Turkish Cuisine
Turkish cuisine is as eclectic as it is delectable. Once you taste Turkish cuisine, you'll immediately get a sense of familiar flavors but, strangely, you won't be able to ascertain where it exactly came from. And that's the story of every single country and culture in that part of Europe. From Asian and African flavors, the influence of thousands of years of cultural dichotomy and merging empires, has produced a cuisine all its own and yet transcends those seamless boundaries that seems apparent within the country itself.
I consider myself very lucky that I am able to enjoy this food and it has opened my eyes to all sorts of possibilities, not just with eating it, but also by incorporating some of its flavors into my own cooking. This is very easy to do in my mind anyway, since many of the same spices used in Turkish cuisine is widely available. If all else fails, there's always Amazon.
But, we're not cooking right now. Today, my brother and cousin and I decided to venture to one of my all time favorite restaurants for Turkish food called Efes Grill.
There are actually 2 Efes Grills - one is in New Brunswick, New Jersey and the other one is in Princeton. I prefer the New Brunswick location since it's closer to where I live and it has a bigger dining room upstairs; the Princeton location is a bit more "cozy". The only issue when you come to New Brunswick will be parking and it's no different around Efes. Although there is street parking, it's very hard to come by. There is, however, a parking structure right down the street which costs about $4.00 for an hour and is generally a safe bet.
Efes has an extensive menu which you can check-out by clicking on the link above. Prices, for me, is very reasonable for the amount of food you get and, you do get a lot of food. For this go-around, we decided to sample an appetizer called Arnavut Cigeri which, I believe, is pan fried calf's liver. This is one of my favorites which my wife turned me on to. They also have other appetizers such as Tabuli, Baba Ganush and Octopus Salad which I've tried in the past and they are very very good as well.
For our entrees, we decided to order 3 dishes that we would share among ourselves family style. We ordered Lamb Shish Kebab, Chicken Kebab and Gyro Doner made with lamb. All the dishes came with rice and onion and tomato salad which gave each dish a refreshing component. At the end of the meal, we were all stuffed to say the least but, we decided to order dessert anyway just to round out our meal. I know - "D" word flashing in my brain so I'm only having a taste. My favorite dessert here is Sobiyet which is similar to Baklava but, they did not have them this evening. So we decided on the Baklava and tried something called Kadayif. Although the desserts were good, Sobiyet is still my favorite.
All in all, it was a great meal as usual. We ended up paying about $43.00 which, I think, is reasonable for what we ate. As with many restaurants in New Jersey that do not have liquor licenses, this place is also BYOB so don't forget that bottle of wine when you come here.
