turkish-pide-now/.
Silly Foodie 