Seattle Food: Bodrum Bistro

Since moving to Seattle we've been staying close to our neighborhood and exploring its restaurants. Saturday night we went to Bodrum Bistro, a tiny restaurant where two smiling women were in the back room, working a grill and managing to turn out delicious Turkish food in a small amount of space. It turns out Bodrum is the area in Turkey where the family is from. The menu is small and the food simple, but everything is so fresh and the spices so carefully done it tastes marvelous.

While we watched from the front window it rained with apocalyptic force causing people to run by with anything they could find clutched over their heads. It looked horrible—cold and drenching—but inside it was warm and cozy with lighting coming from filigree hanging lamps. Our waitress graciously endured J’s mangled Turkish pronunciations of our order and later, when I had baklava for dessert (of course!) educated him about Turkish coffee. It comes in the teeniest cup but has the sugar already whipped into it (so don’t ask for sugar) and packs a caffeine punch.

 We shared this Mezze platter—a combination of four of the appetizers on the menu: red lentil patties, rice with tomatoes, mint and cinnamon wrapped in grape leaves; white beans with red onion, fresh yogurt, paprika and parsley; and grilled eggplant with tomatoes, peppers, feta, and garlic.

My entrée: chicken with pine nuts, leeks, and currants, wrapped in phyllo dough. Tender and delicious.

J had spiced, grilled meatballs with rice and a yogurt mint sauce. We both had the salad which had this marvelous slightly sweet dressing on it.

The famous Turkish coffee