How to Cook Eggplants—or, The Fun of Eschewing Restaurants

20 October 2022

Two weeks ago in Cappadocia, we got to cook with Atilla and his mother in a cave hotel. Atilla was the hotel manager, immensely skilled and earnest. It was only our third day outside the States, but he made a strong case for a return visit, if only to learn how to cook better with a matriarch. 

Before we arrived at his cave hotel, Atilla found out that Leah was studying the late Roman/early Byzantine period. So he researched and prepped a grape dessert for us to make with his mother, in addition to a scrumptious, stuffed eggplant entree. (Turns out, my distaste for eggplant only extends to American ways of cooking it. We had it every day in a different form and I’m in love!)

Then we sat down for one of the best meals of the trip. A cucumber and tomato salad, a paper-like bread (a year-long supply of which is always made in September), ground-beef-and-veggie-stuffed aubergines on top of rice pilaf, and later, and two grape desserts. 

Over supper, we learned that the testi kebabi (a beef stew sealed and cooked in a clay pot), though famous throughout the Cappadocian region, is not the normal cuisine of local folk. Typical meals, Atilla noted, are heavy on vegetables and starch, with meat playing a much smaller part of dishes. 

“Testi Kebabi: From Wheel to Table”
Thanks to a kind guide who had a friend working in production pottery, I was able to observe the making of the pot that testi kebabi is cooked in. On our last night in Avanos, Leah and I tried the dish ourselves. It did not disappoint.

Atilla also shared about his journey to hotel manager. A couple decades ago, he worked six months at a hotel in Maine, USA. He had high hopes of learning American life from inside American homes. But the invitations did not come and his American roommate was always too drunk to be an effective cultural broker. 

When he opened his own guesthouse, the first cave hotel on the outskirts of Nevsehir, he resolved to welcome visitors into glimpses of Turkish life. He supplies 60% of his hotel’s food needs from his garden and nearby farm. (His goal is at least 90% in five years.) He offers guests three meals a day, cooked by his mother and her neighbor friend. He extends opportunities to travelers to cook Turkish dinners with his mother and attends to them and to her so that nothing is lost in translation. 

After dinner, he showed us the room improvements he’s made in the last five years, expanding the guest capacity from six rooms to twelve. One has a heated, underground pool! Atilla works with the masons and builders he employs for the job. He orders and personally installs the mosaics that go into certain rooms.

I could go on. But perhaps I’ll leave some delights to your imagination and hope that you get to experience his hospitality one day, should you ever visit Türkiye.