Istanbul’s after midnight dining options tend to be of the offal variety – tripe soup, chopped lamb’s intestines – thought to be curatives after a night of hard drinking. Luckily, not all late night eats in the city involve innards. At Durumzade – a grill joint positioned right on the fringe of the rowdy, bar-lined streets of the Beyoglu’s fish market – we’ve found a durum, or Turkish wrap, that’s equally satisfying at 2am or 2pm.
If a sandwich is only as good as its bread, then any durum discussion is all about the lavash, the Turkish tortilla that’s used to make it. Durumzade’s thin ovular lavash, rubbed with a mix of red pepper and spices, is far from the stiff, uniform discs found in many other durum joints. Like a good thin pizza crust, Durumzade’s lavash is filled with textural variations, bubbles, crispy edges and moist chewy pockets. Stacked and hidden away, it incubates in a drawer below the charcoal grill.
The glass cooler at the front of the restaurant holds the choices for filling the lavash: chicken kebab (tavuk sheesh), spicy minced beef (Adana kebab) or mild minced beef (Urfa kebab). (Chicken wings are also on offer, but since you can’t wrap them in flatbread they are not a part of this discussion).
The skewered meat is put on a grill, which is fanned to the desired heat by the portly fellow guarding the lavash. After one rotation of the skewer, out comes the wrap from its drawer. The grill master then drapes it over the kebabs cooking over the coals, creating a smoky tent for the meat while keeping the lavash off of the fire directly. As the lavash tent heats up, the spice rub on the wrap imparts its flavor onto the skewered meat below. While the lavash is still flexible, the usta (“master” in Turkish) pulls it from the grill and covers it with a bed of chopped parsley, sumac dusted onions and tomatoes, onto which he lays the freshly grilled meat from the skewer. Then, like a cowboy deftly rolling a cigarette, he makes the durum (which will set you back a measly 3.50 liras). But before handing it over to the now salivating customer, he puts the whole thing back on the grill for a final crisping.
Now that’s a wrap.
Address: Kalyoncu Kulluk Cad. 26/A Beyoglu
Telephone: 212-249-0147
