If you're in Gaziantep and crave a taco, there's just one place to get it--Bogazkoy.
This city, regarded as Turkey's culinary capital, is so addicted to its own cuisine that people aren't interested in foreign interlopers such as taco stands, Thai restaurants, sushi places and Korean BBQ.
It took a bright young chef to make a difference. Kerem Ozatay, 31 (above), realized his creativity didn't fit local tastes. Therefore, he opened Bogazkoy away from the heart of town in a new area, near the University of Gaziantep, which provides an open-minded customer-base.
Students come for burgers, pasta, pizza--and tacos. The 11 tacos are made with ground beef or chicken and accompanied by Mexican style rice. Ozatay buys corn tortillas and makes flour tortillas at the restaurant.
Istanbul tacos (at the top) are filled with tomatoes, cream cheese, corn, onions, jalapeños, roasted peppers, and meat.
Above are California tacos, stuffed with Cheddar and mozzarella, mushrooms, pickled jalapeños, roasted peppers, onions and guacamole, plus meat.
A Manhattan taco has blue cheese. There's curry in the New Delhi taco and spicy tomato sauce in an Antep taco, because people in Gaziantep like fiery flavors. Others are named for Capetown, Sydney, Milan, Naples, Shanghai and Mexico.
Ozatay put the tacos on the menu in May. A taco meal appeals to students because "it's very cheap," he said. Chicken tacos, three to an order, are under $7, beef tacos a dollar more.
Ozatay is by no means only a fast food chef. His serious dishes include Asian style salmon (above) that would fit right in at a Korean or Japanese restaurant in California.
The salmon, from Norway, is seasoned with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, honey, sugar, roasted red peppers and oyster sauce. The noodles on the plate are Asian-flavored too. Ozatay orders specialty ingredients from Istanbul. The tossed greens on the salmon plate came from Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast.
Ozatay describes his food as mostly international, with some Turkish. An example of the latter is open-ended stuffed grape leaves, filled with fine bulgur, lamb and Halloumi cheese. They sit on a base of roasted eggplant with yogurt, butter and garlic.
Back to international--Ozatay turns out a killer gazpacho shooter. But he's most proud of his souffles, the only chef in Gaziantep making them, he said. Rather than classic French, the one above was influenced by the Turkish desserts baklava, katmer and kunefe but is lighter than any of them.
Its components include delicate Antep cheese, white chocolate and pistachios. That's goat milk ice cream on the side. Called Bogazkoy Fistiklisi, it's his signature dessert.
Born in Ankara, Ozatay grew up in Gaziantep and returned there after working in Istanbul. He opened Bogazkoy three years ago.
If you go there for tacos with beer or margaritas, forget it. Bogazkoy is too close to a mosque, the beautiful Anadolu Tevhid (one of its turrets is at the right), to sell alcohol. But if you insist, there's bira on the menu. That's Turkish for beer, but it's non-alcoholic.
Photos by Barbara Hansen
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