Anyone who has lived and travelled in Turkey for more than a few years will know how difficult it is to find a restaurant that serves decent western cuisines and western desserts such as tiramisu and cheesecake. There are of course plenty of restaurants all over the major tourist resorts along Turkey's western and southern coast, serving run-of-the-mill western cuisines to holidaymakers from Europe, but more often than not, the way these European dishes are prepared is by mixing local Turkish ingredients together according to European recipes. As authentic European food and culinary ingredients are hard to come by in Turkey and very expensive, most restaurants serving western cuisines in Turkey tend to supplant items not readily available in Turkey, such as Swiss gruyere or Italy's Parmigiano-Reggiano with cheaper local substitutes.
In recent years, however, there is a growing effort on the part of Turkish restaurateurs to improve the quality of western food served in Turkey. In some of the foremost tourist resort areas, a few brave souls have opened up restaurants that serve Mediterranean-style fusion cuisines, sometimes with a touch of exotic flavours such as lemongrass, coconut milk, soya sauce, teriyaki or curry. In Antalya, the success of several such restaurants serving international fusion cuisines in spite of their higher-than-normal prices has prompted others to join the fray.
This place by the name of Marvista is a new player in Kusadasi's restaurant scene. Located on the ground floor of the sparkling new Ilayda Hotel (Ilayda is the Turkish variant of Homer's Epic 'Ilias'), Marvista has a nice, open ambience with its open patio and beautiful seaviews of Kusadasi's promenade and the harbour.
The place first caught my attention because they offer curry chicken (note: it is western-style curry chicken, not Asian or Thai style chicken curry, do not confuse it with the spicy Thai style or Indian style green or yellow chicken curry with ginger and lemongrass!!) on their menu. I was looking for a change in diet after all the Turkish patlican and dolma, and decided to give this place a try.
The first attempt was to try out their desserts and cakes, however. As I am no fond of Turkish-style desserts such as baklava or lokma or Maras dondurma because of their extensive use of sheep's fat or goat's milk as the main ingredients, I abstained from eating desserts altogether whenever I am in Turkey, perhaps with the exception of the occasional magnum ice cream now and then. There are of course pastry and confectionary shops all over Turkey selling western-style cakes and desserts such as strawberry cakes, French fruit tarts, tiramisu, raspsberry cheesecakes etc., but somehow their texture and their flavour just do not taste right. Perhaps it has something to do with my pampered tastebuds when it comes to cakes and pastry items, as I have lived for long time in the border region sandwiched between France's Alsace, Germany's Southern Baden and the Black Forest, and Switzerland's Basel area, all three of which are dotted with Michelin-starred restaurants and are home to some of the best bakeries and confectioners in Europe.
So, it is a welcoming relief to be able to find a place in Turkey that serves decent tiramisu made with mascarpone cheese, instead of the cheaper cream-cheese-sour cream mixtures. And if you have sweet teeth, it is one of the highlights of any visits to Kusadasi to sit on the sunny patio, eating delicious tiramisu while admiring the beautiful views of the Aegean in front of the cafe.
The next day, I returned for some dinner and ordered the saffron curry chicken with pineapples and vegetables. It tasted good as far as western-style curry goes, and is a great change after weeks of Turkish food. The restaurant is quite busy during the dinner hours, I had to wait for about 30 minutes as all tables had been reserved on that day, and I did not make any reservations beforehand. The service was a bit slow because they were busy, but the waiters were friendly and not pushy at all. The restaurant also has a bar where customers can have a cocktail or some aperitif before dinner. For 15TL, the saffron curry chicken at Marvista is actually cheaper in terms of both quality and size than many other places along Kusadasi's seafront promenade or in town. Would certainly go there again next time I am in Kusadasi.
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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