The literal translation of the Turkish dish ezme is ”smashed” or “crushed,” and I like to recommend ordering a plate of it at Selda Mediterranean Kitchen and maintaining it readily available during your meal. Paired with a pumped-up pita and a sauce or dip, Selda’s ezme is sensational, however could be ladled over nearly something however baklava.
Each Turkish kitchen could have its personal model, however all begin with finely chopped tomato, onion and garlic, including in cucumber and peppers, garlic and a Turkish chili paste. On this case, the dish additionally contains the miracle drug that’s pomegranate molasses, which provides a contact of sweet-sour complexity. I’d wish to suppose there was additionally a touch of dried, darkish and brooding urfa chili. Or no less than Aleppo pepper.
A topping of pomegranate molasses additionally figures in Selda’s grilled halloumi cheese, served on a mattress of pureed, roasted peppers and finely floor walnut. The pleasantly chewy cheese is okay by itself, although certainly it might’t be too heretical to splash on some kindred ezme.
These are each easy dishes — usually the most effective variety. The decor at Selda — copper-toned ceiling tiles, crystal-bangled lighting fixtures, gilt-framed mirrors and plush, blue seating — suggests the kitchen could also be aiming for a fancier really feel, maybe one that may distinguish it from different eating places casually labeled “Mediterranean.”
As for menu gadgets which could separate Selda from the pack, the salad of diced beet with watermelon, feta and walnuts tossed with child spinach in a balsamic dressing stood out as distinctive — if not essentially classically Turkish. Right here’s what I anticipated: a majority of equal cubes of beet and watermelon with feta both cubed or coarsely crumbled. Walnuts, perhaps additionally coarsely chopped, would supply textural distinction. And the spinach and balsamic could be held to a minimal.
Learn this description backwards and you should have an thought of what truly appeared: largely spinach, in different phrases. Nonetheless, one in every of our environment friendly waiters did return with a pair cubes of feta as if they’d been forgotten on the go. Not a nasty salad however unhappy.
Look to the unassuming Shepherd’s Salad proper above this one on the menu for a suggestion of what might need been.
Other than beets, there are specific Pavlovian substances that at all times seize my consideration. Pistachio is one. Although its affect was delicate, I’ve to suppose that the acquainted nuttiness solely improved the Selda’s Grilled Pistachio Meatballs, which had been served over rice with a carmine-hued coat of rustic tomato sauce and a snaky drizzle of cooling yogurt.
However nearly as good as these had been, the accompanying bean salad nearly stole the present.
Crimson onion, cucumber, tomato and extra all mixed with the modestly dressed white beans to make for a refreshing distinction to the hearty meatballs. Not content material to relaxation on its laurels, the salad was additionally sprinkled with that different miracle Center Japanese ingredient: floor sumac. This tart berry provides simply the precise contact of bitter.
As dinner service progressed, Selda’s eating room started to buzz with a various viewers. The occasional flash of flames leaping from the expensive Combined Grill additionally punctuated the scene. In search of one thing extra modest, the Iskender Doner appeared applicable. This was a case the place the dish exceeded its modest menu description.
Most diners conversant in Mediterranean delicacies know that doner is meat — normally lamb, beef or a mixture of the 2 — compressed and cooked on a vertical spit. Sliced from that rotating cylinder, the meat is most frequently served inside puffy flatbread. Iskender Doner — with the “Iskender” a part of the identify being a reference to Alexander the Nice — is a extra particular variation, served atop flatbread with a buttery tomato sauce. I envisioned slices of meat bathed in sauce and set on a single, comparatively thick, Turkish flatbread generally known as pide.
The tomato sauce half was right. So was the pide — form of.
The shock was that the pide had been reduce into strips and squares and fried in order that it was extra of a crunchy matrix than a pillowy base. Additionally surprising, the sliced, well-done doner meat had been shredded with the outcome that it melded extra absolutely into the thick tomato sauce. Delicately tart Turkish yogurt was welcome in distinction to the opposite strong flavors.
Simply earlier than leaving the restaurant, our server introduced us with small glasses of tea, a hospitable farewell and come-back gesture. Regardless of there being no springy, rose-scented Turkish delight to accompany the tea, it was mission completed.
I’d fortunately return. Lamb shanks await.
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