Taking A Bite Out Of Kusadasi

"Scar is the meanest lion in the world!" Ailyn said after The Lion King let out. Sennen, as usual, had a million questions about all kinds of details in the movie ranging from various characters' motivations to facts about animals – namely Wildebeests and why they stampede. They both concluded that they enjoyed the movie. Little did they know that the fact that they got to see it was a small miracle.

When deciding where to take our "city break" side trip, a place with movie theaters was one of our criteria as its something completely absent from Patmos. We had considered Rhodes heavily before deciding that the value of seeing another country and culture was more worthwhile. But we hadn't considered how hard it might be to find movies in English. Almost everything in Kusadasi is dubbed into Turkish, which was a surprise because we didn't find that to be the case in Istanbul or Antalya in 2010. However, Kusadasi is a smaller, less international town.

It turned out the local movie theater offers only one movie – The Lion King (thankfully) – in English with Turkish subtitles twice a day. So we went this afternoon and the kids were thrilled.

Prior to the movie, we followed our plan we established with the kids in the morning: breakfast, playground, fort, tea, playground, movie. This became a mantra throughout the day whenever someone whined, wanted something else or asked what's next. Breakfast was at Ozut, a cafe with a full-menu, but which specializes in Turkish breakfasts and traditional puddings and desserts. Naturally, Ozut quickly became a favorite – both day and night. Playgrounds were both near the kaleci and by the harbor. It seems Kusadasi has a lot of very nice public parks with playgrounds and they became a contender for the kids' favorite thing about Kusadasi. The fort – or Kusadasi Castle as it's properly known – is an Ottoman Era fortress on a small that once protected the harbor – now kept as a public park with beautiful grounds and a sanctuary for carrier pigeons. While the fortress itself holds little interesting history, the kids quickly took to it because of the old cannons they could touch and the ample supply of old pine needles in a park area they could play with and build "nests". 

"Daddy, I hate to leave this fort. This is one of the best places in Turkey. I love this fort!" Sennen said as we headed to the exist after more than an hour.

Tea was at Starbucks – the only place to get a sugar-free iced tea, something Emily has sorely been missing. We enjoyed the comforts of home for a little bit, while sitting on a deck overlooking the sea. Until the cigarette smoke of the other patrons ran us out. We forgot how many people in Turkey smoke – heavily and that it's allowed everywhere.

Of course this brings us back to the movie – which was a resounding success despite the fact that the movie theater was distinctly not as well air conditioned as the rest of the mall in which it resided. The fact that we got a 3D showing and that they had popcorn made it work for everyone.

"I'm not ready to leave Turkey! I don't want to leave Turkey…" Ailyn said sadly when she realized today was our last day as we take the ferry back to Samos early tomorrow morning. To be honest, we're not quite sure why. Kusadasi has a much higher register energy than anywhere in Greece, let alone our beloved Patmos and yet, it lacks the culture, history and refinement of Istanbul. Kusadasi was a great place to visit once and never return. 

When asked why, it turned out that the playgrounds and dessert waffles are Ailyn's top reasons to love Turkey.

This brings us to the main aspect of the Kusadasi experience besides the movie that was a general success: the food. We're a food loving kind of family, and while Turkey probably isn't our top food country, it definitely isn't on the low end of the scale. To be fair, Turkish and Greek food are not shockingly different – Turkish dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) and Greek dolmades are nearly indistinguishable from one another. But in several departments. the Turkish riff on the same cuisine brings in some stronger and sometimes more interesting flavors. Turkish cecik – the yogurt-dip counterpart to Greek tzatziki – is interesting with its mint. Turkish doner kebab is not more exciting that Greek gyros, but when drowned in sauce and yogurt (and then called Iskender kabob), it has its charm. The Turkish version of fava bean dip sometimes has dill – which is a more flavorful version than the Greek fava mezze. 

But in all but two categories does Greek food come out on top: breakfast and dessert. This again is where Ozut comes in as one of the great finds of our Kusadasi stay. First, let me preface that Ozut on its best day isn't Saray Muhallabecisi or my favorite Hafiz Mustafa of Istanbul. Those establishments take Turkish dessert to the next level. But Ozut is definitely the crown jewel of the Kusadasi breakfast and dessert scene which is why we went for breakfast the last two mornings.

Turkish breakfast is a small sampling of several things, usually including several kids of breads, pastries, cheeses, olives, eggs, honey and butter at its most basic. But it can include, and is not limited to Nutella, deli meats, pepper spread, eggplant, honey soaked crepes, labaneh, tahini and molasses spread, cheese-filled cigars and sojuk (spicy Turkish beef sausage). Ozut must have put 20 small dishes on our table with all of these and in some cases – like cheese – several varieties of things. Wash it down with some sahlep – a white milk-based drink with mastic, orchid root power and cinnamon – and you've had a nearly royal breakfast.

Anyone who knows me knows that dessert is my favorite and among the cuisines of the world, Turkish dessert ranks very highly – perhaps surpassed only by French, Thai and Bavarian. So much do I love Turkish puddings, baklavas and all of the other baklava cousin desserts in the dripping-with-honey family that I wrote a piece about Turkish dessert published in the Los Angeles Times in 2011. Ozkut made my nights complete with fantastic kazandibi – thick, pan-seared milk pudding that tastes almost like a roasted marshmallow; kunefe – honey soaked bread pudding with buffalo-milk whipped cream on top; firin sutlac – rice pudding with a browned top-skin; keskul – almond pudding; and of course classic chocolate pudding. Sure, they didn't take on the king of all Turkish puddings – tavuk gogsu – chicken pudding which actually doesn't taste at all of chicken, but uses the threads of capon breast to give it a unique texture. Nor do they made candied chestnut, candied pumpkin or pistachio puddings – leaving those for Hafiz Mustafa to reign supreme.  But the puddings Ozkut produces are solid work and better than any of its fairly weak competitors in the area.

Ailyn and Sennen were not as big on the traditional Turkish desserts, instead preferring Turkish waffles and ice cream respectively. Why are these special? Turkish waffles are topped with spreads – similar to Nutella – but in a variety of flavors including pistachio, vanilla, strawberry, coconut, chocolate, cashew and more – then topped further with candy and/or fruit toppings. My favorite topping is candied chestnuts, which they didn't have here in Kusadasi. Ailyn only needed to load hers with Nutella, chocolate chips and M&M's to find it the best dessert she's ever had. Sennen liked the ice cream because it's stretchy and chewy thanks to the mastic and orchid root powder they put in it.

Outside the dessert and breakfast arena, Turkish cuisine does have an area that Greek food does not – flatbreads. Turkish pide and lahmacun are very tasty flatbreads, sometimes called Turkish pizza that the kids really liked. Untasted this trip – but always a favorite for me – are gozleme, baked flatbreads with fillings of cheese with either sausage, tomato eggplant or spinach. I'm sad we didn't get to gozleme, but for those you have to go to a gozleme cafe, which we just didn't do this time. Perhaps in Istanbul some day, if anyone can pry me out of Hafiz Mustafa's.