Oh, that dish! What dish? I’ll come to that in a minute. First, a bit of background: My family and I were on a trip to Bozcaada organized by the blogger Little Martha (Küçük Martha). The four-day weekend affair was well structured for our nearly forty-person group, which was made up of many gourmands from the burgeoning gourmet scene in Istanbul. We had just be treated to a private wine-tasting showcase by Çamlıbağ winery. After spending the afternoon tasting wine in the warm sun, which was complemented by a soft, cool breeze, we were prepped and ready for some delicious fare.
That evening we had reservations at Ada’m, whose owners graciously arranged for our entire group to eat on the rooftop. A couple of hours in advance of dinner I decided to check out comments for Ada’m on Foursquare, and one particular dish kept being mentioned throughout. Even though we were eating from a pre-arranged menu, I hoped that over the course of the evening I was going to be served that dish.
Ada’m isn’t your standard, formulaic Turkish fish restaurant. There were a number of unique cold appetizers; the two that stood out were a roasted tomato-cumin puree with olive oil — perfect for bread-dipping — and a potato-basil couscous. There was also a green olive stuffed with fresh almonds appetizer which was appreciated by all. Finally, a starter of baked seafood on a clamshell made the rounds to the delight of the crowd; it tasted like a seafood-pasta dish without the pasta. Nicely done.
And then it appeared. The dish. “Enginarlı Ahtapot” – Octopus with artichokes served in a cream sauce. The octopus was moist and the artichokes fresh. It was unlike any dish I’ve ever had, so I ate it with the vision of trying to recreate it in my own kitchen. There was an herbal note which I quickly identified as rosemary. The cream sauce was slightly nutty and salty, which convinced me that heavy cream was reduced along with parmesan. My guess would be that the reduction was then loosened slightly with a little freshly squeezed lemon. Bay leaves were also used both in the dish and as a garnish. It was absolutely delicious.
This one dish shatters the stodgy mold of old school rakı-balık places that 68-year-olds love to robotically frequent. Alas, this old guard seems to believe that recipes from 600 years ago don’t need any advancement or creativity. Yet the enginarlı ahtapot at Ada’m, a dish that exhibits a creativity often lacking in Turkish kitchens, represents a mix of flavors and originality that are welcomed by those of us who have high hopes for the developing culinary terrain inside of Turkey’s borders. So much potential. Oh, that dish!
Ada’m
Cumhuriyet Mah., Alsancak Sk No:42
Bozcaada
Deniz Tunca is a contributor to Yabangee and blogs at Mekanist. He also runs his own restaurant in Göktürk, West Side Cafe and Bistro.
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