Kebap is not just a food in Turkey; it’s a way of life. I had no real concept of what kebap was before moving here. First off, we say, “kabob” in States and that usually comes after “shish”. This thing that we call shish kabob is actually what is known here as şiş (shish). Şiş is cubed pieces of meat that are roasted on a skewer. Kebap is another beast altogether. In fact, trying to define what exactly constitutes as kebap can get tricky. What they call kebap in Australia is often what we call gyros, which is Greek, as we all know. But the meat that they put on gyros is known as döner kebap here. It’s that mix of lamb and beef and spices that rotates on a spindle in hypnotic fashion. See what I mean? Pretty confusing.

The most popular forms of true kebap are adana, a spicy red-pepper packed version named for the city from which it hails, urfa, a more mellow version named for Şanlıurfa, the city of its birth, and beyti, a kebap that is wrapped in thin lavash bread, sliced up and served with yogurt on the side.

But there’s a difference between kebap as sustenance and kebap as art. One can throw a rock around here and find a kebap shop, but it is said that when it comes to kebap, no one can top Develi. Every year, it tops the list of best places to sample kebap. It has an unsurpassed reputation in the kebap world. I decided to see what all the fuss was about the other night when the boyfriend took me out for dinner.

Develi has four locations and we are lucky enough to have two of them on the Asian side. (Kalamış Marina and Ataşehir, Etiler and Samatya for the Europeans) I have only been to the Ataşehir restaurant because that’s where we live, but the others look just as cool. They have a great website with an English option complete with photo galleries of each location.
Our Develi is a real sight for the eyes. I am usually not very impressed by a restaurant’s decor around here. Of course, there are oodles of trendier, high-profile restaurants on the European side, but we get the short end of the stick over in Asia, if you ask me.
But the Ataşehir Develi manages to create an ambience that is somehow both posh and comfortable. It feels like a “special event” place; where one might go to celebrate an anniversary or a birthday. The interior design is part Ottoman Baroque part uptown chic. It is a spacious building with very high ceilings which allow for some funky chandeliers. Unfortunately, there was little thought given to sound absorption and we found ourselves mid-dining room entrenched in a cacophonous racket. There was a terrace level with a nice view of the city, but that is already closed for the season, unfortunately.

Now back to the food, of which there is much to speak of. Develi serves food at a constant rate, which is lovely for hypogylcemic types like moi who tend to realize they are hungry only when they start crashing. As soon as you sit down, a basket of piping hot bread (think light and airy pita) comes with whipped butter and crumbly cheese on the side. No sooner have you ripped open a piece of bread than a waiter arrives tableside with a meze cart.
I have mentioned meze before on this site. Meze are like tapas, small cold appetizers that go in the middle and get shared. These are primarily zeytinyağlı. Zeytinyağ means olive oil and these dishes are cooked veggies served cold in olive oil and lemon juice. They take some getting used to, but they are yummy. Off the meze cart, I can be counted on to choose roasted red peppers, smoked eggplant salad and beyaz peynir (white cheese), similar to feta, every time.

After they have zipped away with the meze cart, a bus boy dutifully swoops in and replenishes your bread basket. That process will continue ad infinitum until you tell him to cease lest you lapse into a carb coma.

In our case, it’s a good thing we ate so much bread and ordered meze with the delight of our eyes and not our stomach capacity in mind. Leave it to me, I swear! First of all, my ADD rears its ugly little head as soon as I open a menu. My head swims around as I entertain every possible option. I take my ordering very seriously. My most famous move is to take fiftten minutes to decide on item x only to then be informed by the waiter that they do not have item x that evening. Never fails. I have taken to choosing a runner up in the event that this occurs.

Another move that I am now famous for is picking something that takes extra long.

I had ordered the soganlı kebap (onion kebap) and it seemed normal enough. The waiter told us that it required a twenty five minute cooking time. Since we were elbow-deep in meze and fresh bread, we put in the order. We weren’t shriveling up from hunger, after all.

But at some point, we drew the line on nibbling. We feared we would have no room left for the best part when it actually arrived. And that time was almost an hour after I ordered it and approximately five times after the boyfriend asked the waiter about it.

When it finally showed up, the boyfriend watched me intently. I suppose he was looking deep into my face for any trace of what might be construed as a religious experience. This kebap was surely life-altering, right?
Sometimes, the boyfriend’s meal ends up being better than what I ordered. After giving me a little, “I told you so”, he always offers to switch with me, the sweetie. But this time, I think he might have been the one that was jealous. He had ordered plain ol’ beef shish which arrived swimming in a pedestrian tomato sauce. My meal was a culinary revelation. This proves that sometimes in Turkey the expat can outwit the Turk!

To be totally honest, I have no complaints about how long I waited. Apparently, it was slow-simmered and it was simmered to absolute perfection. The kebap was cooked with halved bermuda onions in a pomegranate syrup and it was outrageous! Not only was it a clever representation of kebap, but it tasted deceptively light.

I would be content to work my way through the entire contents of the Develi menu and just may give it a go. They claim to have a specialty for baklava as well. The next time I go, I will try to lay off the bread so as to give that a shot.

No matter which side you live on, Develi is a must do. Get dolled up and have yourself some artistic kebap!