This week, Roy really wanted to do something a little different. In the past, he has visited a few restaurants, but they are unusual places for him to go - after all, Roy has a reasonably small appetite! Usually, Roy stays in the car while we have lunch, or even just stays home, but recently, he has confided that he is really intrigued by the idea of 'eating out'. He asked if perhaps we could add a new section to the Roaming Roy posts, just for restaurants, and I thought this was a great idea. The first place Roy wanted to share for eating out serves a type of food which you might have had before, Gozlemes, but takes them to a level Roy has never had before!
Gozlemes are very familiar to Australians, with Gozleme stalls at many markets and fetes today. Roy loves Gozlemes so when he heard that there was a shop in the Birkinhead Shopping Centre (NSW) which specialised in them, he desperately wanted to visit. If you would like to visit it is located in the Birkenhead Point Outlet Centre food court. To get there, head to Birkenhead Point, and follow the signs to the Outlet Centre and, once there, head to the lowest level and the food court. The Gozleme house is called Gozleme Turkish House. Roy particularly recommends the potato gozleme and the sweet one, with banana and honey!
So, what exactly is a Gozleme, and where does it come from? Gozlemes come from Turkey where there are a huge variety of pastries, both sweet and savoury. In fact, food which uses some sort of dough or pastry is very traditional and probably comes from the early Nomadic Turks. The Turkish people even have their own, special type of rolling pin for using with pastry and doughs called a oklava which is long and thin, a bit like a wooden rod. This is used for making a variety of popular pastrys like Borek, Pide, Baklava and, of course, Gozlemes.
Gozlemes are from rural areas of Turkey and although they can apparently be made with a type of lavash bread, they are usually made with a raw dough. This dough is rolled out very thin and then fillings are spread across one half. These fillings are traditionally savoury and include cheese, spinach, meat, potato, mushroom and egg. The dough is then folded over and pressed down to make a sealed package. The gozleme is then cooked on a hot grill until it is crisp and cooked. They are traditionally served with lemon wedges. Although gozlemes are traditionally savoury, Gozleme Turkish House have created a sweet, dessert gozleme, full of banana, drizzled with honey and (if you like) dusted with cinnamon and sprinkled with walnuts. Yum!