I remember a breakfast I had in Turkey in 1986. If my memory serves me right, it came with red lentil soup, feta cheese, olives, honey, and bread. Today at Santorini, a Turkish run Greek restaurant, I asked my Turkish friends to recreate my Istanbul breakfast for me, even though it wasn't on the menu, and they did with flying colors. The thick and flavorful honey they gave me actually came from Turkey. They also gave me sliced feta, black olives, pita bread wedges, and a cup of Turkish red lentil soup. I could have this for breakfast every day!
Location: Santorini, 68375 E Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City, California. Date: October 3, 2020.
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This was an amazing presentation of Greek and Turkish appetizers served at room temperature. It included crumbled feta cheese, firefeta (spicy feta cheese dip), taramasalata (creamy dip flavored with fish roe), baba ghanoush (smoky and tangy eggplant dip), hummus (chickpea puree), kalamata olives, yogurt sauce, dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with rice), falafel (chickpea fritters), and halved Greek meatballs made of beef and lamb. The plate was garnished with olive oil, fresh diced tomato, shredded lettuce, and chopped parsley. The dish came with pita bread wedges to pick up the tasty dips. In the falafel I seemed to detect cumin and coriander among the spices. The falafel pieces were a little dry so I dipped them into the yogurt sauce; however, the flavor was among the best I've had. Together with a glass of amazing white wine from the island of Santorini, this was lunch at its finest. This is also a puzzle: it's up to you to match my descriptions with what's on the plate. Have fun!
Location: Santorini, 68375 E Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City, California. Date: September 26, 2020. This recipe was given to me by my Turkish friend Fatih. It's called spoon salad because you eat it with a spoon, unlike a green salad which you eat with a fork. This salad consists of cubed cucumber and various colors of bell pepper (I used red and yellow), red onion (I only had white), walnut pieces (which I toasted), feta cheese crumbles, and a dressing of olive oil, lemon, pomegranate sauce (available online or at Turkish or Middle Eastern grocery stores), and salt and pepper to taste. I also added a little honey for balance. The star of the dressing is definitely the pomegranate sauce. This salad is crunchy, a little sweet and sour, and it has a touch of creaminess from the feta cheese. It's very refreshing and has a nice balance of veggies and protein.
Location: My Home in Desert Hot Springs, California. Date: June 14, 2020. This is Turkish red lentil soup, even though the menu at Santorini claims that it's “authentic Greek vegetarian soup”. The name tipped me off: it's definitely Turkish. When my Turkish friend Fatih, who works at Santorini, told me that this soup is often served for breakfast in Turkey, because it's known to be a good hangover recipe, a light went on. I had a fabulous breakfast in Istanbul in 1986 which included good bread, honey, feta cheese, black olives, and what I thought was a type of tomato soup. Ever since, I've remembered that soup, but I could never find it on Turkish breakfast menus, and no one I talked with had any experience of tomato soup for breakfast in Turkey. I ordered a bowl of this soup at Santorini, and with the first spoonful I was transported back to that Istanbul breakfast that I had so fondly remembered. The red lentils were cooked until falling apart, but the soup was still thin, certainly not a porridge. It had texture from the lentils, it was garnished with chopped parsley, and it came with a lemon wedge for squeezing. Fatih brought me a second wedge, because this soup really benefits from the acidic lemon. Fatih told me that the soup is flavored with some tomato paste, which is why I remembered it as tomato soup, though the paste is used judiciously; this really isn't tomato soup. While this may not be one of the world's greatest soups, it does happen to be Fatihs favorite, and my experience today solved a thirty-four year old mystery!
Location: Santorini, 68375 E Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City, California. Date: June 13, 2020. This was the first time I'd seen this on the menu at a Greek restaurant, and no sooner had I decided to order it, than the manager suggested I try it (as though he were mind reading). The dish is a spicy dip made of feta cheese, olive oil, and walnuts. The walnuts are obviously made into a paste, and what the menu doesn't say is that there is also tomato paste in it, which gives tang and color, and I also tasted garlic. At first, I failed to notice the heat, but it built as I ate, and with this dip, the more you eat the more you want! I scooped up every last bit with my pita bread wedges. Since this restaurant is currently owned by a Turk who is half Greek, I think this recipe is probably more Turkish than Greek. The manager said he thought that his boss may have invented it. With a glass of crisp white wine from the Greek island of Santorini, it was a fabulous afternoon snack.
Location: Santorini, 68375 E Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City, California. Date: June 6, 2020. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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