Friday, December 25, 2009

Baklava from Istanbul's Karaköy Güllüoğlu

Baklava and tea

Up until this point, my experience with baklava has been sadly limited to those gigantic pieces that one could get in trays at Costco. And those were so sickly sweet that even eating just one was a task on its own. So when I got to this place this afternoon (Katli Otopark Alti 4, 0212-293-0910), I only asked for one piece too.

The man looked at me a bit oddly at first but gave in nonetheless. And only after I sat down to bite into mine did I realize why it was so odd: this thing wasn't nearly as sweet as I was exepecting...and also was cut into only about a third of the size. Most folks were getting about three or four of these on one plate instead.

Yes, I liked this a lot better. It was still very rich and flaky, and yet the syrup was reasonable in its sweetness, going well with that little Turkish tea that is so commonplace around here. I only realize now that the tea wasn't meant to be spicy, but rather just being very potent and mixed with nothing but sugar.

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