Khachapuri has been on my todo list but I have yet to get around to it, looks luscious.
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Since I mentioned it, here’s the boat-shaped Peinerli https://vidarbergum.com/recipe/turkish-cheese-pide-with-egg-peynirli-yumurtali-pide/
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Mouthwatering delicious looking! Ty, I’ll put this in my notes.
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I’m enough of a dish origin geek that I will add this thread
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I just saved the link and took a screenshot of the second recipe, hopefully will get to it soon.
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I made the Turkish pilaf discussed above. The toasted orzo gave a nice flavor to the rice, boiled with chicken stock.
(with air-fryer halibut)
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I like Vidar Bergum’s blog and recipes very much. Tho i havent cooked many of them. Pogacas were hit or miss on my recent trip to Turkey (also in Brooklyn shops) - sometimes just too dried out.
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My friend is coming to visit from Turkey and wants to know what she should bring me. What should she bring me?
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@shrinkrap will have some ideas. Her daughter-in-law is Turkish.
Off the top of my head, spices, saffron, olive oil, pistachios, Turkish delight. Some upscale Turkish Delight is at an entirely different level than the rose or mastic cubes. Very pretty stuff.
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Hah! I still have some from when my other friend visited this friend and brought some back for me.
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There are a couple posh cafés in Toronto selling 3 or 4 dozen types of imported Turkish delight, by the piece.
They also have imported baklava that costs about $40/ lb, twice as much as the made in Toronto Greek baklava.
Some have dried cherries or pistachios, little rolled ones. They look more like nougat.
When I visited Turkey, it was mostly cellophane wrapped boxes of nut Turkish delight or rose/green/yellow Turkish delight.
most boxed turkish delight is not to my taste, insipid and often stale but when we were recently in SW turkey, one of my travel companions shared some mulberry and pomegranate turkish delight that was lovely, fruity and not too sweet. Maybe your friend knows a place that makes this and is of high quality and fresh. Otherwise, I think there is very little food that you can bring in from turkey, spices included, that you can’t purchase here in NY. I brought nothing back this time, from either Turkey or Greece. Maybe some dried eggplant shells to stuffs for dolma? (thats what I would like, but havent given up hope I can find some in Sheepshead bay.
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Ooo! That’s nice! Its a long trip.
There is one kind of turkish delight I like, but not most. I love getting various ground peppers (biber?), olive oil, pistachio products. There’s a picture here somewhere wmy latest haul. She brings a lot of stuff, but those are the things I always use!
This is the turkish delight I liked. I think…
Ground dried pepper I’ve used; some are like Allepo, but not actually from Aleppo, heat varies.
I use in spice blends. Sumac/sumak has been fun too!
Some of the olive oils.
I’m no expert, but I like the idea!
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You can get most things in Paterson or Brooklyn (or even Kalustyan), so it’s possible that dealer’s choice would be the most fun.
Pistachio paste is lovely. Also pistachio paste pastry / sarma / durum and fresh pistachio baklava (also available here, but they have to bring you something, so… 
)
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particularly kalustyan! thats where I go to for the peppers, for sure.
baklava? freshness is everything, plenty of good baklava in Brooklyn etc.
I was ashamed to come back pretty much empty handed where food was concerned (tho I bought wonderful towels and a RUG, not expected) but there was really nothing i saw that I wanted that would have made it through customs.
Which places do you like? (I have only had one locally made baklava that compares to Turkish, aside from the one that’s flown in frozen from Turkey.)
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I like Safir bakery which has a couple of locations, they have a variety of good and buttery baklava, including a cream specialty that is particularly good (not remembering the name) and they also sell simit, the addictive chewy sesame bread rings. There is at least one place on 8th Ave in Bay Ridge south of Balady, the big arab grocery story, maybe called Brooklyn Baklava, where i have had some good Baklava in the past. Damascus in the Heights, and also of course Güllüoğlu, but I have not been there for some years, since they moved from Coney Island Ave. I have really loved some of the specialties at Poseidon Bakery in 9th Ave in Manhattan that involve exotic spice, like clove, but its a shell of what it was in past decades when that was a busy greek neighborhood.
