Monday

Şeyhmus Kebab: The Rhythm of the Knife

We’ve committed a lot of space on this blog to identifying the taste, smell and sight of a seriously good kebab, but it was not until we sat in Şeyhmus Kebap Evi (on a tip from chef Gencay over at Meze) that we came to know what delicious kebab actually sounds like.

Had we previously known the sound of the zirh blade’s rhythmic roll over large cuts of lamb, we could have followed our ears through the side streets, past the jewelers near Atik Ali Pasa Mosque to the brisk lunch in progress at this little kebab shop. In his open kitchen Vaha usta works the zirh, a scimitar-like heavy curved knife, on a thick wooden slab and it sounds like a steam engine chugging at full speed. Continue…