If you believe yourself to be an adventurous “foodie,” you probably aren’t, partly because you use the word foodie. I’m here to tell you that adding Sriracha to your rice bowl is not exotic. Eating poke does not give you street cred. Putting an egg on anything or everything is not an innovation. And posting Frankenfood on Facebook (“look at my crescent roll pepperoni lasagna pizza!”) is downright disgusting.
Artemis Turkish Kitchen opened early this year with the most intriguing ethnic menu ever seen in buttoned-down Carmel. It offered food from one of the world’s mother cuisines, food created throughout the powerful Ottoman Empire.
And no one really noticed.
Turkish food is rich and varied and chockful of exotic ingredients. Artemis rolled out a nice array of Turkish favorites, including mezes (appetizers) such as cevizli ezme (a paste from red pepper, tomato, garlic and walnuts), and sigara boregi (tightly rolled “cigars” of phyllo dough stuffed with potatoes and feta cheese), entrees such as Imam bayildi (whole eggplant stuffed with onion, garlic and tomatoes) and various other Turkish delights.
At that time, owner Erkan Demir, a native of Istanbul, said, “My dream was to introduce people to the food and culture of my homeland.”
The food was delicious and authentic. Yet many diners did not make the leap, and those who did apparently did not find the cuisine very approachable.
After five months of explaining the food and urging new diners to open their minds, Artemis has changed its approach and revised the menu, using the catch-all “Mediterranean food” as the jumping off point.
Demir and his staff felt that the emphasis on only Turkish cuisine and the confusing, hard-to-pronounce names of the dishes may have intimidated or discouraged some potential customers.
“As a result of customer feedback, we’ve made revisions on the menu since we first opened,” said Artemis manager Sara Allen. “We wanted to be more open for more people to enjoy our food.”
Meze tabagi, a medley of eight cold appetizers, is now called the Artemis sampler. Cevizli ezme, a signature concoction of walnuts, tomato, cumin, garlic and Turkish red pepper paste, became simply walnut ezme, kizartma became pan-fried eggplant, imam bayildi is now stuffed eggplant, the sigara boregi is no longer available and, of course, spaghetti has been added to the menu.
The words “Turkish Kitchen” no longer finish the restaurant’s name. It’s merely Artemis. While Turkish food still forms the centerpiece here, dishes from other Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Morocco share space.
Entrees include shish kabob, moussaka and lamb chops, but also other Mediterranean favorites such as seafood pasta, fettuccine with lamb ragu, sea bass and grilled salmon.
Artemis also boasts a fascinating selection of Turkish wines (including a delicious sparkling), and offers a number of healthy vegetarian options, including salads, lentil soup, cauliflower gratin, vegetable medley, falafel plate with rice and salad, vegan eggplant, and veggie wraps.
“The focus here is on real Mediterranean food, made and served as it is over there,” said Demir, who started in Carmel with businesses selling boots, leather jackets and carpets. “It’s all homemade food, from scratch, all seasonal, organic when we can, fresh and very healthy. The bottom line is that it’s 100 percent honest food.”
And delicious. It would have been nice, however, if diners had trusted the original menu, jumped in with both feet and experienced a slice of Istanbul in the center of Carmel.
When it comes to ethnic cuisine, it often takes a while to resonate. Thai food is now over the hump and considered mainstream. So is food from India, Korea and Vietnam.
“People who come in and eat here, they love it,” Demir said. “They can’t believe there’s a restaurant like this in Carmel.”
To me it’s a breath of fresh air on the local scene. Artemis Executive Chef Mustafa Yuzer, a native of Istanbul, brings flavor like a punch to the palate. When he has time he also takes a spin around the dining room, often seen doing magic tricks (he’s quite good).
Perhaps he can turn a legion of culinary creampuffs into stronger, more open-minded, intrepid diners.
Now that would be something.
Artemis is at Ocean Avenue and Mission Street in Carmel. Hours: 11:30 a.m.—2:30 p.m. and 5:30—10 p.m. For more information, call 574-8991 or visit www.artemiscarmel.com.
Tidbits
A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated a California law that bans the sale of foie gras (the fatty liver from a duck or goose). This reverses a district judge’s injunction in 2015 against the law. Another appeal looms. And back and forth they go, as millions of animals continue to go to slaughter in factory farms, as GMOs become more prevalent, as Monsanto continues to run amuck, as children go hungry. Foie gras is low-hanging fruit, if you will, plucked for headlines, and to appease the rabid minority. In my opinion, the ruling is shameful … Rumor mill: Pacific Grove’s longtime restaurant, the underachieving 17th Street Grille, has shuttered, but about to be brought back to life as a British pub … Just weeks after Nuernberger’s German Sausages closed up shop on Franklin Street in Monterey, the landlord is apparently squeamish when it comes to renting to another meat-centric business. It seems Jonathan Christopher Roberts (aka the Pig Wizard) has made overtures to the landlord about opening his first brick-and-mortar store (the local butcher does brisk business online). Roberts imagines a prime lunch spot with monthly dinners. “We would roast a pig once a week for sandwiches and plates, a catering hub, a small retail counter for cured meats, sausages and fresh cuts, and production for online sales,” he wrote on Facebook. Sounds good to me. If you want to twist the virtual arm of the landlord, head to Roberts’ Facebook page for the email.
Mike Hale can be reached at thegrubhunter@att.net. Listen to his weekly radio show “Food Fodder” at noon Wednesdays on KRML, 102.1 FM.
