Cinnamon Lakeside’s Turkish cuisine takes diners to Ottoman Empire

A celebration of food and culture reigns supreme at The Dining Room when the Best Five Star City Hotel, Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo and Turkish Airlines, Europe’s Best Airline for two years running, partner to present Turkish Cuisine at its star class restaurant.  Diners at the themed dinner are offered the chance to win prizes which include a return ticket to Istanbul courtesy of Turkish Airlines.  

A Turkish theme colours the Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo dinner buffet from 15 to 24 June 2013. The Dining Room is the hotel’s 24-hour restaurant known for serving top notch international cuisine.  The dinner buffet features varied themes each month much to the delight of regular diners.

Guest Chefs Umut Diren and Evren Altaylar are flown down from Istanbul by Turkish Airlines exclusively for the event.  They join Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo’s kitchen brigade headed by French Executive Chef Martin Becquart to present Turkish cuisine under the themes Istanbul Meyhane Cuisine, Ottoman Palace Cuisine and Anatolian Regional Cuisine.  

Tapas style appetisers such as haydari, a condensed yogurt with mint and garlic, fava beans purée, carrot salad with garlic yoghurt, celery salad with walnut and garlic yoghurt, grilled eggplant purée, topik, an onion stuffed potato and chickpea purée, cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and chestnuts, cacik, a cucumber and yoghurt dip, Circassian chicken and muhammara, made from pound walnuts, tahini and red pepper paste together with hot appetisers serve to whet the diner’s appetite.  

The dinner continues with à la minute preparations of pistachio kebabs, opium poppy kebabs, spicy kebabs, sardines in vine leaves, monk fish skewers and shish kebabs as well as lamb stew with apricot and almonds, islim kebab, sauteed lamb in eggplant, hünkar beğendi, braised lamb with eggplant béchamel sauce, lamb tandir, roasted lamb shoulder with roasted cauliflower, quince dolmah, stuffed quinces with meat and rice stuffing, dane-i saru, saffron rice and kubuni rice, rice with nuts and dried fruits and stuffed squid amongst other lip smacking dishes.

Delicious desserts include keşkül-ü fukara, milk pudding with nuts, güllabiye halva, honey and almond halva, oven braised pear with thick syrup, şekerpare, baked soft pastry in thick syrup, tamarind sherbet, rose sherbet, saffron and rice pudding, flour halvah, milk pudding with fruit marmalade, oven braised quince with thick syrup, hoşaf, cold dry fruit stew, komposto, cold fresh fruit stew, semolina halva with cheese, oven baked rice pudding, oven braised pumpkin in thick syrup and revani, semolina cakes with syrup.  Dishes are alternated on a daily basis during the special promotion in order to offer diners a varied experience each time.

In addition to the Turkish Airlines’ grand prize of a return ticket to Istanbul, Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo offers four lucky diners dining experiences along with bottles of bubbly as well as other prizes.  Turkish Airlines flies to over 231 destinations across the globe and will commence seven flights a week from Colombo beginning November 2013.  Pership Group, a sixth generation company founded in 1889, is the general sales agent of Turkish Airlines which began operations in Sri Lanka earlier this year.

The Turkish Cuisine Dinner will be available at The Dining Room from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. from the 15 to 24 June at the regular dinner price of Rs. 2,555 all inclusive.  Reservations are recommended and can be made on 112491930.