Having been open for just three weeks, the first Turkish restaurant in Taiwan is set to introduce the ancient country's rich food culture to local gourmands. The restaurant's small space is decorated with tasteful simplicity. Diners make themselves comfortable sitting on sofas covered in Persian patterns, surrounded by traditional Turkish musical instruments and ceramic artifacts adorning the walls. Dishes are served on peculiar-looking large, copper plates with hand-made designs on the surface. Together with the old Turkish music in the air, the restaurant's environment brings its customers to a Turkey of the distant past.
Everything on the menu from dishes to desserts is indigenous to Turkey and hasn't been adjusted to suit a Taiwanese palette. To guarantee genuine Turkish flavor, all the dishes are prepared with herbs and spices imported from Turkey.
PHOTO: DAVID VAN DER VEEN
The restaurant's most popular dishes are its Kebabs, a type of food dating back to the Turks' nomadic era when they learned to grill and roast their meat over campfires. Shish Kebab, the best known kebab in Turkey and abroad, consists of cubes of beef on a metal or wooden skewer, marinated in milk for 24 hours then grilled over charcoal. Chicken Doner Kebabs are slices of marinated chicken meat on a tall, vertical spit which grill as they slowly turn. The cooked parts of the cone of meat are cut into very thin slices with a huge, sword-like knife and arranged on a plate with pickles and pita bread.
For desserts, the restaurant offers rice puddings, which proprietor Mehmet Kaya (
Kaya, co-owner of the restaurant, runs an international trading company in the daytime and takes care of the restaurant every evening. He sees running the restaurant as a hobby and providing Turkish food a way to promote his native culture in Taiwan, where few people are familiar his homeland. His "cultural mission" already seems quite successful given the number of repeat customers.
"Since Turkey is located at the crossroads of the Far-East and the Mediterranean -- and been ruled by various empires -- it has a unique and multi-faceted culture. This has contributed to the exquisiteness of our food," Kaya said.
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