Hello to all my readers in Ukraine, where apparently most of my hits in the last month have come from. I can only assume it is the inherent interest in the cuisine of North London.
My daughter now lives in Haringey, and no visit to her will be complete without a visit to one of the Turkish restaurants of Green Lane, where the two sides of Cyprus have been united without the help of the EU.
This was a recommendation and hit the spot. There is a web site on http://www.anteplilerrestaurant.com/main/ and various pictures and bits of the menu can be found, and an explanation that this is Silk Route food, and has a cosmopolitan background.
The restaurant evolved from a bakery and now has branches. In fact you can find them baking in the window, and I can only assume that wonderfully fresh flatbread were baked on premises.
The inside is modern hard surfaces, and on a Thursday evening when we went, it became full and noisy. It is large, so you might not need a reservation. There is an extensive and varied menu which you can find on the web site.At our table was salad, bread and yoghourt and chilli dip.
We decided to share starters, and this gave a good variety between 4
Sahanda Pastirmali eggs fried in a pan, with Turkish stlye air cured beef: unusual and tasty
Antep Kofte (Antep Speciality) small lamb koftes on a bed of creamy strained yoghurt with spinach & spices. Difficult to show just how small they were, but look at the fork.
Kisir (V) bulgur wheat, mixed with freshly chopped tomatoes, spring onions, celery and parsley
with pomegranate sauce dressing
this is main course Ali Nazik (Antep Speciality) braised fillet of lamb and bell peppers mixed with strained yoghurt on a bed of mashed smoked aubergine served with rice. The rice did not appear, and it came with Salad, probably a good idea as it was very rich
This is all very exciting food, served hot, and you can wander over to the open kitchen to see the cooking in place. I would easily award a CHOF of 8 but things did cool quickly. We drank the usual Efes beer. I also tasted some of the grilled meats which were very tender and soft
I would recommend this place, and might chose something a little less challenging next time. Bill for 4 with a beer each, but no desert came to about £80, so very fair.
