Istanblue Meze & Grill has recently rebranded as @mavirestaurant.sg to avoid any confusion with its competitors, and they still continue to whip up tasty Turkish treats. Yes, Mavi is Turkish for blue, in case you were wondering. One of the best entrées of the night that could flawlessly pass as an appetiser for the table is the traditional Turkish dish of Ali Nazik ($24++ for chicken, $28++ for lamb).⠀
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Ali Nazik (also known as Ali Nazik Kebab) is an smoked eggplant purée mixed with garlic yogurt & butter, and dotted with cubes of marinated chicken or lamb. In our case, we got the lamb Ali Nazik, and of course, it wouldn’t be Turkish cuisine without bread on the side. I normally detest eggplants, but this eggplant purée was upgraded by the inclusion of garlic yogurt & butter into the mix. The smokey, savoury & smooth eggplant purée was gloriously garlicky and decadently rich, but the lamb cubes absolutely stole the show here.⠀
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The scintillatingly spiced lamb cubes were deliriously delicious, and each juicy meat cube tasted similar to a chorizo. The gaminess of the lamb was almost completely concealed by the bold, intoxicating spice marinade, and the extra spiced oil drizzled on top of it added even more flavour & lusciousness. Mavi’s Turkish pita bread that’s baked in-house looks more like pide bread, and is notably dense & chewy. It performs exceptionally at mopping up all that exquisite eggplant purée though, so all’s good.⠀
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Thanks for having us over to sample your terrific Turkish treats, @mavirestaurant.sg & @burpple!