As you know, Hatay is the new address for gourmet tours lately, and in our posts too it makes for an essential heading: next up, the Food and Drink Guide!
We mentioned it in our earlier Hatay posts too: in this region, one lovely vegetable and fruit after another grows, and again a great variety of spices, fresh. With pastes, pickles and lovely olives, mezes are born too.
There's the happiness of bringing these flavours to our own table with what we bought at Uzun Çarşı! You can do your shopping at one of the shops you can see on almost every corner. Almost all of them take orders by courier so you can get the product you liked later too. We buy pepper and tomato pastes with a nice heat. A kilo of halhalı olives is 12₺. We fill up the basket with dried peppers, aubergines and courgettes.
The animals are fed on fresh herbs, so the meat is yet another kind of beautiful, and when cooked with fresh herbs added, the meat dishes come alive. All this is what makes the paper or tray kebab special, and the oruk and aşur so good.. Stuffed vine leaves are made in a way special to the region. Truly, setting aside the hummus and künefe we'll talk about in detail, for those who love pumpkin and walnut desserts, halka desserts put the final touch.
We have three suggestions where you can find all these local flavours: Konak Restaurant, Avlu Restaurant and Hatay Sultan Sofrası. At these lovely restaurants you can eat at length and with pleasure; only, especially at the weekend, making a reservation is a must.
1. MISIRLI DÖNER, OLD BAZAAR, ANTAKYA
Hatay-style Döner was the street food of our dreams; coming here, what we wanted most was to taste real Hatay döner. We'd heard friends who'd been before rave about Abdo Döner. But I wanted to eat at Mısırlı (Berna 😊). The döners were on our table within 5 minutes with fresh mint and lovely lemons. They normally make it using 1.5 lavash, and we wanted it with one; apparently that's called "başı açık" (open top)! The taste is perfect! I don't think we'll be able to eat döner anywhere else again. 😊
Then I saw the name Abdo Mısırlıoğlu on the wet wipe, and before meeting Abdo Bey, who was sitting at the till by the door, I said to Anıl, "We were torn anyway, and look, both belong to the same person!" It turns out the real story is this: a few years ago, Abdo Bey, unable to withstand the pressure from those around him and his children to retire, handed over Abdo Döner. In the 3rd month of his retirement he realised how far he'd brought his shop and what the shop meant in his life. Having created this name and then going back made him uneasy. He took the place two shops down, and asked for neither the name nor the chef back from Abdo Döner. He started again with the name Mısırlı Döner; such a lovely tradesman. "We've written our name on the street," he says: Abdo Mısırlıoğlu...
With what he earned from the döner shop he put 4 children through school, and all of them are doctors. What he received from the people he gives back to the people through his doctor children caring for patients in state hospitals, and he encourages us to produce and share too. We're so glad we met; with his warm welcome and hospitality we'll never forget him or his döner 😊 Be sure to drop by!
2. HUMUSCU NEDİM USTA, OLD BAZAAR, ANTAKYA
"It's right next to the police station, he's good company, and he's our neighbourhood's one and only muhtar (headman)," says Abdo Bey. Without searching at all, we head to the right address for hummus. Muhtar Semir Bey isn't in the shop, but his brother welcomes us with all his warmth. When he hears Abdo Bey's greeting and learns we're looking for hummus, he's truly very happy about our meeting too..
We're full, and since it'll be hard to fill someone already full, he suggests a small serving; how were we to know the taste of this dish would linger on our palate, and that we'd see the bottom of the tray as soon as it came to our table? We immediately have some packed to take with us. The nicest thing here is that they pack food so that after eating and eating the taste doesn't just stay a memory; almost everywhere it's planned, it's become almost a tradition.
The masters immediately list their tips on how to put the package in the freezer, how long it lasts in the freezer and how to thaw it! Truly, tradesmen who know their products wonderfully.. Even if we can't fully catch the taste here, it may have been thought of so you take it to your loved ones to eat later, or for people from Hatay living far from home. However it started, it's taken hold, and we really loved it. Places to visit in Hatay..
"They told our grandfather, who'd caught asthma, that the air of Antakya would be good for him, and he moved from Tarsus to Antakya," Nedim Bey tells us. Since he was a master of hummus and desserts, they called him Şerbetçi, in fact, with the French accent of the time, serbetci ☺ "With 'let's go to serbetci, let's meet at serbetci', even I only learned years later that my grandfather's surname was Arslan," he says. Same place, same taste, the memories fresh! We recommend it☺
We also thank Nedim Bey very much for his hospitality. That they keep up the tradition from their grandfather and continue producing while keeping the same taste is very valuable! We congratulate and support them.
3. FERAH KÜNEFE, BAZAAR, ANTAKYA
We were very eager for künefe in Hatay! As soon as we entered the city centre and started walking, we saw there was a künefe shop on every corner 😬 Künefe in Hatay is a culture, with its special cheese, cooking method and syrup.
We'd put the famous wood-fired künefe at Çınaraltı Künefecisi in the Bazaar on our list to try, but on Saturday evening we didn't even make it in time for the embers of the fire, and on our Sunday morning walk the fire wasn't ready yet. Ah, we said, it wasn't meant to be, and we've left this place for you as a suggestion, from what we know from many who have tried it.
We ate a lovely, lovely künefe at Ferah Künefe on Abdo Bey's suggestion. It was cooked on the stove and coloured with a syrup made with pekmez. It was really delicious! Only, we'd have liked tea with it. You can order künefe by courier too. Since we were there, we took our packages with us. They pack the syrup and the künefe separately and nicely. There are ways to store it in the freezer or the fridge.
4. PÖÇ KASABI, UZUN ÇARŞI
We gave detailed information about butchery and the ovens called pişirim in our post Places to Visit in Antakya. At these butchers, tray and paper kebab is a tradition that takes mastery: choosing the best cut of meat for the dish you want and cooking it for you in special stone ovens. Tray and paper kebab cooked in a stone oven, with lovely oven-baked pide on the side, is truly legendary in taste! Pöç Kasabı is one of the most famous in Uzun Çarşı for tray and paper kebab. We couldn't try it here as the oven closed at 7, but if you try it, we'll look forward to your comments..5. AFFAN KAHVESİ, CENTRAL ANTAKYA: HAYTALI, ALSO KNOWN AS İNCİ KIRAATHANESİ
A 100-year-old historic building, with so many memories and so much laughter in every corner. Kurtuluş Caddesi is the street where electricity first arrived, but Affan Kahvesi was founded 100 years ago when there was no electricity. That's why lighting with a pulley system was added later. Almost everything inside has been preserved; the chairs and Zübeyir Bey's table are 70 years old.
6. PETEK PASTANESİ, İSKENDERUN
We came to İskenderun before the feeling of fullness had worn off; our only dream was to drink coffee at the famous patisserie. But what a display window! One lovely dessert after another, wonderfully displayed. The lovely Demel Patisserie in Vienna came to mind. While thinking this, we see on the tables the certificate of approval from Austria.
We don't have a special suggestion; since we went as a big group, we got lots of things and made ourselves a tasting plate. But if you still haven't tried künefe, we say be sure to try it.
There are two branches; if the one on the seafront is very full, you can also go to the Petek in front of the municipality, 10 minutes' walk along the seafront.
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