Turks in Taipei

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We're back in Taipei for a few days, and the Parental Units were very understanding about us spending some time away from them. This gave us the opportunity to catch up with Little Rabbit, which we needed to do in order to exchange some gifts. I asked her to suggest a place for us to meet, with the overarching criterion that it shouldn't be fine dining. To my surprise, most of the places she suggested weren't actually Taiwanese - or Chinese, for that matter...

Eventually Foursheets decided that she wanted to have Turkish cuisine, so we ended up all the way across town at Izmir Turk Kitchen. They had literally just re-opened a few days ago, so Little Rabbit was kinda excited.

There is a selection of mezze to choose from, so I let the ladies go and pick them out...

We ended up with five of them, which made Little Rabbit very happy.

Artichokes in olive oil

Eggplant with sauce - nice and smoky as expected.

Green beans with olive oil

Octopus with olive oil and pistachio

Cherry tomato hummus - pretty interesting to have tomato flavor in hummus.

Tereyağh karides - this was about as expected, with garlic, butter, capsicum.

Next up were two lamb dishes we had pre-ordered. When Little Rabbit asked me which of these two I would choose to pre-order, I simply wondered why she felt we had to choose either one instead of having both. So she happily asked for both.

Kuzu tandir kebab - this was some really delicious roasted lamb! That fat was, of course, very tasty... and we also liked the sumac in the onions. Served with some bulgur on the side.

Ankara tava - the lamb shank looked very impressive, and tasted fine, but wasn't more special than many others I've tasted. The pile of orzo underneath was a little overcooked and flabby, and lacked the usual bounce I was expecting.

2001 Arietta Hudson Vineyard H-Block - served undecanted. Nice sweet fruit like cassis on the nose, a little black plums, with light, woodsy notes. Drinking fine but not amazing.

Çay - we were told that the Turkish tea was a little on the sweet side, but honestly I didn't think it was sweet at all...

They only offer two desserts on the menu, SO OF COURSE Little Rabbit and I took both.

Baklava - it's been a LONG time since I last had baklava, and I really didn't think this was too sweet. In fact, I was expecting more honey or syrup. Still, I was happy that I got to have some.

Kunefe - no, Betty, I don't mind waiting for my dessert at all! And no, I don't think the two of us splitting a kunefe is too much... not even after a piece of baklava...

I really, really love the texture of kadaif so this was completely up my alley. The melted, stretchy cheese and ice cream just made it better.

Mevlana şekeri - the bosses had just returned from a trip to Konya and brought these local specialties back. They're basically hardened blocks of sugar, but flavored with a little bergamot.

Türk kahvesi - I know we were served some tea with dessert, but how could I come here and not end a Turkish meal with a cup of Turkish coffee?! Betty was worried that I would find it too sweet when they put a whole pack of sugar in it, until I reassured her that when I was very young, I used to add FOUR packs of sugar into my cup of cappuccino...

Lokum - more goodies from the bosses' recent trip to Turkey. This one was flavored with green apple and came with pistachios inside. Nice.

Pretty happy we picked this place tonight, and I didn't expect to be having Turkish food in Taiwan. I was really, really full thanks to the two lamb dishes AND the desserts, but Little Rabbit had another stop to make. We ended up hitting a particular 7-11 nearby for... soft serve ice cream!

Salted egg yolk pastry-flavored sharing ice (蛋黃酥口味雪淋霜), from Le Ruban Pâtisserie (法朋) - this really DID taste like the pastry... and not only was the salted egg yolk flavor very prominent, I could also taste the flaky pastry. This was, actually, pretty damn good! Unfortunately my stomach was about to burst, so I had to chuck about half of it...