30 DAYS, 30 DISHES – DAY 17: Gözleme

Posted on December 1, 2017 by livingtheturkishdream

Gözleme is a popular street food in Turkey, marketed in holiday resorts as ‘pancakes’ even though they aren’t really pancakes at all, they’re more of a flat bread. It’s made with flour, water and salt, which forms a basic pastry dough. The dough is rolled very thinly on a special low round table, then filled, folded and cooked on a metal plate. Traditional fillings are savoury – mincemeat, parsley and onion, cheese and spinach or potato and onion etc, but in some areas you will find sweet flavours too – lemon and sugar, nutella and banana, etc, flavours which have been highly influenced by tourist crowds!

My favourite is mincemeat and potato, and our favourite place go for one is the Korkmaz family’s stall in the Fethiye area weekly markets!

The best pancakes in Fethiye!

Posted on June 24, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

One of my favourite things about living here in Fethiye is market day!

The markets are held on Tuesday in Fethiye town centre and Sunday in Calis, and one of the best things about them is the food on offer at the little trailer cafe’s that are located inside the market areas.

There are all sorts of food on offer, but by far the most popular with tourists are the pancakes or ‘gözleme’. Our favourite place to get these pancakes is at the cafe in the photo below – it used to be distinguishable from the others as it had a stuffed toy black and white lamb outside, but this has since gone missing. As far as I’m aware the vans don’t have specific names – not that I’ve ever noticed anyway, but if anyone is visiting the area and wants to check out this particular one look out for this sign, and this man, as he is always working there! (I should add here, he is not paying me to advertise this, he’s an old school friend of Berkay’s but I genuinely think this is THE best place for pancakes in Fethiye!)

They’re not pancakes as we know them – more of a really thin pastry filled with whatever you decide. There are savory ones, like mincemeat & onion, potato & cheese, etc, or sweet ones with fruit fillings like apple, banana & nutella or the good old favourite lemon & sugar. The prices are really cheap and you get a generous size portion, it’s guaranteed to leave you feeling full & very satisfied.

Mincemeat, onion & potato gözleme

Banana & ice-cream gözleme
There’s always a big jar of pickled red cabbage and pickled chili peppers on the table to accompany the pancake should you chose to have a savory one. I’d never had a savory pancake until I came here, it might sound strange but it really is a perfect combination.

Just walking past the little trailers inside the market you could be forgiven for thinking they’re not anything special, they are basic with plastic garden chairs and cushions for seating, but it all adds to the atmosphere. Everything is kept very clean, and there’s an open window on the trailer so you can see everything being prepared and cooked by the women – it’s actually really interesting to watch this process, especially how they cook it on the big metal plates.

This place in particular is a family run business and they are really friendly people who won’t hassle you. They must be doing something right as they are always busy, when we walked past with the intention of having some lunch a few weeks ago there were no seats whatsoever so we had to go and do our weekly market shop and go back later on when it was slightly quieter. I posted a photo on my Facebook page last week and lots of people also said they always go to them for their pancakes too so they are very popular.

If a pancake isn’t your thing, they have other food on offer, another favourite of mine is ‘bazlama’ a thick spongy bread sliced in half and cooked with a filling inside, normally white cheese. It’s almost like a toasty and is very filling, one between two people is more than enough. I love it with cheese, tomato and chili flakes, yum.

They also have really delicious freshly squeezed fruit juice, orange and pomegranate being their specialities, yum! Of course if you want a more authentic experience there’s always the Turkish favourite ayran (a yogurt based drink) which is also made freshly here.

If you’re in the Fethiye/Calis area on market days definitely check out this place – the food is amazing, cheap and delicious. Tomorrow is Tuesday – Fethiye market day, so I know where we’ll be eating our lunch! ❤

Market Day Treats..mmm.

Posted on August 20, 2013 by livingtheturkishdream

After walking around carrying bags of fruit & veg, what better way to cool down and recover than to stop at one of the little cafe van/trailers in the market area. Good food, cheap prices and friendly people. (I LOVE market days, can you tell?)

This is another of our Tuesday/Sunday traditions. Going to the market and getting a traditional Turkish pancake (gözleme). Yum. They come in lots of flavours, sweet or savory. My favourite is the simple lemon sugar pancake, but I’m also a lover of the meat ones! They’re all freshly made in front of your eyes and are a million miles away from the pancakes us English know and love.

kıymalı gözleme (mince meat) lemon, sugar & icecream gözleme

These are more like very thin pastry folded in half, filled with your choice of topping and served warm. Lovely.

There are tons of other Turkish foods available too, döner (chicken/salad in a half bread), peynirli bazlama (special bread with cheese in) and for the adventurous, kokoreç (lamb or goat intestines, usually served in a half bread!) ~~Yuck.~~

peynirli bazlama

Lets not forget the drinks too, you’ll see piles of fresh fruits outside the trailers waiting to be juiced, pomegranates, oranges etc, as well as the usual soft drinks. They also have the Turkish drink Ayran (made with yogurt, water and salt). I’m not a fan, ~~to me it just tastes like sour milk~~ but my boyfriend loves it. Apparently it’s refreshing and good for you as the salt helps you keep hydrated. It is an acquired taste for sure. My ultimate favourite drink to cool us down though, is kar şerbeti (literally- snow sherbet). This is basically a slush puppy. Only different. It’s made with snow, actual, real snow bought down from the mountains. They knock a chunk of snow off, stick it in a bowl and crush it up (using elbow grease, not a machine!) they then and add your choice of flavoured syrup, (cherry, grape, lemon, strawberry, orange etc…) This is so refreshing on a hot day, even with the brain freeze that often results from drinking/eating it too quickly!

ayran kar şerbeti