Turquoise Enjoy an extensive menu of authentic Turkish dishes, coffee and baklava

Tanya Duman is Bulgarian Turk, born and raised in a small village near Kurdjali. In 1989, due to the political events, her family moved to Turkey. 13 years later, despite her successful career in Turkey, Tanya decided to return to Bulgaria and open an authentic Turkish restaurant in Sofia.

All chefs in Turquoise are from Turkey. Besides being the owner and manager of the restaurant, Tanya is known for her social and charity activities. She is the president of the Association for Friendship of Bulgarian and Turkish women, which is involved in various charity events to support homes for children with disabilities, children deprived of parental care and retirement homes.

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The restaurant was opened in 2009.

Dishes, worth visiting the restaurant for are, first of all, meat dishes – adana kebab, choban kavarma, lamb chops. Much of the customers are Muslims who trust that we observe the halal meat rules strictly. As one of their customers once said: it’s not a sin to eat non-halal meat if you’re not aware of it, it’s a sin to knowingly serve it. Turkish coffee is sourced from a reputable company with a hundred years of tradition and baklava comes from Turkey, from the best baklava makers in Karaköy.

Only adana kebap is adapted to Bulgarian taste. Larger lambs are used in the original recipes and their fat brings a distinct taste and flavour to the kebab, but Bulgarians don’t have the stomach for it. Every other dish in the menu is completely authentic.

The most frequent visitors are Bulgarians and foreigners, most of them are diplomats from the embassies of Muslim countries in Bulgaria, as well as foreigners from all over the world.

Interview and photos: An Fam
Translation from Bulgarian: Boyan Boychev
Illustration: Rositsa Raleva for Compote Collective
November 30, 2013