www.agakapisi.net/iletisim.asp
| Adres | : | Fetva Yokuşu, Nazir İzzet Efendi Sok. No:11 | |
| Süleymaniye / İstanbul | |||
| Telefon | : | + 90 0212 519 51 76 | |
| : | info@agakapisi.net | ||
+90-(212) 512 11 96
The oldest Koser restaurant of Istanbul. Open only for lunch between 12:00-15:00 on weekdays. Home delivery is available.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pudding_Shop
The “Pudding Shop” in 2010.
The Pudding Shop is the nickname for the “Lale Restaurant” in the Sultanahmet neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey. It became popular in the 1960s as a meeting place for hippies and other travelers on overland route between Europe and India, Nepal, and elsewhere in Asia – the ‘hippie trail‘. The restaurant got its colloquial name as a result of “word-of mouth” from numerous foreign travelers that could not remember the name of the eatery but did remember the wide and popular selection of puddings sold there and thus referred to it as the “pudding shop”.[1]
When brothers İdris and Namık Çolpan opened the restaurant in 1957, they had no idea that it would eventually become one of the most popular meeting places for travelers venturing across Europe and Asia during the 1960s. They anticipated less that for a period of time their restaurant would become a mecca for individuals journeying through the hippie trail. In consideration of the general lifestyle and political views of hippies in the 1960s, the restaurant, developed an image associated with the counterculture of the time. Such stereotypes and ideas that resonated with the term “hippie”, including music choice, political stance, particular style of dress, or drugs, became tied to the restaurant.
Because most of its customers were tourists, the Pudding Shop eventually developed into a popular rest stop, a place where people could gather, discuss their traveling experiences, and delight in fairly priced, traditional Turkish food. Among the restaurant’s variety of well-known dishes and desserts was tavuk göğsü, a seldom found pudding made from pounded chicken breast, rice flour, milk, sugar topped with cinnamon.[2] The restaurant still offers this rare treat today, catering to customers with appetites for traditional Turkish cuisine.
During the 1960s, customers could enjoy their meals inside, where there were large booths and couches surrounded by piles of books and the audible music of contemporary rock bands playing lightly in the background. Decoration was minimal; on the plain white walls hung occasional prints of paintings and photographs without a real theme. Towards the left side of the restaurant’s interior, the entire wall was composed of glass, creating a greater sense of space for the small location. The lack of decor did not in any way make the restaurant appear meek or glum. The customers alone brought all the ambiance and liveliness that the restaurant could have created with interior decor. The garden was another area to relax and eat with the grand view of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia in the distance. Here was, where many customers played their instruments, sung, and conversed about their travels in the fresh air. Adem Çolpan, son of İdris Çolpan, remembers how “it was the time of the Vietnam War” and how many of the travelers just “lived for the moment… didn’t think much of tomorrow.”[1]
In its first few years, the Pudding Shop was the only place in the area where direct transportation to Asia and tourist information on Turkey were readily available. With this knowledge, the Çolpan brothers put up a bulletin board inside the restaurant so that travelers could schedule rides with their fellow travelers and communicate with friends and family members. This board was very useful to the tourists, and eventually became notorious for the variety of personal messages that were posted alongside the transportation notifications. These included love and apology letters; one of the board’s most well-known posts was an open love letter from Megan to Malcolm in which she asked for his forgiveness and apologized for “the business down in Greece.” [3].
A few other messages from the 1960s travelers are still posted on the board today serving as nostalgic homages to a lively past. In the present day, the Pudding Shop has lost much of its original character. Many old-visitors and those aware of the restaurant’s rich past with the hippie movement recognize that the restaurant resembles little of what it once was. From their perspective, the restaurant seems to have lost its spunk to commercialization and fame. Outside the restaurant, there is now a large sign that says “The World Famous Pudding Shop” and inside there are no longer servers but a self service cafeteria and a large menu illuminated by neon lights.[3].
The old bulletin board still hangs but is no longer flooded by messages between family members, friends, and lovers. Today, it is covered instead, with less romantic and more practical messages between travelers. The garden where travelers once congregated for meals, or after meals to play their instruments has been removed. Some individuals believe that the major change that the restaurant has undergone since its hippie hey-days is due to the fame that it has acquired. In 1978, the Pudding Shop was featured in the popular book and movie Midnight Express, which contributed to the growing reputation of the restaurant.[3]
The Caferağa Medresseh is a former medresseh, located in Istanbul, Turkey, next to the Hagia Sophia. It was built in 1559 by Mimar Sinan by orders of Cafer Agha, a eunuch during the reign of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566). The medresseh, listed within the independent medressehs and having had a number of restorations until today, was changed by the Turkish Cultural Service Foundation in 1989 into a touristic centre with 15 classrooms/exhibition rooms, a big salon and a garden where traditional Turkish handicrafts such as calligraphy, ceramics, jewelry and so forth are taught, made and sold.
The medresseh is located very close to the Hagia Sophia, stairs lead down to it from the small street. The structure is entered through the main gate which leads into the inner courtyard, around which the former learning rooms are located. There is a restaurant inside that offers a variety of Turkish dishes
For the most extensive variety of Turkish delight, stop in to this legendary sweet shop with locations in Beyoglu and Eminönü.
www.turkeytravelplanner.com/details/Food/TurkishDelight.html
The story of the creation of Turkish Delight (lokum) begins in the late 1700s, when Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir, confectioner to the imperial court in Istanbul, listens to the sultan rant:
“Hard candy! I’m tired of hard candy!” the sultan growled as he cracked a tooth on yet another sourball. “I demand soft candy!”
Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir had come to the imperial capital of Istanbul from the Anatolian mountain town of Kastamonu in the late 1700s to hear his emperor’s plea.
His mountain-man blood rose! His face turned grim with conviction! He set his jaw with determination! He was going to take bold and decisive action!
He marched into his confectioner’s kitchen and thought up a recipe: he mixed water, sugar, corn starch, cream of tartar and rosewater, cooked it up, poured the mixture into a flat pan slicked with almond oil, and let it cool. Then he sprinkled it with powdered sugar, cut it into bite-sized chunks and…his hand trembling, his eyes bright with anticipation, his mind fraught with trepidation, his lips quivering to receive the morsel…he bit!
What? No crack of candy crunched by his mighty alpine jaws? No shower of sugary splinters scattering through his oral cavity? Why, this new confection was soft and easy to chew, a pleasure, a treat for both palate and teeth! It was… it was…a comfortable morsel!
Rahat lokum (“comfortable morsel”), nowadays called simply lokum, or Turkish Delight, was an instant hit, especially at the palace. Ali Muhiddin became a celebrity overnight as palace bigwhigs (or, more usually, their lackeys and gofers) traipsed down the hill from Topkapi Palace to Eminönü on the Golden Horn to buy boxes of Comfortable Morsels to thrill the jaded palates of Ottoman potentates.
You can still buy lokum at Ali Muhiddin’s shop in Eminönü today, almost 250 years since the intrepid confectioner saved his sultan from sourballs. It’s on Hamidiye Caddesi at the corner of Seyhülislam Hayri Efendi Caddesi, two blocks east of the Yeni Cami (New Mosque).
Over the centuries Ali Muhiddin’s descendants (the shop is still owned by the family) fiddled with the recipe, adding good things like walnuts, pistachios, oranges, almonds, clotted cream, and of course chocolate. (The plain rosewater original is still a favorite, however.)
Lokum (Turkish Delight) is now made and sold in thousands of shops throughout Turkey, and enjoyed with Turkish tea or coffee, or just by itself. A favorite place to buy it is Afyon, where the rich local clotted cream is used to make kaymakli lokum.
You can make your own Turkish Delight at home. Here’s a recipe.
When you visit a shop, don’t be afraid to ask for a free sample: say Deneyelim! (deh-neh-yeh-LEEM, “Let’s try some!”) (For more Turkish words and phrases, see my Turkish Language Guide.)
Turkish Delight is a candy with a gummy, rubbery texture, though some mass commercial versions can be quite hard.
It is made from sugar, rose water, corn starch, and water, with the addition of cream of tartar to help prevent the sugar from crystallizing. Some versions are sweeter than others.
Turkish Delight is usually tinted pink or green.
To make Turkish Delight the sugar, water and corn starch are mixed together and boiled from 1 to 2 hours at 300 F (149 C.) Cooking it too long will make it hard; cooking it too little will cause it not to set.
The cooked mixture is then poured into flat wooden trays sprinkled with more corn starch, then more corn starch is sprinkled on top of the mixture. It is allowed to set for 24 to 48 hours, then removed from the tray, the starch is brushed off, and it is sprinkled with icing sugar (aka powdered sugar), then cut into pieces. Better quality Turkish Delight is often sold packed in wooden boxes.
Turkish Delight is sometimes coated in chocolate or has chopped nuts in it such as walnuts, pistachios, almonds, or hazelnuts, or pine nuts. It can also have fruit such as candied sour cherries, candied lemon or orange peel, dried apricots, or strawberries. It may be flavoured with mint, mastic, or vanilla. It may have dried, shredded coconut in it or may be dusted with dried, shredded coconut in lieu of the icing sugar.
In Afyon, Turkey, clotted cream (made locally) is added; this version is called “kaymakli lokum.”
Many people don’t like the texture of Turkish Delight, and compare it to congealed latex.
Turkish Delight is also made in Cyprus, where it’s called “Loukkoumi.”
In the UK, Turkish Delight is made by Cadbury’s; their version is chocolate-coated. Their Turkish Delight was actually first launched as Fry’s in 1924 (Cadbury’s later bought Fry’s out.) Cadbury’s slogan for their Turkish Delight is “Full of Eastern Promise.”
In North America, it appears that Turkish Delight is only made commercially by a company called “Bayco” in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
Nutrition
Low in fat.
History
Turkish Delight as we know it came about with the introduction of sugar in the late 1700s. Earlier versions of Turkish Delight used honey or grape syrup as the sweetener, and flour instead of starch.
There are many legends around the invention of Turkish Delight, all involving sultans of course. One is that a sultan (Abdul Hamid I) ordered his confectioner to create something as a treat for his many bored mistresses (Turkish sultans were allowed only four wives, but hundreds of mistresses.) Another is that a sultan (unnamed) wanted soft candies that didn’t hurt his teeth.
Turkish Delight, as we know it now, was actually created in Istanbul by Haci Bekir from Araç in Kastamonu. Bekir’s real name was Bekir Effendi, but he became known as Haci Bekir after he completed his pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1777, Bekir opened a sweet shop in the Bahcekapi district of Istanbul (the old quarter now.) It was a very small shop, at the corner of Hamidiye Caddesi and Seyhülislam Hayri Efendi Caddesi, two blocks east of what is now called the New Mosque (“Yeni Cami”.)
There, Bekir made and sold lokum, which we now call in English “Turkish Delight.” Again, he was not the first to make Turkish Delight, but he was the first to switch to using sugar (beet sugar) and cornstarch (sometime in the first few decades of the 1800s) instead of grape molasses and flour. Bekir became famous throughout the city for the cleanliness of his shop and the quality of his sweets (not just his lokum, but other candies as well such as “akide”), and was appointed “Chief Confectioner” to the Ottoman Court by Abdul Hamid I (20 March 20 1725 to 7 April 1789.)
When Bekir died at the age of 95, the shop passed to his son Muhiddin and then to Muhiddin’s son, named Ali (died 1974 aged 83.) The name of the store became “Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir.”
As of 2006, the business is still owned by Ali’s daughter, Bekir’s great-granddaughter, and is still called “Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir Confectioners.” It is also still in the same small shop in the same location, though not all the candy is made there now. The family has a factory outside of Istanbul in Pendik, along with two other shops in Istanbul, two in Ankara and one in Cairo (as of 2006.)
Turkish Delight was reputedly introduced to the West by some unknown traveller who brought it back to England. It is entirely probable that many travellers brought it back to Europe, but it came to the attention of the general public through being awarded a Silver Medal at the Vienna Fair in 1873.
Literature & Lore
In the Louvre, there is a painting of an aged Haci Bekir weighing out candy (often assumed to be Turkish Delight), painted by Vittorio Amadeo, 5th Count Preziosi (1816-1882.)
“‘Tis sweet with the meat of the lichi nut,
Combined with the kumquat rind,
The kind of confection
To drive a man out of
His Mesopotamian mind!…”
– From the song “Rahadlakum”, from the musical “Kismet” by Wright and George Forrest. 1953. (Sung by Joan Diener on Broadway; Dolores Gray in the film.)
“The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious…”
– . C.S. Lewis. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Language Notes
Turkish Delight in Turkish is called “Lokum” or “loukoum”, or “rahat lokum” meaning “comfortable morsel” or “rest for the throat”, depending on whose translation you go by.
The Turkish word comes from the Arabic phrase “rahat ul hulkum” meaning “soothing to the throat.”
Istiklal Cad. 129, Istanbul
Hamidiye Cad. No.83 34110 Eminönü / İstanbul
Tel. 212 522 06 66
Balık ekmek is another typical Istanbul snack, and pretty tasteful and safe when prepared fresh. It’s pretty straightforward – a grilled or fried fresh fish inside a large piece of bread. The best way to explore this snack is in Eminönü, left from the Galata Bridge.
You’ll see them prepare the sandwiches on the nicely lined up boats, after which they hand them to customers on the shore.
www.istanbultrails.com/2009/08/is-eating-istanbuls-street-food-a-wise-idea-or-living-dangerously/
History
The extraordinary building with the high domes supported on six stone piers situated at the top of the hill at the end of the row of small hotels in the narrow street immediately behind St. Sophia was orginally built, more than a thousand years ago, as a cistern. Until recently it was used as an automobile repair shop.
But, it is no longer so.
The Turkish Touring and Automobile Association, which converted the old houses in the same street into a row of small hotels, has also repaired and restored the cistern, converting it into a “Roma Tavern”.
The Cistern Tavern is a great and dramatic synthesis a witness, a document of the three thousand years old history of Istanbul; the capital of three Empires.
A restaurant of the Republican period in a Roman cistern at the end of an old Ottoman Street:
Just beside Ayasofya, in Istanbul, you will find a Roman cistern as old as Ayasofya itself.
This extraordinary building, with its massive stone columns and its lofty brick domes, stands at the head of a row of guesthouse forming the narrow “Soğukçeşme” Street between Topkapı Palace walls and St. Sophia.
The Turkish Touring and Automobile Association converted the old houses of “Soğukçeşme” Street into a row of guesthouse, cleaned out the 1600 years old Roman Cistern, which was unfortunately used as a car repair workshop untill recently.
The present floor level reaches to a debt of seven meters but investigations had shown that the six large, massive, single-piece columns descend three meters below this grounded level. The original room has been preserved exactly as it was. The only addition to this cistern is a fire-place in the ancient style. Tis fine Roman Cistern Restaurant simply named “Sarnıç Restaurant” in turkish, which gives the literal description of the building.
www.sarnicrestaurant.com/en/index.jsp
Sarnic Restaurant
Sogukcesme Sokagi 34220 Sultanahmet / Istanbul
Phone: 0212 512 42 91 – 513 36 60 – Fax: 0212 514 52 30
