‘Kothe Ki Mithai’: Famous Turkish Dish Considered ‘Natural Viagra’
When I entered Istanbul’s ‘Egyptian Bazaar’, I was met with a whirlwind of colors and aromas. It is considered by many Turkish locals to be the best market in the city.
Walking along the lines of customers and vendors busy buying and selling goods, I reached the alleys at the back of the market where cheese, rose leaf tea, pistachios and pink olives were piled high. Looking at this precious treasure, I wandered like a dream. But before long, my eyes fell on the legendary dessert that had drawn me here.
“Hilka Tetilisi” is one of the most popular and ancient street foods of Istanbul. Found on every street corner, this dessert is said to refresh pedestrians in this busy city for hours. It is made from a ball of dough that is baked until golden brown and then soaked in a syrup that adds sweetness. But why do the locals call such a desirable item ‘kothe ki mithai’?
Explaining the name, famous Turkish chef Somir told me that this sweet is considered ‘natural Viagra’.
This sweet was traditionally sold in the European part of Istanbul. This is the region of Karakoye, which was formerly known as Galata. It lies on the water’s edge north of the Golden Horn, part of the Bosphorus strait, which has been used by the city since Byzantine times for maritime traffic.
It was once a residential area for the merchants of Genoa, but from the 13th century onwards, people from other areas began to settle here. Among them were the Jews whom Sultan Bayezid II invited to Istanbul after his expulsion from Spain in 1492.
It became a very busy port as well as an industrial area. However, the prostitution market also started to heat up here. In 1884, when brothels in Istanbul were legally allowed to operate, the expatriate area flourished for the next 137 years.
Istanbul’s tour guide Leyla said that in those days, traders from rural areas and small towns in Anatolia would visit brothels when they came here for business. The cheap, tasty sweet became popular at the time because it was said to give men the energy they needed before and after going to court, but today the area looks very different.
Walking out of Galata’s famous tower and through the old cobbled streets, the evidence was clear that innovation had arrived in the area. Over the past decade, the warehouses here have become galleries of modern art, cafes and boutiques have opened in place of workshops. The biggest sign of this change was the recent closure of the remaining houses on Zarfa Street, which are being demolished to build an arts and culture center under a project by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Laili said that the stalls have been closed but the sellers of this sweet are seen standing everywhere in the same area.
In no time this was also experienced. On the Galata Bridge, I passed by fishermen trying to catch fish in the lush waters of the Bosphorus, seagulls hovering in the sky. A little further, two people were busy preparing and selling the beloved sweets of the city.
Watching them pour the syrup from a bottle into the boiling oil, a form was created that felt like a sight to behold. I thought this round sweet is not the same as a churro? Churro is a Spanish food that is made by baking dough into different shapes.
Leyli says that the “light butterfly” looks similar to the choro, which is said to have appeared with the Jews on the Turkish coast after the expulsion from Spain.
The difference is that our sweets, often called Turkish Churros, are round in shape and derived from Tulamba Butterflies.
Tulamba Tatlisi is a Turkish sweet named after the pump-like device or syringe used to mix the syrup. It is cut into small tubes and soaked in this syrup before cooking. This sweet is fondly eaten at weddings and in the month of Ramadan in Turkey.
There are different opinions about the sweet’s journey to Istanbul, but I found that Halka Tatlisi, Tulamba Tatlisi and Churro are actually related to an ancient Arabic dish. The first mention of a dessert called Zalabiya Mashbaq is in Kitab al-Tabikh by Ibn Siyar al-Waraq.
The famous 10th-century book details the cuisine of Baghdad and provides a glimpse into the Golden Age of Islam, when Baghdad was a global center of science and culture.
Nawal Nasrullah, a historian of Iraqi origin, translated this book from Arabic to English for the first time. She says that Tulamba is exactly the same thing as the light butterfly. The only difference is that the identity of the latter is attributed to its appearance.
He said that many of the dishes arrived in Istanbul when the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire handed over their magnificent kitchens to the Arabs. It is possible that the Jews who were expelled from Spain also had an influence on its form, but we know that this dish was inspired by the Middle East in Muslim Spain.
All these sweets use more or less the same ingredients and recipe. Nasrullah said that zulabia mushbak was traditionally made by pouring hot fat through a hole made in a coconut. Hulk Tetilisi and Tulamba are made using modern methods.
