A miserable Friday lunchtime in late January saw our arrival to find a table of four young men plus a child, a woman and her daughter, plus a sole foreign lady upstairs, all tucking in.
Named after Gaziantep, famed for its cuisine, Antep is evidence of Middle Eastern food’s increasing popularity with local Nanjingers, for it being the fifth or sixth Turkish or Middle Eastern restaurant in our fair city that our trio of diners could muster, and for its location that would not suggest much of a footfall away from peak hours.
But this was not the case; right across from the rear entrance to the Bank of Nanjing’s new headquarters, in the back of the block occupied mainly by the extension to the Nanjing International Expo & Conference Centre, and if that was not enough, a stone’s throw from the Nanjing International Youth Culture Centre.
And perhaps there is good reason for this. With One Mall pulling in the hoards and the new Nanjing International Finance Centre both but three blocks away, this part of Nanjing is now finally earning its moniker as the City’s second CBD.
Antep’s owner is a local Nanjinger who worked the kitchens of Casino hotels in Northern Cyprus during his university days. With chefs all around from different regions of Turkey, so he tasted food from different regions. Now fluent in Turkish, he may know the ins and outs of Turkish cuisine better than the locals. Or at least that’s what The Nanjinger’s lunching partners had to say. And they are both Turks.
And that’s the fount of knowledge which makes for a good place to start a lunch at Antep.
Hence to the menu, from which we feasted on an Adana Kebap and two Beef Döners (both ¥108, with döners served on Fridays). The succulence of the beef is not to be faulted, while the flavours bursting forth is testimony to the experience which emanates therefrom.
With the boxes for quality checked, also worthy of mention are the freebies likely to come the way of diners. Upon ordering, each table is served a plate of fried chicken and French fries, accompanied by a delightful dip that the owner revealed to The Nanjinger is just garlic paste, egg and sunflower oil. It doesn’t even need cooking or chilling. Beats mayonnaise any day.
Our visit was also rewarded with free ice cream and an experimental dessert; the somewhat syrupy baklava, in the main concocted from phyllo dough, pistachios and troubling quantities of butter.
These are the touches which stand Antep apart. May Nanjing’s enthusiasm for Turkey and the Middle East not be dampened.
