Talking about Turkish food, among the first things a visitor to Turkey will ask is
“How’s the kebab?”
Of course, the question of which kebab one will like best is a question of one’s personal taste. There are a lot of varieties to choose from; kebab made from chicken, beef or lamb. And recently even vegetable kebabs specifically designed for vegetarians have been devised. Take your pick. This country can cater to all of your needs through its kebabs.
Of course, the question of which kebab one will like best is a question of one’s personal taste. There are a lot of varieties to choose from; kebab made from chicken, beef or lamb. And recently even vegetable kebabs specifically designed for vegetarians have been devised. Take your pick. This country can cater to all of your needs through its kebabs.
For my family at least, it has and always will be İskender kebab. My daughter especially is a great fan. It is basically pide bread cut into small pieces, topped with thin slices of döner meat, tomato sauce garnished with yogurt and pickled or grilled green pepper -- and the taste enhancer of all, hot melted butter poured on top of everything before eating. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it?
What is so special about it? Is it the way the pide bread is made? Or is it the way the döner meat is prepared and sliced? Everything should be cut not too thin and not too thick; it has to be perfect in every sense. Naturally, bad tomato sauce will affect the taste. I guess it is the combination of everything that makes it so good to eat. Only an usta (expert) knows the secret recipe to the wonderful taste of an İskender kebab. Of course, where you eat your İskender kebab is also important. Some restaurants prepare the kebab deliciously, while others do not.
Most Turks associate this kebab with İskender Bey, the kebab’s inventor and a Bursa resident. You can’t go to Bursa without having a bite of the original İskender kebab. This is a city where İskender kebab restaurants are managed by the descendents of İskender Bey himself.
Lucky for us İstanbulites, we have a lot of options for good İskender kebabs. Although slowly, the original İskender kebab restaurants are expanding their businesses all over İstanbul, so the question of trying to eat the original kebab is no longer a problem. We no longer need to go to Bursa as the kebab has come to us.
But quite recently I discovered something disturbing. Our family had the chance to go to Bursa. Naturally, the İskender Kebab restaurant was one of the many eating places we visited, and it served the best-tasting İskender kebab I have ever had in my eight-and-a-half years of living here. Everyone in the family who ate there agreed. Scanning through the brochures, I noticed that this particular İskender kebab restaurant has only a few branches both in Bursa and in İstanbul. What made me wonder was that in İstanbul alone, I had gone to a number of İskender kebab restaurants all belonging to the descendents of İskender Bey. It turns out that because İskender kebab is already three generations old, one İskender kebab restaurant belonging to one name (under the same founder) is not part of the same company. The descendents have become divided. However, one thing does not change among the descendents (in general): Each sells İskender kebab as the only dish in the restaurant. All prepare delicious İskender kebabs. After all, they all basically learned the tricks of the trade from the same founder. Nonetheless, this one İskender kebab restaurant that belongs to Yavuz so far has the most delicious kebabs I have tasted since coming here.
Personally speaking, I feel really sad over the division. This is a family business. If all the family members stick together as a company and expand their business to all parts of Turkey, maintaining the same high quality standards of the original İskender kebab, then this family with its İskender kebab business will be powerful and a force to be reckoned with in the kebab field. Instead, the family members are divided. As a result, we all find İskender kebabs under the same founder but maintained and managed by different names of the founder’s descendents. But then, to be fair, for three generations to be together under the same roof may be difficult business wise as each person has his or her own personal views as how to run the business. One example of this is that one restaurant serves İskender fast food next to the İskender kebab restaurant in the Ulusoy outlet of Susurluk. It is a new idea no doubt produced by one of İskender bey descendents.
A visitor to Turkey who wants to eat İskender kebab needs to be selective about where to eat because the choice will determine whether they will request an İskender kebab the next time they enter a kebab restaurant or not. But one thing to bear in mind for those who are not used to Turkey: If you enter a restaurant which basically sells İskender kebab and nothing else, that is a clear indication that the restaurant is worth entering. And if you are in Bursa, the original place of this kebab, the original İskender Kebab restaurant, is a place you must visit. Otherwise, you may miss out on eating one of the most delicious kebabs out there.
20 September 2008, Saturday
SIMAH ZAİM İSTANBUL
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