Is the STREET FOOD in GAZIANTEP TURKEY Really that good?
Gaziantep is one of the most major gastronomical cities in the world, ask any Turk! They'll tell you that the best food in Turkey is found in Gaziantep. Mind-blowingly delicious! With its fusion of Anatolian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern tastes it is known as Turkey's gastronomical capital. So the question for today's video is.... Is the food in Gazantep worth the hype? Is it as good as they say it is? Well in today's video we're going to find out! We're Marianne and Chris in 2018, we quit the 9-5 and bought Trudy our camper van.
We are currently on an adventure to drive the circumference of the world. You join us as we explore the East of Turkey. With mystical lands, adventurous train rides, great wild camping spots, and interesting characters. Welcome to the city of Gaziantep, located here in Turkey's South East corner.
So we found this car park right in the heart of the city and walking distance to the bazaar, and all the really cool places! It's 12 TL a night. And today's video is going to be all about food! Yes we're going to eat a lot of food! Are you hungry guys? Yes ! I hope you haven't had breakfast yet? No breakfast, no breakfast! Right let's start! Oh olives, as soon as we left the car park there's food! River the dog is getting attention already! Walking along all the way down there's just shop, after shop of a nuts! What a fabulous place! I love these metal shops with all the teapots, and this huge one here, look at that! So this is the first stop today - Metanet Lokantasi and it's a good sign, the place is absolutely heaving! You always know it's a good restaurant when the place is packed, so this place is famous for this lamb dish that's served with rice, and put in a little bit of a soup and traditionally it's served here at breakfast time. The place is absolutely rammed with people. So after they portion them out they put them on this fire which is blasted at a rapid rate! Heating up the lamb and the soup. It looks absolutely amazing! It's wonderful you can see from the side of the restaurant down here they're making all the bread fresh, with their wood-fired oven down there.
We finally got a seat, what an amazing place i am so excited! what's really interesting about the bread is it's made all by hand, and you can actually see where the man has moulded it, shaped it with his fingers to create this beautiful, fresh smelling bread! You just can't beat fresh bread! So we got a portion of ayran which is like a yogurt milk drink, traditional here in Turkey. And you add a little bit of water in this one to get the right consistency. oh it's delicious, it tastes like liquid yogurt.
It's good! Okay so this dish is called beyran and it comes in two different types. I have a spicy one and Marianne has a non-spicy one. And it's basically lovely delicious lamb meat with rice in this wonderful soup. It also comes with this bread that i've already started eating, and a plate with some lemons and some chilli, so i'm just going to squeeze the lemon.
on top and dip that bread in! Oh that's is lovely! the lemon cuts through, and it's really tasty lamb rich hot soup, with like the rice as well to balance it all out lovely, so there's lots of lamb in this and the rice and you can see all the chilli that they put in, and it smells very meaty and rich soup, so I'm excited to give it a go. On a cold morning like it was this morning that is a proper comfort food, you've got the meatiness of the lamb, a nice rich soup and the kick of chilli just hits you as you eat it! Absolutely delicious what a way to start the day! So just next to the restaurant that we've been in, opposite there is also the same company, they're making this wonderful pistachio roti bread it looks like? So what they do is they get the dough and they grease the counter. They then flip it, proper roti style until it's absolutely huge! They then stretch it out and form it into a perfect rectangle, which they cut in half they make two sides, they then cover it in crushed pistachios sprinkled with sugar and this which is like a rich cream. And then they fold it up put it in a wood burning stove and then the magic happens! And ours has just arrived on the table .... right there! So this is the final product, look at this! It's called katmer, and it looks absolutely delicious.
I'm excited! Give it a try Marianne Really light crispy flaky pastry, it's a very thin layer, so it's not overwhelming with sweetness! Oh that is delicious, yeah i don't need to share this one! Okay, warm soft smells delicious ...... pastry .... That is wonderful, what i like is the fact that it's not over sweet, and the cream, the pistachio and the sweetness of the sugar ! It's like the ultimate sexy pancake! Oh my god Did you just say that? I did and and i mean it! It's absolutely wonderful! There are so many foods here in Gaziantep, that i haven't seen throughout the rest of Turkey. I haven't personally seen this one, and I'm pleased we found it this morning! So after all that fantastic food, guess what? Yeah we're going to go and find some more ! because one thing you have to do in Gaziantep, is eat! Which we're not complaining about today at all! We'll just be a little bit hyperactive as we have eaten all of the sugar! Eat till you drop! Yes the secret is to share dishes, don't get one each! it's very tempting! Marianne's giving me that look of .... I don't share baklava !! but actually you're going to! Because otherwise, you're going to say later, why did you let me eat all that baklava! So today is actually Sunday, we're walking around the city on a Sunday and surprisingly there are quite a few shops that are actually closed. And check out all these spices, I just love it and the smell as you walk around is amazing, with all these dried peppers here look isn't that wonderful. So we're just walking along we've seen this place Klas Tatli, that sells lokma covered in pistachios, and other things covered in pistachios.
And it looks absolutely delicious, they've just given us these how would you call it? it's like a churros with chocolate and pistachio on top and they ducked it into the chocolate, covered it in pistachios, put it on a stick. Oh my god! Oh ...... how good is that Ben? that is so sweet! That was not at all what i thought it would taste like! It's crunchy, naughty but nice! So come down this little side straight into a market, they've got lovely spices here, nice shop.
if you're walking around Gaziantep and you hear the word 'fistik' it means pistachio. Gaziantep is Turkey's pistachio capital, and you will see pistachios everywhere! And pistachio products everywhere. Oh there you go, look pistachios spread! They're aubergines, oh these are dried aubergines are they? Yeah, peppers and aubergines. So we've come into this area now which is actually an indoor market. I just love these little markets here, and we're literally surrounded by streets there's one behind me there, there's another one behind me there, and it also goes up in that direction there too. As we always say you can't beat walking around you know the old town, and the traditional style market.
Walking around Gaziantep, you will hear locals refer to the name of the city as Antep. And originally back in the day, Antep was the name of this city. And Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after the war and the independence of Turkey, gave the name Gaziantep to this particular city, because 'Gazi' means survivor of war! and that's why it's called Gaziantep.
Look at all these wonderful crafts down here, absolutely amazing. That's beautiful. Look at the detail on this pot here. So nice walking around the market and seeing all the natural handmade crafts that are happening. Skills that you just don't see anymore so often in the modern world. How amazing does this look? They've got ..... look at this!
Olives, oh this looks absolutely delicious! And then they've got this selection over here, lots of different hot dishes amazing thank you ! This might be why it's the gastronomical cultural centre of Turkey! It looks absolutely amazing i'm so excited! Chickpeas and yogurt, very good Dolma with garlic rice very good, oh that sounds lovely! Yeah this is a garlic onion chickpeas yogurt. Nice! So we've been looking at all the dishes here, and we can't choose! So we've decided to have a little bit, of a little bit! So Chesca is in the kitchen, she's the chef of the day! so Marianne, Chesca have gone and got a selection of dishes, we're starting off with some meze, look at this they all look very colourful, and very interesting, served with a bit of bread, and we'll have this to start. Did you order main course too? We did, But the the meze - you could have a little bit of everything and you could choose five dishes on one platter, amazing, but Chesca and I sort of looked at each other and decided there's so much choice let's just grab another one or something else as well! So i've got the Olive one, I'm hoping that's not chilli ... Parsley, onion, red, pepper and they're not marinated or really salty, they actually taste really fresh.
So i'm going to try the chickpea and yogurt one. Chopped parsley in yogurt with chickpeas, and a little bit of paprika. I would say delicious! This one is aubergine and red peppers and i think Chesca chose this one but this is i think going to be my favourite! Oh that's really lovely, the fresh herbs the parsley, oh that's delicious! there's a bit of heat as well there's some chili in there, but it's not too hot! This one here is a bean and it's got parsley, a little bit of onion in it and a bit of pepper, all of those flavours work. Oh chickpea and meat soup which looks delicious, with spices! So let's give that a go! that's delicious, it's got a real lemony that sort of sharp flavour! But absolutely lovely and the chickpeas have a slight crunch to them, and there's a real mint flavour in there as well a bit like a mint sauce lemony tomato chickpea! I was told they are dolma, so i'm thinking dolma means stuffed? And it's a pepper with a bulgar wheat. What's really strange is these are the ones that are the dried ones that we see hanging up, and they've been rehydrated so the flavour is incredibly intense. So we couldn't resist but order a couple of ickli kofte, and they're stuffed with minced lamb and delicious herbs and spices.
They are so so good, rich meaty lamb, crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle! So all of that delicious food came to 163 TL So we've been wandering around it's only two o'clock, we've had a long day, we've seen a lot! But we thought we'd come and wander down a few more side streets and see if we can find somewhere nice to stop and have a cup of tea. Nice doors Marianne! There you go we spotted this tea house Oh and a very noisy cat! it's very noisy! Cup of tea! So this is a lovely little tea shop just down by the castle, lovely tablecloths and material covered seats there, look right by the road, we're sitting and watching the world go by, and inside is just the coolest little coffee shop, this is the vine that goes up and through the roof. Have you enjoyed your walk around Gaziantep this morning? Yeah ! Are you still hungry? I could eat! if you force me! I am close to a food coma! There we go! Chris has gone traditional look at that, now i think this is pistachio coffee - menegiç coffee? Menengiç coffee is made with pistachios, it's got a very unique flavour. Try .... it's not chicory, i think everything in Turkey is strong - the tea the coffee Looking at that face, you don't like it ! It's actually growing on me as i drink it, it's not as harsh as Turkish coffee it's a lot smoother to drink, so yeah definitely give this a go if you come to Antep - it's the thing to try! I love the simit man walking, balancing on his head, what a skill - hello I like the little irons, the ones you put the coal in, the hot coal in an iron, that's amazing! This shop's got all Oldie-worldy stuff, yeah, a lovely little side streets and alleys and this is the vine over the coffee shop that we've just been in. Now that's what you call a bread shop! Look they're all there making the bread in the wood fire.
We have come down to Cigerci Mustafa, i'm not sure on the pronunciation, we thought we would finish the day with having a amazing mixed kebab mixed grill. and it's coming but they've given us these all these mezes to start with like we haven't had enough food today! So we've got salad we've got some kofte, some more salad, some greens, some esme, some yogurt, some pickled cabbage. Ben's just worked out that those are really hot! That's really a lot more spicy than Sehers Thank you for taking one for the team! Okay Chesca is going for it! I reckon it's probably pretty delicious .....
that is really good .... spicy? it is like a slow heat, it's not too bad. He is testing for Marianne, whether that's spicy. Yes that is spicy! Yep - that is it - get the yogurt! This is where the magic's happening! This is where the dinner's being cooked ! look at all those different kebabs there! It's a very hot job! Okay that's for me and Ben, oh - wow - look! ..... at the size of that! it's like a whole bench! Oh look at the mushrooms! Not only does it go along it goes up too! Wow we got tomatoes, some salad, some bread, different kebabs here, look at this mushrooms, some more salad, more kebabs, and just when we thought that wasn't enough - there's another kebab here in the yogurt. This is the one that we wanted to try earlier but we didn't, this one is called Ali Nazik apparently.... I've never heard of that before, but Gaziantep has so many unique dishes, that's why some of these we don't actually know the exact name of, but they are amazing! I'm just, ..... we, i think we're going to be here a while guys!
It looks like a minced meat kebab in yogurt with some pepper .... Oh beautiful mince meat with the creaminess of the yogurt, slight heat from a little bit of chilli, some oil, absolutely mind-blowingly delicious. Oh my god that meat, that lamb! Oh it's on a complete another level, they say that the meat particularly in Gaziantep is really really good and they're not wrong! is that not amazing? So good! and then these aubergines or 'Patlican' they call in Turkish have been roasted on the fire, the barbecue, so we're going to take a little bit of that, and then inside they're stuffed with this meat look at that! pull out the insides of the aubergine, look at that with some of the meat, put it all together... I can't explain how good that meat is.
They've actually got bread here that's already covered in like chilli paste, slightly sour. There's not really an easy way to eat these but we've crammed this with me in the bread a bit of yogurt bit of onion, this might be the most contented look you've seen on Chris for a long time! They've just stabbed these skewers into the bench, oh look at that ! And then this is .... it looks like a sausage ?How is it Ben? Spicy sausage It is like chorizo, it is like chorizo! well that was an absolutely fantastic end to the day! and, wow Gaziantep food is on a whole another level! we've had a fantastic time hanging out with these guys, if you haven't already seen them? Check out Overlanding Sofia - what a lovely couple, it reminds me what we were like, when we met over 25 years ago, oh we're still like that now my sweetness! We're back at Trudy, I think there was a good call coming early because this car park is rammed! It's the end of a wonderful day we just parked up here in the car park and these lovely guys just came they spotted the van and they bought us a little present! Everybody in Turkey is amazing
2022-02-05 12:44
