A Culinary Journey in Turkey-Part II

The second city of our trip in Turkey was Ankara, the capital of Turkey, where my parents live. Luckily, Fatima (who happens to be my sister-in-law) and my brother were also visiting my parents at the time, so we had a chance to see them as well. There were no tourism-related activities in this part of our trip, but we surely ate well. Here are a few pictures of the sweet things that came our way in Ankara:

My mother's sour cherry upsidedown cake from hand-picked cherries.


Hazelnut topped pudding we ate at Karadeniz Yavuz Lokantasi in Ankara. They said that this is a specialty of the Blacksea region.


Then there was my visit to one of my favorite patisseries in Turkey. Divan Patisserie first opened its doors in 1956 as part of Hotel Divan in Istanbul. Today it has several branches in Istanbul and Ankara. I make a point of stopping by Divan Patisserie at least once everytime I go to Turkey. Unfortunately, this time they did not seem to have as much variety as they had in the past years. In particular, I could not find the fruity desserts I was looking for, but maybe it was because they were all sold out that day. Instead, they had three different chocolate cakes, and for people like me who have a difficult time deciding which one to take home, there were miniature versions of each.

This was a wonderful concoction of chocolate, coffee and candied nuts.


Then there was this chocolate moussy one. Equally good...


Last but not least, we sampled this miniature with raspberries and chocolate ganache which I will try to make at home.


You can see more Divan creations at this link, and order their production of Turkish Delight here.