Street vendors around the world sell hot portable breads. In the U.S., this bread takes the form of pretzels. Around the eastern Mediterranean, street vendors sell a similar item — this one isn’t covered with salt but flecked with sesame seeds. In Greece, this hot bread is called koulouri and is sweetened with sugar and grape syrup. Koulouris are baked, so the street seller buys them from a bakery and then sells them from a street cart. Armenia’s versions of these rings are sweeter, while Lebanon’s are remarkably similar to the ones made on Crete.
In Turkey, a similar bread is simit, a slightly sweet yeast ring embraced by toasted sesame seeds. Simit is made in Charlotte by a Turkish baker who’s selling his products on the front counter at Yafa Market and Café, 10703 Park Road (near Black Lion). This simit is not crunchy like an Ankara-styled simit nor as soft as a Manhattan pretzel.
Simit, which means “life saver” in Turkish, is one of Turkey’s national foods and is eaten in the morning, as a snack with feta cheese, or in the afternoon with tea. Some simits are stuffed. Simit is not available every day at Yafa, and many of the expat customers grumble about the price since simit is a relatively inexpensive food item in Turkey.
Yafa has a good selection of foods from Turkey as well as Lebanon and other Mediterranean Middle Eastern countries. The excellent Lebanese pita bread made by Raleigh’s Neomonde bakery is sold here. In the near future, Yafa will sell locally made börek.
Looking for a food you can’t find? Or do you know of other food items unique to the Q.C.? Whether it’s regional foods or international, talk to me: tricia.childress@creativeloafing.com or 704-522-8334, extension 136.
This article appears in Feb 1-7, 2011.
