A Turkish Breakfast in Gaziantep

My first morning in Turkey starts with a double breakfast— what a befitting way to begin my Turkish journey in Gaziantep! Once I am over with the complimentary one in Hotel Tugcan, my guide informs me about the best breakfast place in Gaziantep city, Orkide Patisserie. I don’t risk keeping it for another day and set off immediately.

The southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep was added to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Gastronomy in 2015. Armed with a cuisine museum and an array of delectable dishes, it is no wonder that breakfast in Gaziantep is no less than a ritual. Being the Pistachio haven of Turkey most of its dishes, particularly the sweet ones, bear a rich pistachio flavor.

Orkide Patisserie is a contemporary confectionary and restaurant in the modern part of Gaziantep, in business for at least the last 50 years. It is popular for its local Gaziantep breakfast spread and katmer (a dessert). Orkide takes pride in its cakes and pastries and focuses on quality over quantity. They have four branches in the city of which I visit the Gazi Muhtar Pasha branch.

A Photostory

Demir Ozguler, the founder of Orkide was influenced by his grandfather, a professional baklava baker, who made baklava with molasses and honey (since sugar was a rare commodity back then). When Ali Ozguler, father of Demir, helmed the baklava business, he expanded it by adding a variety of other items in the menu.

Interested in the cake culture of the west, Demir learnt how to bake cakes and was soon thinking about introducing this new form of dessert among his people in Gaziantep. Sweet-toothed Gaziantep accepted this modern cuisine.

Standing in front of these counters in Orkide, I confuse myself on what to buy. I am a textbook example of the stereotype ‘sweet-loving Bengali’. In my native place (Howrah-Kolkata), there are sweet shops at every street corner, and they don’t cost a bomb (unlike Bombay). I find Gaziantep to be very similar in their sweet appetite.

Orkide emphasizes on natural ingredients and avoids chemical substitutes. They follow stringent hygiene standards in the production and distribution of their products. The breads are freshly baked every day. Overtime I learn the importance of simit bread (also labelled in the photo) in Turkish cuisine—they seem to be the lifesaver quick snack.

Want to celebrate a new birth in the family?

Thinking about a gift to carry in the babyshower party?

Here is Orkide’s answer, albeit seeming a bit weird to outsiders. Desserts, candies and pastries in all forms and shapes are ready on Orkide’s counters.

Now arrives my Turkish breakfast— the reason why I am here—this is a local Gaziantep breakfast spread for four people. As you can see, one needs a wide-angle camera lens to fit the spread of 18 small bowls, each with a different item, in one frame. There are at least three jams, honey, local goat and sheep milk cheese, cream, chickpeas salad, boiled potato salad, cucumber and tomato salad with herbs, olive salad, roasted eggplant, fried potato, boiled eggs, meatballs with yoghurt, flaky crispy cheese pastry (the outer coating is like spring rolls and samosas) and three more items that I can’t recollect while writing this.

While having the cheese I wonder – so many words used in Turkish vocabulary are similar to Hindi words. The Turkish for Cheese is Peynir. In Hindi Peynir or paneer means cottage cheese. Breakfasts are my favourite meal of the day while in Turkey. The variety of sweet dips and jams available in a Turkish breakfast platter to eat the bread with, sometimes become uncountable. In Gaziantep they say, it is not an authentic local breakfast if the jam spread is less than three! Apricot, cherry, fig, walnut and of course Hazelnut are some of them. The Italian brand Nutella is consumed widely here.

This is Katmer, a sweet dish that is similar to Baklava. Katmer is like a Baklava sans its multiple layers and intricacies. The baked phyllo (also written Filo) dough is stuffed with generous portions of crushed pistachio, flavoured with butter and crème. Orkide is renowned for its Katmer. Though it is a popular breakfast choice in Gaziantep, in Orkide Katmer is not served as a part of the breakfast platter but sold separately.

Pardon me, I have started forgetting as I write this, but this looks like hot chocolate. With the lavish Turkish breakfast spread here, I remember having the Aleppo coffee. Or was it tea? What interests me more than the beverage itself is the ceramic crockery in use. Blue is the reigning colour and the size is cutely small—a recurring pattern in ceramics across Turkey.

The picture above is of a Turkish breakfast spread in Gaziantep’s Orkide Patisserie for eight people, neatly arranged by the well-dressed servers. Orkide had some of their staff trained in Austria. My guide is acting as the translator for me so I am unsure if any of them can speak English. In the rare occasion if someone runs out of bread, the bread-basket is quickly refilled. I definitely did the right thing by having a second breakfast in Orkide.

For my Gaziantep video on Youtube, please click here.

Have you experienced the Turkish Breakfast? What do you like the best about it?

*****

Disclaimer: Tania was hosted by Turkey Tourism Board. All thoughts and opinions expressed in the post are of her own.

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