The London Traveler

 
If you know Stoke Newington and Dalston you’ll know they’re not short of Turkish supermarkets and bakeries. If you want a quick borek for breakfast or some rahat lokum (Turkish delight) for after dinner, your every wish can be supplied.
But the greatest selection of Turkish comestibles comes from the great grandaddy of Turkish supermarkets, the Turkish Food Centre in Ridley Road, Dalston. It has Greek food as well as Turkish and Cypriot specialities.
Not just feta, but eleven or twelve different kinds of feta.  Not just olives, but olive mixes with different herbs and spices. Not just pita, but all kinds …read more

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Most of us think of Turkish food as the doner kebab. Fast, cheap, and far too often not very good.
But Turkey created a great empire. In the seventeenth century the Turks even laid siege to Vienna. And the sultan’s court enjoyed marvellous food, with recipes of great refinement and delicacy.
Kazan devotes itself to this Ottoman tradition. While some of the dishes, like the smoked aubergine puree and borek, are recognisable to anyone who knows their Turkish oooking , others add a little spin to the recipe – melon with feta cheese, for instance, or squid cooked in vodka.You’re definitely …read more

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There’s never enough time in the day to fit everything in.
First of all you need to work. (Or, if you’re on holiday, there’s always something to see – somewhere to go – and you’re not finished till nearly six.) Then, you’re going out in the evening, to the theatre or to a gig, and you have to get there. So you end up occupying all the time between six and seven-thirty just getting yourself there. Or changing out of your work gear. And then you get to the gig, and then you get out of it and it’s nearly eleven …read more

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