Andrew Kay enjoys a sneaky lunch at Anatolia Cuisine in Kemp Town

Turkish delight

One trip to Greece and one to Turkey and I fell in love with the food, particularly Turkey. Greek restaurants all seem to serve the same short list of dishes, all cooked with differing degrees of success. In Turkey though, I found dishes that were mouthwateringly good; braised octopus, salads of onions sprinkled with lashings of sumac, a spice that now figures highly in my own cooking, and of course superb breads and pides.
Strangely, Brighton and Hove has very few Greek or Turkish restaurants, until recently that is. Now there is one on Lewes Road and one on St James’s Street, where I happened to get caught in a downpour of rain with an empty belly.

Some of you might have sheltered in a doorway, some might have bought an umbrella – I stopped for lunch and, as I was outside Anatolia Cuisine, that was where I dined. It was pretty late, gone 2pm, but they were happy to serve me so I ordered and Efes beer and gave the menu a good read. It was a good read too, with lots of things that I hoped to find and lots of things I had never tried.

I started with a small dish of minced lamb and aubergine with a cheesy topping, rather like a moussaka but better. I also ordered some bread, hoping for a huge puffed up pillow of flat bread, and I was not disappointed. The bread came with spiced butter and a chilli sauce. The starter also came with bread so I had rather over ordered but what the heck, it was all good.

My main course was a lamb dish that was cooked in a rich, spicy tomato based sauce into which chunks of bread had been stirred. Odd, I know, but it was truly delicious and very filling, so much so that I only tasted the rice opting instead to eat the salad and delicious yoghurt. This was a good idea as by this point I was making headway into what was a third portion of bread. A second bottle of beer certainly helped things down. I finished with a Turkish coffee, not too sweet but sweet enough to serve as dessert. And then the bill – £20.40, for two courses, bread and two beers – a real Turkish delight. I can’t wait to go back and give the menu a serious thrashing.