Signature Dish: Kalamaki

A brief note about Signature Dish.  Kalkan has its fair share of restaurants, and each year many new restaurants pop up beside the classics that remain season after season.  To create our Signature Dish posts, we have partnered with restaurants in Kalkan to discover not only what their signature dish is, but also how the dish is prepared, where ingredients are sourced, and a bit of the chef’s and/or owner’s philosophy on food, cooking, and the restaurant experience.  Signature Dish will be a recurring feature on Turquoise Collected.

Up this time: Kalamaki, located in the Old Town, serving Turkish cuisine with a hint of Europe

Your chef: Kubilay Beytaşi

Growing up in Izmir, Kubilay watched his mother cooking, and at the age of 11 decided that cooking was what he wanted to do.  By the age of 15, Kubilay was working in Marmarus, learning the ways of the professional kitchen.  After over eight years of study and then time spent in the Turkish Army, Kubilay returned to Izmir, where he opened his own restaurant, Aciktim (pronouced "adjectum") meaning, appropriately, "I'm hungry."  Kubilay then came to Kalkan, where he began work on Kalakmaki's menu in 2009.  Below, some of the fruits of his labor - Kalamaki's Signature Dishes.


For a starter, Kubilay prepared Shrimp with Salmon in Avocado (be still my heart).  The shrimp is sautéed with cream and white wine, and salmon and peppers are added; the mixture is poured into the slightly hollowed out avocado half; the shrimp- and salmon-filled avocado is then covered with cheese; and finally, the whole shebang is placed in the oven, to let the cheese lovingly melt on top.

Kalamaki's Signature main course is çökertme - beef steak (which, along with all of Kalamaki's meat, comes from Kubilay's home town of Izmir) sautéed with garlic butter and rosemary, served on top of thin-cut potatoes, and covered with both a garlic yogurt sauce and a garlic tomato sauce, which makes for unique presentation.

Et voilà!

Beef, with a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde complex. Highly recommended - it's like getting two meals in one! 

And finally, Kalamaki's Signature dessert, the Kalamaki Dream - pear cooked with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and simple syrup, served with an edible chocolate cup filled with ice cream.  And while it is a dream to eat, I have to admit, the real treat for me was watching Kubilay prepare the plate:

The artist and his work.

Kalamaki serves its guests on an enviable roof terrace with a sweeping view of Kalkan Harbour.  Reservations are recommended.


And because I couldn't leave you without it, as always, the money shot:

Making Waffles

As I think of Kalkan busily gearing up for the 2012 season, my thoughts inevitably turn to all things holiday: days spent on the beach, nights spent eating and entertaining, and of course, waffles.  Though he probably is not concocting any fabulous desserts at the moment (he mans the waffle stand at Fener Cafe from April to November), Ahmet will hopefully being doing more of the following soon:





Can't wait for waffle season 2012!

Collected in Kalkan Restaurants

A little something to warm you up as temperatures start to dip.


Food on fire:

Lamb at Iso's.

Oh, you want video?  We can do that too.

Steak at Coast.

Signature Dish: Ada Patisserie

A brief note about Signature Dish.  Kalkan has its fair share of restaurants, and each year many new restaurants pop up beside the classics that remain season after season.  To create our Signature Dish posts, we have partnered with restaurants in Kalkan to discover not only what their signature dish is, but also how the dish is prepared, where ingredients are sourced, and a bit of the chef’s and/or owner’s philosophy on food, cooking, and the restaurant experience.  Signature Dish will be a recurring feature on Turquoise Collected.

Your chef: Nuray (the first female chef to be featured on Turquoise Collected!)

This is Nuray's first season working in Ada's kitchen and she was kind enough to let us watch her whip up Ada's signature dish: Turkish Breakfast.


This whole concept of <insert country name here> Breakfast is still relatively new to me.  There is no "American Breakfast" like there is English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast.  And while I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around those (I just don't think the American palette was built to enjoy black pudding...), after watching Nuray prepare Turkish Breakfast (and then devouring it hot from the kitchen), I can say I've found a country whose breakfast I like in all its parts.


As with English and Irish Breakfasts, Turkish Breakfast varies from place to place and region to region.  Ada's typical Turkish Breakfast features the following items:

A little behind the scenes action of Nuray plating the (cherry, strawberry, and aubergine!) jam.

A note about the fruit and veg: if you go to Ada for Turkish Breakfast in March, you may not end up with the same exact fruit and veg you get in, say, July.  The reason?  Ada only serves seasonal fruit and vegetables - sourced from Kinik where the family of Ada's owner, Cihan (pronounced Gee-han) owns 10,000 square meters of greenhouses.  So, if you want fresh-squeezed orange and pomegranate juice - which, believe me, you do - you have to go in March.


Breakfast also features bread, including simits baked on the premises (post to come!).

This is all served alongside the main attraction - the eggs.

That's eggs, fried in butter and oil, with a type of Turkish sausage called sucuk (pronounced soo-jook).  




We have been trying for months and months, in two different countries, on two different continents, to recreate this dish, but without the Turkish sucuk, it just never comes out exactly right.  The sucuk has a slightly spicy flavor, and it also doesn't seem to release as much fat as the American and English sausages we've tested in our faux-Turkish Breakfasts.  Despite all of that though, we keep trying, because even without the exact flavors, the general concept of a Turkish Breakfast makes for yummy eating, day or night.


Ada Patisserie is located on the Kalamar road and, along with Turkish Breakfast, serves sandwiches and salads, coffees and teas, and tons of freshly baked (on the premises) baked goods.

Signature Dish: Restaurant at the Likya Hotel

A brief note about Signature Dish.  Kalkan has quite a fair share of restaurants, and each year many new restaurants pop up beside the classics that remain season after season.  To create our Signature Dish posts, we have partnered with many restaurants in Kalkan to discover not only their signature dish – the dish that best represents the restaurant it is made in – but also how the dish is made, where ingredients are sourced, and a bit of the chef’s and/or owner’s philosophy on food, cooking, and the restaurant experience.  Signature Dish will be a recurring feature on Turquoise Collected.


Your chef:  Yilmaz Yel

Yilmaz has been a chef for sixteen years - and he's only thirty-one!  At the age of fourteen, he joined his father, also a chef, in his restaurant.  From the age of eighteen on, Yilmaz went on to work in six five-star restaurants in Antalya, where he was born.  He holds many awards for his cooking, having competed in national cooking competitions in Istanbul.  2011 marks Yilmaz's third season as chef at the restaurant at the Likya Hotel.


On to the food!


When I began speaking with chefs and restaurant owners about their signature dishes, what I was not prepared for was that it would be so difficult to get them to choose just one dish.  When I asked Yilmaz if he could, please, choose just one dish to represent his restaurant, his response was (paraphrased), "Asking me to choose one dish is like asking a parent to choose their favorite child."  Basically: impossible (unless you're my mother, of course - hi Ma!).  But then I thought, "Let them make two dishes if they want!  It means I get to eat more!"  So, here they are, the Likya's Signature Dishes.


For appetizers!

Beetroots with a cheese-y mousse and pine nuts.

Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the second signature appetizer (I was probably too busy shoveling the first one into my mouth.  Forgive me?), but here is a shot of it being prepared:

Shrimp and asparagus in a cream sauce garnished with croutons and a salad.

This was my second time for the shrimp as I had ordered it the first time we went to the Likya, before I even met Yilmaz.  Points to me!  I ordered a signature appetizer without even knowing it!  Both appetizers were nice and light - a good way to start a meal.


For the main course(s), Yilmaz chose on the following:

Lamb fillet served with mushrooms.

The lamb in this dish comes from the Burdur region of Turkey.  As this area is home to many nomadic people, the lamb travel with them, and feed only on the grass from this area.

Grouper served with risotto and fresh vegetables.

This grouper was freshly caught, as is all the fish served at the Likya.  This was a light, yet filling, flavorful dish.


And if that weren't enough, here's dessert:

An apple and pumpkin concoction, left, and pineapple pan-fried in sugar, right.

But wait, there's more!  This showed up between the appetizers and the main courses:

A frozen concotion made with lemon, mint, and vodka.

When you're sitting in the hot sun, this makes for a very refreshing treat.  Overall, this was a meal that was lovely to look at and yummy to eat.


But with Signature Dish posts, I want to focus not only on the finished product, but also the preparation of these dishes.  Going through the photographs I took in the kitchen, what stood out to me the most is the great delicacy Yilmaz displays when cooking.  Nearly every photo I took looked like these:

Every dish he prepared featured this graceful touch and attention to detail.


But enough waxing poetic!  This is what you came to see, right?  The kitchen pyrotechnics:

Signature Dish: Gironda

A brief note about Signature Dish.  Kalkan has quite a fair share of restaurants, and each year many new restaurants pop up beside the classics that remain season after season.  To create our Signature Dish posts, we have partnered with many restaurants in Kalkan to discover not only their signature dish – the dish that best represents the restaurant it is made in – but also how the dish is made, where ingredients are sourced, and a bit of the chef’s and/or owner’s philosophy on food, cooking, and the restaurant experience.  Signature Dish will be a recurring feature on Turquoise Collected.

(Another quick note from me:  For years, I've been saying that I'd love to be a food photographer.  With the creation of Turquoise Collected, and more specifically, the Signature Dish feature, I basically gave myself the go-ahead to let loose and pursue that dream.  Well, I may have let a little too loose, because after shooting for these posts, I discovered that I had taken rather a large amount of photos.  I'll try to keep these posts from being too photo-heavy, but really, who doesn't love looking at food?)


And now, without further ado, Signature Dish: Gironda.

Your chef: Bayram

After finishing high school, Bayram went on to train for a year in cooking.  This was followed by over ten years working his way from restaurant kitchen to restaurant kitchen (along with an eighteen-month stint in the army as personal chef to a three-star general) studying and mastering many different styles of cooking including French, Italian, and Mexican.  2011 marks Bayram's first season at Gironda.


But enough of that, on to the food!  Gironda's signature appetizer:

Grilled Calamari with Fried Haloumi Cheese - be still my heart.

As Jimmy, Gironda's owner, notes in the video below, what makes this a signature dish is that instead of frying the calamari, as many other restaurants do, Gironda grills the calamari for a much lighter dish, making this an excellent choice in the warmer weather that can occur in July and August.

And Gironda's signature main course:

Chicken Gironda
(That lovely dappled light, by the way, is created by the rather large, rather beautiful, fifty-five (!) year-old mulberry tree, located in Gironda's central courtyard.)

Chicken Gironda is a stir-fry of chicken (marinated and fried) and vegetables (julienned red and green pepper, carrot, zucchini, and onion) which makes use of a mix of sauces and ginger to give the dish its signature flavor.

The chicken and vegetable mixture is served atop a bed of hand-mashed potatoes (with a little cheese smashed in for extra flavor).

I want that whisk!

After working hard in the kitchen and preparing their signature meal, Bayram, Jimmy, and some of the kitchen's staff very obligingly posed for a picture.

Bayram on the left and Jimmy on the right with the kitchen staff.

Gironda is open for dinner everyday.  Diners enjoy views of the harbor and Old Town from atop one of two rooftop terraces.  Reservations are recommended.


And finally, the obligatory kitchen pyrotechnics shot:

Stir-frying the vegetables for Chicken Gironda.