Turkish delights

An ongoing festival in the city celebrates the food culture that borrows from the eating traditions of Greece, Central Asian and the cuisines from the Middle East and the Balkans.

Biting into a wheat ball, I was reminded by how similar it was to the Bihari litti. It’s a different mater that this Turkish preparation is stuffed with lamb ragout, but the textures are similar to Indian food. For something completely different though, there’s the delicate handmade manti (a kind of dumpling that resembles ravioli) and the robust eight-hour-cooked boneless lamb shank.

The dishes described above are just some of those available at the pop-up Ottoman Café’s menu that is being served at the Four Seasons Mumbai’s Café Prato. The menu features everything from a mezze platter with a deliciously salty white cheese (among five other options), to sea bass in a delicate lemon broth that served with baby potatoes, onions, parsley and tomatoes. Some of the signature dishes that are on offer include borek, a flaky pastry with various fillings, and kunefe, an angel hair pastry made with unsalted cheese and sweet syrup, in addition to the aforementioned manti, lamb shank and chicken beyti.

On loan from the Four Seasons Istanbul Sultanahmet are visiting chefs, Yener Altunay and Yalcin Kose who are busy whipping up the food on offer. When we asked chef Yener Altunay about what diners can expect from his home cuisine, he drew our attention to the Turkish practise of slow cooking, “which involves combining all ingredients together and letting it cook for eight to ten hours on a very slow flame. This allows all flavours of the ingredients to come together and explode in your mouth.” Then there’s the predilection to cooking with olive oil.

The chefs have been flown down by Turkish Airlines (which is celebrating its 10th year of flying to Mumbai) and they’ve carried excess baggage. You can expect to feast on cheeses, olives, pickles, wheat balls, wine leaves in brine, dried white beans, coffee and of course baklava, all of which have been sourced from Turkey for the festival. And what do the chefs look forward to learning from the Four Seasons Mumbai team? Altunay wants to learn how learn how to use a variety of herbs and spices in a single dish. As for individual dishes, he’d like to learn, how to make “rotis, biryani, black dal, pani puri, and masala tea”.

For those looking to enjoy a languid, sunlit meal over the weekend, Café Prato will be serving a special Turkish breakfast on Saturday, April 30, and a brunch on Sunday, May 1 (priced at Rs 4,500 plus taxes and includes Chandon, beer and cocktails).

The ongoing Turkish Food Festival at the pop-up Ottoman Café is on till May 1. The author is a freelance writer