Tasting Notes
Orkide puts a patisserie and a full restaurant under one roof in Değirmiçem, Şehitkamil. The day starts with breakfast, and the long menu continues with Gaziantep home dishes, Italian pasta and pizza, grills, burgers and a large dessert section. The bakery side sells whole cakes, cookies, poğaça, simit and savoury biscuits to take away.
Katmer and a Gaziantep breakfast
The dish most people order is Fıstıklı Katmer: paper-thin dough folded around crushed Gaziantep pistachios and kaymak, the local clotted cream, then baked and served hot. It is the classic Gaziantep breakfast sweet. The regional breakfast spread is priced per person, and the breakfast list adds local plates such as semsek, a spiced meat pastry, sautéed liver Gaziantep style, Antep cheese pide and muhammara.
Regional dishes beyond kebab
A separate section is given to Gaziantep home cooking that is less often seen on restaurant menus: yuvalama, öcce (herb fritters), omaç, lebeniye, a yoghurt soup, Kilis tava, Ali Nazik and dried vegetables stuffed with rice and meat. The patisserie covers cakes by the slice, whole cakes for four to eight people, eclairs, profiteroles and trays of cookies and savoury kahke, many of them made with pistachio.
“Come for breakfast and order Fıstıklı Katmer to share alongside the regional spread; on the way out, pick up pistachio cookies or a cake from the patisserie counter.”
LR Kitchen — field note