Pizza is pizza wherever you are in the world, right? Well, pretty much but the snack bar in our hotel in Kusadasi did such fabulous pizzas that we always picked up a few little slices to nibble with our cocktails at the end of the day before dinner and I want to recreate the dish at home.
The pizza dough is standard pizza dough, as far as I could tell. It tasted great but I think it was the outdoor wood-burning oven that gave it such a fabulous flavour. The shape of the pizza surprised us at first. Rather then the traditional round or square pizzas that we're all used to, they made very long boat-shaped pizzas. Think of a slightly wider French baguette with pointy ends. This means that it can be cut into lots of little slices to eat as nibbles which is a great idea.
The first topping was just cheese - nice but nothing amazing. The second one is the one we loved best - spicy meat with tomatoes and onions. After experimenting a bit, the closest I can get is half minced beef, half sausagemeat, a can of chopped tomatoes, a finely chopped onion, herbes de provence, garlic salt and sumac. The pizza chef would just grab a handful of topping from his bowl, slap it on the boat-shaped dough and use his hand to spread it across the top, before folding over the edges of the dough to keep it in place. It took seconds to make, minutes to cook and always had a big queue of people because it tasted so good !
The other thing that the kids absolutely loved from the snack bar was the baked potatoes. Nothing special about the potatoes themselves but what set them apart was the fillings. Pierre's favourite was macédoine which is basically a tin of mixed veg, drained and mixed with mayonnaise. I'd never have dreamed of putting that in a baked potato but he loved it and still asks for it now - I'm happy to comply because it's a great way of getting him to eat vegetables !
The other toppings were Turkish sausage, sweetcorn, cheese and black olives. If you fancy something a bit different to the usual tuna mayo or cheese and beans, they're definitely worth a try !
Other Turkish dishes that I've tried include Baklava, Gözleme, Turkish Kofte Meatballs and Deep Fried Ice Cream (yes really !)
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