Meryem grew up in Turkey eating her mother’s traditional Turkish meals and began learning techniques to prepare Turkish food for herself after going away to university. She became a true cook after moving to the United States with her husband (who attended Darden here in Charlottesville!) and discovering that true home-style Turkish cuisine was not to be found in American restaurants.
But it took a chance encounter with a Turkish-American neighbor-turned-friend for Meryem to learn how to make her specialty baklava:
“One day, my husband noticed that the name on our neighbor’s mailbox was a Turkish name. That night, we knocked on the door and exclaimed a traditional Turkish greeting, but our neighbor just looked confused. It turned out that though his father was Turkish, our neighbor had grown up in America. As we talked to him, he told me he would make us baklava. I laughed, knowing that baklava was a complex day-long process when my mother used to make it — and our neighbor didn’t even know Turkish! How was he going to make good baklava?”
To Meryem’s surprise, her neighbor’s Turkish-style baklava was absolutely delicious. An amusing cultural inversion ensued, with an American English-speaking man teaching Meryem, a recent transplant from Turkey, his Turkish father’s baklava recipe.
Flash forward a few years, and Meryem brought baklava made with her neighbor’s recipe (which she’d long since made her own) to a picnic for her son’s school. Only a half-hour after she’d arrived with a tray-full of baklava, all the tasty squares were gone. From that day on, Meryem’s friends and her husband pushed her to start a business. Meryem started as a vendor with Relay in February of 2011.
While Meryem is certainly the woman in charge, her baked goods are a family effort. She fondly notes that her husband is the best taste-tester and is responsible for helping choose what recipes she will next develop for sale through Relay. Her young son, Furkan, “works” for his mom too — if he carries the plates of baklava and other goodies into the Relay fulfillment center himself, he earns a quarter towards his next toy. And family trips to Turkey each summer are always an occasion for culinary inspiration.
Making (and tasting) Meryem’s Baklava
In Turkey, baklava is made with a simple syrup rather than honey, giving Meryem’s baklava a lighter, fresher taste. She also uses less butter than the traditional Turkish recipe (“Turkish people LOVE to eat, and rich food is a specialty,” she laughs). Still, the toothsome morsels of phyllo and walnuts and syrup are absolutely addictive.
Meryem’s baklava requires patience and a precise touch. Starting with phyllo sheets, Meryem perfectly trims each layer to fit her trays, painstakingly brushes layer after layer with butter (it’s rather a meditative process and sound), adds crushed walnuts, and then cuts the layers into tiny, perfect squares. Syrup isn’t added to the baklava until after it’s been baked. Based on the weather, time of day, and finicky ingredients, Meryem may have to adjust her process — “I do a lot of experiments here”, she says, appropriate for a woman trained as a biologist.
People say Meryem’s is the best baklava they’ve ever tried — a local authentic Middle Eastern restaurant ditched their baklava supplier after taking one taste of Meryem’s. On their recent family trip to Turkey, Meryem took a tray of baklava as a gift on the plane. While the flight attendants laughed to see a traveller bringing baklava to Turkey, Meryem’s mother and relatives proclaimed the dessert an authentic success.
Having overindulged during this interview, your blogging correspondent can confirm the glowing reviews — the phyllo layers are crunchy, airy and light, the walnuts add texture and depth of flavor, and the syrup binds the layers without making them damp or overly sticky.
Branching Out
Since a successful start with her baklava, Meryem has branched out into other offerings. Cinnamon Cookies, Dolma (stuffed grape leaves), and Profiterole are foods that have made the trans-Atlantic leap, and are familiar to many American eaters.
My personal favorite of her new offerings, and the least familiar, was her Red Lentil and Bulgur Kofte. Made with red lentils, bulgur, Turkish spices, and olive oil, kofte is a Turkish snack food that would usually be served at tea time or when friends are visiting. The ingredients are rolled and then served atop a lettuce leaf. The combination is unusual to the American palate, yet satisfying and refreshing. As they’d say in Turkey, “lezzetli!” — Delicious!
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