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Neolokal is a stunning restaurant. Last night I dined there and had a great experience.\u00a0It considers itself to be a ‘bridge between the past and the future’, modernising traditions in order to preserve them \u2013 ‘presenting dishes from the past in a way that will be accepted in the future.’ This, of course, is hardly a unique approach, but it’s a great path to take, especially when your cooking combines precision and imagination.<\/p>\n
Chef Maskut A\u015fkar (pictured above<\/em>) has developed a menu where he thinks that people will still find the tastes of their childhood, but with a modern veneer. They also champion local wines, and each table has a guide to Anatolian grapes on it.<\/p>\n The menu is multicourse, sharing style.<\/p>\n Houmus and Anatolian landscapes. The idea here is to express how rich and colourful the spice road is as it passes through Mesopotamia with the visual appearance of the dish.<\/p>\n Sikonta. A pumkin dish with its roots in Crete, cooked with onions and garlic, and served with yogurt and walnuts.<\/p>\n Cauliflower four ways. Braised in olive oil, fried and marinated, pickled, and boiled into a puree. The weak leaves are turned into a powder, and the stems are pickled and served raw. A zero waste dish.<\/p>\n Su boregi. A baked, filled pastry made from a flaky dough (phyllo). Shrimp with this on either side, and the top side is made from the shrimp skins.<\/p>\n Raw bonito, mixed with tarragon, chives and salt, served with lakerda (salt cured bonito). There are some edible flowers too, and walnuts, leeks and onions.<\/p>\n Levrek marin. Marinated seabass with mayonnaise made with mustard and parsley-infused olive oil.<\/p>\n I\u00e7li k\u00f6fte dumplings. Dough of bulgar wheat and raw meat, stuffed with minced meat, walnuts and pine nuts.<\/p>\n Lamb heart kokore\u00e7. Normally this is lamb or goat intestines wrapped around offal. This is a lamb heart take on kokore\u00e7, using the traditional spices.<\/p>\n Eriste with octopus. A home-made pasta with fish and vegetable stock with sundried tomato pesto and octopus.<\/p>\n Oxtail and begendi. This is slow cooked for 6 hours on the bone.<\/p>\n Seabass and seafood sausage, accompanied by black lemon (preserved in the caves of Cappadocia).<\/p>\n Lamb and freekah. Lamb saddles marinated with a kebab mix, served with freekah and vermicelli cooked in beef stock.<\/p>\n These were the wines:<\/p>\n Pasaeli Sidalan 2017 Izmir, Turkey<\/strong> Suvla Kinali Yapincak 2016 Gallipoli, Turkey<\/strong> Selendi Narince 2018 Manissa, Turkey<\/strong> Likya Acikara 2018 Taurus Mountains, Turkey<\/strong> Urla Bo\u011fazkere 2017 Aegean, Turkey<\/strong> Neolokal is a stunning restaurant. Last night I dined there and had a great experience.\u00a0It considers itself to be a ‘bridge between the past and the future’, modernising traditions in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,234],"tags":[383,419],"class_list":["post-23274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-restaurants","category-turkey","tag-restaurants","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23294,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23274\/revisions\/23294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_8308.jpg\")
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\nSidalan is the grape variety. Lovely precision here with bright citrus fruit. Textural, showing some richness on the midpalate and a bit of table grape. Limey, mineral and pure. 91\/100<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_8310.jpg\")
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\nThis white grape has red flecks in the skin. This is slightly nutty with some oxidative appley hints. Rounded with some dried herb notes. Pleasant, but a tiny bit flat. 87\/100<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_8314.jpg\")
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\nNarince is a grape from north Anatolia, and is referred to as the Turkish Chardonnay. This is grown at a high altitude (600 m) in a warm climate in the Aegean side of the country. It’s midweight and fresh, with bright citrus fruit, some aniseen, and a hint of mint. Lovely fruit intensity. 89\/100<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_8319.jpg\")
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\nThis is a newly rediscovered old grape variety, and it has a sweet floral aromatic cherry fruit nose. In the mouth it is pure, intense, richly fruited and a bit salty. Powerful and a bit meaty, this has vivid black cherry fruit. 93\/100<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_8324.jpg\")
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\nOriginally from South East Turkey, Bo\u011fazkere translates as throat scratcher, but I like it as a grape variety. This is supple, ripe, fresh and berryish with sweet cherries and plums. Rounded and fruit-driven with some gravelly, spicy depth. 91\/100<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"