Cappadocia

A couple of weeks or so ago, we got around to trying out the new Epsom branch of the Cappadocia restaurant of Kingston, noticed at references 1 and 2. While more recently I summarised Cappadocia as 'a region in the north east of Turkey, a more or less independent kingdom at the time of Alexander the Great, say 300BC. Christian until about the time that the Turks arrived, that is to say at roughly the same time as the Normans arrived here in England to take part in the Battle of Hastings. Lots of history and now lots of tourists'. To which I might add that it was once the seat of the Hittite empire and once part of the Persian empire. Then came the Armenians and the Turks, but with some of the population hanging onto a Greek version of Christianity. They got tidied up when modern Turkey was invented in the 1920's.

The Epsom branch has taken over what was Café Rouge - which we probably used a dozen or so times over the years - and before that Mamma something, an Italian flavoured restaurant. There is still a substantial mahogany bar, so the place might once have been a public house, back in the glory days of the Derby.

The layout of the public part of the restaurant has not changed much, although the fittings, furnishing and décor are all new. Reasonably busy for a Thursday lunchtime, maybe 10-15 of us altogether, mostly ladies. So they would not have shifted that much booze.

The menu was only partly Turkish, with plenty of dishes which one might find in many pubs. Although that said, the menu given at reference 4 looks more Turkish than I remember. Which could be a memory problem, but my note was made at the time, so clearly another visit is indicated for verification of this point.

Humus and bread to start, this last very good and not the flat bread to be seen in the snap above.

BH went for salmon, with which she was well pleased, while I went for lamb chunks - a large portion served on a very large plate. Flat bread underneath probably not intended for eating, although I did, rather as blotting paper. Meat slightly under done to my mind and I would have preferred smaller chunks. Yellow wheaten mound visible left very good. Something Bulgar. Salad fresh enough, but with rather a lot of oil and vinegar - bearing in mind that salads at home are served with neither. So I will take it again, but I won't eat the flat bread and I will ask for the meat to be a bit more cooked.

Remembering the rather good figs I once had in the Turkish restaurant next to the Globe Theatre, I went for figs on this occasion. Which came in a large and interesting bowl, involving both some kind of syrup and ice cream. Which went down well enough, but not as good as by the Globe, where the figs did not come with syrup but were stuffed with some kind of light, white paste. Probably mostly cream.

All eased down with Picpoul and a spot of Jameson, with token mask visible below. Passed on Turkish coffee on this occasion.

All in all a pleasant addition to the stock of restaurants in Epsom. I am sure we will be back at some point.

References

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2009/06/derby-pickings.html. Probably our first visit to the Kingston branch.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/08/shopping-in-kingston.html. Another visit.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocia.

Reference 4: https://www.cappadociaepsom.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_tFSWZXKN0. A dissident film about Putin, retweeted from the Financial Times. Dubbed into English. There is rather a lot of it, but it also tells us a lot about Putin, his cronies and his very large amount of money. From the days when he was a humble KGB operative in Dresden. Where we are not talking James Bond, whatever story he might now be peddling back at home. Where some of the story we are told has been culled from the very thorough East German police archives, now opened up.