Aegean Cuisine from a Spanish Perspective: Mancar

Along with Garland Chrysanthemum, a harbinger of spring; Smyrnium Rotundifolium which can accompany the carnations in a flower bouquet arranged by a gypsy besides you will find it on dinner tables too; sweet mustard, a taste bomb when it is fried with eggs; wild cranesbill which may hurt your hands if its thorns are not duly removed; golden thistle which can also be consumed for its curing effect on stomach-related problems; radika which pulls off a great job when accompanied by lemons and olive oil and chicory, radika’s somewhat acrid little sister…

 

The Aegean people have a common name for all these awesome herbs that I’ve just listed and more: “mancar”…

 

But the region has now another “mancar”.

 

A newcomer to the Alaçatı scene, Mancar Restaurant aims to achieve the gastronomical standards with the region’s cuisine after which it was named, and to offer an experience at the same level with the other globally known restaurants.

 

Maybe you realized it; “manger” in French, “manjar” in Spanish and the Italian word “mangiare” are all words related with “eating”. So the name of the restaurant is a clever act to address both the local and the global.

 

Daniel Lopez is the sous chef of the restaurant. He was trained in San Sebastian, one of the gastronomical bases in the world and transferred to Turkey on the initiative of businessman Mehmet Serpil who is the main investor of the restaurant. Lopez experiments with Aegean flavors at both “Kokotxa” in San Sebastian and Mancar in Turkey. During the absence of the sous chef who has created new recipes just for Mancar, his sidekick Fabio Gemignani takes over the restaurant. Fatih Göktaş is also another chef at the wheel of the restaurant.

 

After the dinner arranged by Chaîne de Rôtisseurs Izmir in the late June, I revisited Mancar Restaurant. It’s within walking distance of Hacımemiş. You can arrive at the restaurant in your car. That means you don’t have to walk through the massive crowds in the streets of Alaçatı. As a matter of fact, one of the prominent features of the restaurant is its serenity. It’s hard to find such a serene restaurant in Çeşme.

 

Decorated by Mustafa Toner and Tolga Balıklı, the warm atmosphere of the restaurant suits the nature that encircles it. It has a wonderful wine menu besides exquisite foods coming out of the kitchen. But I can say that they are still at a stage of trial/error in order to settle their identity. For the time being, it is a nice and spacious place for the most people to enjoy. I think the restaurant was built on a solid foundation and highly probable to achieve a cozy and pleasant ambiance with just the right steps. The pleasure of food is boosted by the mixture of romance refracting from the lit-up olive trees, whiffs of aromatic smells from the plants and the lounge music fading into background.

 

With a long bar that can be improved in future, this pleasant garden has seating capacity for 120 people and there are 13 cooks in the kitchen.

 

With its attentive and respectful staff, the restaurant offers an a la carte menu that covers Aegean flavors with the interpretation of Lopez. If you’re bored by the same classical flavors, different sauces and marinated foods created by the sous chef will fascinate you.

 

The night started off with tzatziki in reverse that relaxed us with its cold serving. Inspired by the awesome combination of cucumber and yoghurt, the chef also serves it in his restaurant in San Sebastian. Tzatziki in reverse consists is of yoghurt bubble floating in cucumber juice. Originally found out by Unilever, this method called “spherification” enables the liquids to get into a spherical form like caviar. The first person to introduce this method to the kitchen was of course El Bulli run by Chef Ferran Adria. As a matter of fact, I’m not really a fan of molecular cuisine except the ones created by this mad genius chef. I’m mostly inclined to simple and plain but intensive flavors. The interpretation of tzatziki was just a palate and eye pleaser to me. In fact, if they’d served it in a little bowl or a bit bigger coffee cup for a single tasting, it would be better.

 

Following that, our next choice was tomato velvet. It consists of grouper slices on a bed made with tomato with silky texture. It had an average taste which left no unforgettable impression on my palate and unfortunately it didn’t have a visual appeal to my eyes inasmuch as it would look better if that crusty bread which looked like grissini would have been made to a custom size to make it more appealing to the eyes.

 

Next, cuttlefish which most people would mistake for calamari was served on top of garlic mayonnaise and eggplant salad. The meal that took its color from cuttlefish was also accompanied by a dash of fresh Aegean herbs.

 

After cuttlefish, seared tuna fish was served with sauce made with pomegranate syrup, soybean pearls and fresh greens. As its taste was as expected, it left a question mark in our heads with way it looked. Because every slice was meant to be of the same color, but some were not like that.

 

For the grilled octopus, the chef made his salad sauce “vinaigrette” with vegetables while it is traditionally made with vinegar, olive oil, seasonal greens and flavored with various spices. The dish looked great as well as the food was scrumptious with sea salt used instead of regular salt.

 

Another one of the hot starters, calamari was a perfect combination of flavors with sautéed vegetables and other seasonal ingredients. The taste and the quality of the vegetables was good as expected. The almond puree that accompanied those vegetables would be served in a different way rather than looking like some mayonnaise.

 

Casarecce was one of the best flavors of the night. Served with Basque style green sauce, the only thing that this “al dente” (means cooked to be firm to the bite) pasta needs is more clams.

 

Taglierini was crowned with local lobster slices. Flavored with fresh garlic and sauce made from Aegean herbs, the pasta had plenty of ingredients and tasted good; although I found it a bit overcooked and gooey.

 

Sea bass was another dish that put a smile on our faces. The balance between the taste and the presentation was well-done. It was made with squid ink sauced eggplants, tomato puree, chilly mayonnaise and olive oil pearls of the molecular kitchen also known as olive oil caviar. The result was mouth-watering!

 

Right after these two nice meals, veal cheek just raised the bar high. Although I’m not very fan of the “sous vide” technique, it gave some good results here. The veal cheek was pre-cooked with this technique and grilled afterwards. Served with baked paprika sauce and potato puree, it tasted way better than it looked. I can dare say it was the hit of the night; it was already the most popular flavor of Mancar.

 

The other two flavors of the night that had a good taste/visual performance were boneless lamb shoulder served with confit garlic cream, green apple salad with sunflower seeds and following closely, duck breast served with plum paste sauce, dried fruits and mixed nuts soft croquant.

 

When we moved onto the dessert phase, our first choice was white chocolate soup with a liquid pudding base that tasted a bit sour. Crumbled cocoa pieces and raspberry ice cream just complemented the dessert. My older daughter, Ceylan especially liked it. It was a nice choice since it was right in its season.

 

As I don’t have a sweet-tooth, but at that night, I was surprised by one thing: almond cake. It was served with cardamom foam, spicy caramel and traditional mastic ice cream and ended our night in a tasteful and refreshing way.

 

The wine cellar of Mancar consists of 41 varieties, including 25 red wines, 12 white wines and 4 rosé wines. Chosen with a blindfolded taste test by wine expert Perran Arıbal who has 18 years of experience in the industry, the wine palette consisted of some award winning Aegean wines and also some other local wines with a vision to support the local wineries.

 

İzmir and Gastronomy

 

I think this year will be Mancar’s infancy stage; there is a good amount of effort put in the work as much as it was built on a solid foundation. But they need some time to settle their identity with their Turkish, Italian and Spanish cooks getting to know each other and their customers, 85% of which consists of local visitors. To achieve this and hence permanency, they need the support of us, people from İzmir.

 

Following the 20th of October, a second Mancar will start to serve on the lower floor of Swissôtel. When we think about it has a project like “Ege Mutfak Sanatları Akademisi” (Ege Culinary Arts Academy) behind it, the enterprise is much more appreciated.

 

Because in my every interview about the economy, business area or my private life, the only point that I emphasized when it comes to the promotion of İzmir is all the same: gastronomy.

 

The world has a bright future with gastronomy industry which rivets around the relationship between the crazy restaurants than cannot give an appointment for the next 12 months and their gastro-tourists who waits with a great excitement for S. Pellegrino’s “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list or Michelin stars and can easily leave their continents to have a bite in those restaurants. It is almost impossible to stay out of that world.

 

İzmir has a great cuisine fused with Rums’, Armenians’, Jewish people’s, Greeks’, Levantines’ and many other cultural formations.  To keep that cultural asset alive and updated, we have to put it into practice with our knowledge and passion. We have to make contributions to it.

 

Although we have a long road ahead, I believe in İzmir and hope for the best.

 

Bon appétit and enjoy the taste of life…