Modest, low-key, unassuming, clean, good view and, most importantly, delicious food! There’s a reason why it’s a hot-spot, especially among the locals, since 1993.
How can you make shrimps really bad for your health but really good for your palate?
Send them swimming in real Turkish butter! This one was one of my favorite meals there. It was bubbling and sizzling when it arrived: shrimps with garlic, doing laps in vein clogger!
Excuse the blurry photo: I was drooling and my hands were trying to reach for the fork instead of camera!
Wine – friend or foe??
It is behind all sorts of mischief: Text messages going where no man (or woman) should go again, imaginary dance enhancer, super-power maker…
Anyway, it does nothing of that sort to me.
But I do get creative inspiration and at this point I am a firm believer that I am an awesome photographer and also impervious to rain!
Look:
(I actually did edit the photo a tad – things look different after you sober up, no?)
So apparently this place’s roots date back to the 70’s where Kemal’s dad would sell his daily catch on a mobile fish stall. Kemal has since taken over and his dad has taken a step and gone backstage, still helping him out.
Here is Kemal.
He is 20 years old now.
Half of his father is also pictured.
Here is also proof that wine is perhaps, au contraire, detrimental to my imagined photography skills 🙂
Do add this to your list of things to do if you do want a low-key, reasonably priced but delicious meal in a cosy and calmer atmosphere.
Levent’in Yeri – Dalyan
As the night progressed I realized that absolutely everyone gets the same smiling, efficient service… which made me smile more.
What to order
We tried quite a selection of the dishes there. We went up to the counter and picked a few things ourselves then asked them to throw a few bits themselves. The food kept on arriving dish by dish and each dish was truly divine.
But there’s always one that you just cannot forget, that one special one that was just a little different from the rest. For me it was definitely ‘lokum’. Literally translated, this means ‘Turkish delight’ so when you do ask for it make sure they understand that you are talking about the fishy, savory Turkish delight. It is a very tender fish wrapped around divine filling made up of vegetables and spices and it truly takes you straight to heaven. They probably call it Turkish delight as it’s just delightful to eat.
Some of the starters
I call it tabouleh but they would probably call it parsley salad but whatever it is called make sure you order it because it really is one of the best ones I have ever tasted.
Guess who was feeding the cats again…
Yum num num num!!
There is good old fashioned Turkish style live music too. Musicians go from table to table taking song requests, singing and collecting their tips and moving on to the next table to start again.
Funny story about this particular musician: his fatigued new-dad friend and band member had forgotten to bring his drum to a gig once (new-dad used to be responsible for transporting the instruments of the whole band) so he apparently had to play an empty plastic water container (one of those big ones) throughout the gig! True musician!
Meet ‘kanun’.
Google says I can translate this as Zither.
I used to think they just strummed the strings like you do a guitar but on closer look keep twiddling those metal parts to make it ‘boing’ a little more.
This instrument was definitely designed for people with 3 hands…
Anyway, beautiful sound it has, our ears and hearts were very happy.
The upside of Levent’in Yeri is the upside.
As in they have accommodation upstairs, as in it is also a hotel, so up we go.
Exhausted after this wonderful day with my sister from another mother!
I remember the musicians were still playing in the restaurant below and I remember thinking, ‘I can hear the music, I hope I can slee….. ZZzzzzzzzz (snore)’.
