All cooks love the winter, all those months we can warm ourselves and our souls in the cosiness of the kitchen, and escape from the unrelenting chill outside. But sometimes, the endless grey wintriness can get a little wearing, so I have decided to go on a bit of a holiday. But which I mean, in the kitchen. I don't think I could cope with an actual airport.
I lost myself happily one afternoon over the break, at the table, mug of tea in hand, remembering a trip I made last summer to what must be my favourite restaurant ever. It was the kind of idyll you would think would exist only in fantasy, but there it was, on the Turkish coast around Bozburun, a teeny tiny family-run restaurant called Orfoz, consisting of a few tables on the water's edge, with fairy lights wrapped around the odd tree to come on as the ridiculously turquoise sky darkens to inkiness.
I think there may be a coastal path that leads to it from a nearby hotel, but the only way I could approach it was by a little dingy, and I sat in the fragrant air eating the freshest tomatoes, sweet prawns, chargrilled octopus and tender, juicy and yet crisp calamari. The dream fades, and here I am marooned in winter. Still, I am cheered and inspired and my kitchen comes alive (and so do I) after a rushed rustling up of my Quick Calamari with Garlic Mayo. Truly, I wouldn't be anywhere else......
