Türkiye Culture Road Festival continues in Ankara with a focus on gastronomy

Meltem Güneş - The 19th stop of the Türkiye Culture Road Festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and covering 26 cities this year, was Ankara. During the festival, which will last until September 27, various points of the capital will host both live culture and art stops and taste stops. This year, gastronomy is an especially important topic. Chef Mehmet Yalçınkaya hosts the gastronomy program of the festival in Ankara. Within the scope of the festival, at the "Ankara at a Table" event the day before, the traditional dishes of the capital were introduced with chef Yalçınkaya's special taste selection at Alaz Restaurant, owned by Yalçınkaya.

sorrel icing

In the program, Kalecik black hardaliye cocktail, dene soup, Ankara Ergeç pastrami eggplant, "liver in milk" with goat's milk and Çubuk pickle, "black zucchini cizleme" where fatty dough meets butter, sorrel icing, Ayaş tomato, Ankara pan and Çubuk cherry pudding were presented. Stating that Ankara is a city that stands out with its restaurants, patisseries and products, Yalçınkaya said, "We can say that Ankara is where modern gastronomy began. There is a wide variety of products, it is a point where different cultures come together. When opening a restaurant in Ankara, we were impressed by the city's local product diversity. We use pickles, Erkeç pastrami, sour cherries and Ankara wheat in our restaurant."

How about Ankara pan?

Chef Mehmet Yalçınkaya said that Ankara ceiling is prepared with a different recipe and that the version prepared with barley noodles is common, but there is a recipe prepared with rice in the sources related to the city's food culture. Yalçınkaya said, “We grew up eating Ankara pan with barley noodles, but Ankara pan is made with rice.” Chefs Kemal Can Yurttaş, Doğa Çitçi, Sezai Ömer Aydoğan, Rafet İnce, Zeki Açıköz, Bedri Usta and Gökhan Aksoy, academician chefs Osman Korkmaz, Asuman Kerkez, food culture writer Aylin Öney Tan, Agricultural Food and Culinary Culture Researcher Kübra Yüzüncüyıl also attended the program.

From simit to stick pickle