Saveur – July 2019

T

URKISH LONDON STRETCHES

through the boroughs of Hackney and

Harringay, in the northeast of the city.

There are Turkish barber shops and

bakeries, lahmacun cafes and baklava

stores, and an Ottoman-style mosque

with a butcher’s shop beneath it. Greengrocers stock

grape molasses and halloumi; fishmongers specialize

in Aegean sea bream and Black Sea anchovies. Doz-

ens of Turkish, Kurdish, and Cypriot social clubs are

open to members only, their smoke-filled rooms a

mystery to outsiders.

What unites this community is the collective love

of food and, above all, the mangal—the Turkish word

for a grill. Long before chefs like Yotam Ottolenghi

helped bring pomegranate molasses, tahini, and sumac

further into the culinary mainstream, the neighbor-

hood’s grill houses were serving smoky eggplant dips,

citrus- drenched bulgur salads, and cigarillos of chewy

vine leaves alongside smokily grilled cuts of lamb and

skewers of chicken. This area is always my first stop

whenever friends are visiting London from out of town.

I recently gathered with a group traveling from

60 SAVEUR.COM

• Clockwise from top left:
  Flatbreads in progress;
  this slice of London has
  the densest collection
  of kebab shops in the
  country; a butcher at
  work in Hackney.

TURKEY to LONDON