I like to joke that after eating corn chips and ramen for the last few months, diving head first into the cuisine in Gaziantep was an explosion of intense, deep flavors and easily the best food I’ve ever eaten. Everything is called kebap in Gaziantep. Don’t be alarmed, each one is a bit different.
Kiyma is a minced meat kebab pressed and bound together, kushbashı literally means birds head, ie small cubes of meant the size of a small birds head. Kebab, simit kebab, patlican(egglpant) kebab, liver kebab and onion kebab. Lahmacun, yuvarlama and dolma (stuffed vegetables with rice, meant, spices and minced tomatoes) as well as yogurt and various rices soups all round out the Gaziantep Kitchen
Desserts include the sweet pastrie like baklava, künefe, and kadayıf.
Gaziantep cuisine is praised by all Turkish people as the inspiration for the best dishes. the master chefs of Gaziantep have created 300 recipes unique to their city. An incredible feat and a testament to the important place food and therefore family is to the people of Gaziantep.
This day was an incredible assortment of various foods and tastes. I was able to work with a few local women who taught me how to make a specialty called icli kofte meaning sensitive meatball. Haaaa. my favorite !
Icli kofte have a soft outer layer of bulgur, potato,tomato and spices that is hollowed out into a ball or sphere and filled with a wonderful minced meat mixture of onion and finely ground nuts such as walnut or pistachio and fried or boiled in water.
Next we rolled Yuvarlama, a thinly ground or blended rice/ bulgur mixture with tomato and finely chopped meat into balls into pea and marble size. When offering yuvarlama to a friend, the tradition is to always bring your neighbor the smallest pea sized shape yuvarlama. this shows the friend / neighbor that you put in time and effort of love to make sure they have something substantial, healthy, and delicious.
It was incredible to learn about the traditions of Gaziantep cuisine. Really look forward to sharing the film with you in the near future!
YUM !