Pide Of Place

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday October 28, 2000

Joanna Savill

Take it anywhere, put it with anything, but it must be very, very fresh, writes Joanna Savill.

Turkish bread or pide is at its best fresh from the oven: spongy, warm and fluffy inside, lightly crusty on the outside, the taste zapped by the occasional sesame or black cumin seed.

It's wonderful with salads and dips, divine as a sandwich and yummy as toast with unsalted butter and thick fruit jam. Or dip it into oil and a spice mix such as Lebanese za'atar or Egyptian dukkah.

The Turks call it pide ekmek, a delicacy traditionally found only in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, when bakeries in Turkey stop baking their usual cured meat or feta and spinach pizzas and sell the baked dough without toppings.

In Sydney, pide bread (ekmek literally means bread) is as ubiquitous ... well, almost ... as Vegemite. (In fact, it's great with Vegemite). You can find long flat Turkish loaves in most delis, cafes and sandwich shops. Or pick up a round or two fresh baked from any pide pizza bakery. Did I remember to mention that's when it's best? If you don't get it very, very freshly baked it can be as hard as leather and just about as appetising.

Buket

If you can get to Buket (or one of its distribution points on the lower North Shore), you'll have found what is arguably the best Turkish bread around. At its humble headquarters in Auburn, the heart of Turkish Sydney, baker Davud Akturk does daily what he's done since he was 12 years old back home in Turkey, when he began helping out in a bakery after school. Thirty years on, he bakes the lightest, fluffiest, most fragrant loaves - round or flat - to a secret formula simply comprising flour, yeast, water, salt and kilos of expertise. The Artarmon outlet is Oriental and Continental Foods, 9906 8990.

67 Rawson Street, Auburn,

9643 2135.

Ramadan

Owners Zahide and Mehmet Yenidoganay are from Adana in Turkey, where their fathers and uncles are also in the baking game. Their loaves come with or without black cumin seeds, with or without sesame seeds, long and flat or as smaller pinched-oval "rolls". They begin baking at about 5.30am and the bread usually sells out by 2pm. Their pide pastries - stuffed with potato or cheese and spinach - are a superb, garlicky meal in themselves.

Shop 24, Royal Randwick Village, Belmore Road, Randwick, 9326 7026.

The Great Turkish Bite

Max Demir claims he was one of the first to catch on to pide's potential to challenge focaccia on Aussie cafe menus. He began baking bread with his auntie at a little wholesale outlet in Surry Hills in the mid-'90s. Now he delivers about 1,000 loaves and rolls a day, plus smaller versions he calls "juniors" and "cocktails" to cafes, delis and restaurants across town. He works out of the kind of shop you'd miss if you blinked. But behind a tiny, almost empty retail area he runs a spotlessly tiled bakery where all the dough is hand-stretched and pummelled into characteristic dents before being slid into one of several giant ovens.

At 375 Gardeners Road, Rosebery, 9317 3395.

Sauer's

This originally German business does a pretty good job of cross-cultural baking. Their loaves are also very popular in cafes and delis as far away as Dee Why.

7 Works Place, Milperra,

9773 7685.

Izmir

Izmir on Bondi Road has got the diamond-patterned, toasty outside down to a fine art, sprinkled with tangy black cumin seeds. Open till late at night, it's the perfect place to stop for loaves that still taste good toasted or reheated for brekkie. And there's pide with a variety of toppings, dips and salads, too.

253 Bondi Road, Bondi,

9130 4170.

Erciyes

At this outlet, business is almost always booming so the loaves are always warm - a good sign on the original inner-city pide strip. It's eat-in and take-away everything here.

409 Cleveland Street, Redfern, 93191309.

Joanna Savill is co-author with Maeve O'Meara of The SBS Eating Guide (Allen & Unwin).

Recipe

Turkish carrot dip

You know those technicoloured dips they sell in most pide and kebab shops? This is the bright-orange one.

You need a good dash of olive oil, 1 tsp cumin, 250g grated carrots, 1 garlic clove, 4-5 tbsps thick Balkan-style yogurt and salt and pepper.

Saute the cumin for a minute in the olive oil before adding carrots. Cook gently until tender (about 8 minutes). Place in a blender with the garlic and process until smooth, adding a little yogurt for moisture if needed. Stir in the rest of the yogurt, salt, pepper and a sprinkling of extra cumin to taste. Serve with piles of freshly baked pide bread.

© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald

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