/ Reviews / Interview
Resa Sun, Proprietor of Kervan Turk
by
on Friday, August 06, 2010 12:00 AM
Why did you choose the name "Kervan"?
It's actually Turkish for "caravan". This restaurant is meant to be a friendly place, where people can relax, rest and eat. A lot of our regular customers have actually contributed things to the décor, like some of the shisha pipes.
How did your affinity with Turkish cuisine develop?
Five years ago, traveling in Berlin, Germany. There are around two-million Turks in Germany and so there are also many Turkish restaurants. I've traveled a lot over the years and seen a lot of Turkish restaurants around Europe, in places like France, Germany and England. I started eating a lot of it since I thought it was a much better alternative than McDonald's!
Do you get a lot of Turkish people coming in?
Yes. Our chef is from Turkey and has lived in Shanghai for a while, working five years in Anadolu. So he knows a lot of the Turkish population here.
Since your chef moved from Anadolu, is there a rivalry between the two restaurants?
Most people in China don't know what Turkish food is, so I just hope that all the Turkish restaurants can do good business and introduce it more. I think it's delicious and hope other people can discover it too.
Originally, you wanted to create a Turkish ice cream parlor: what exactly is Turkish ice cream?
"Dondurma" is Turkish for "ice cream" but this is ice cream with a difference. For a start, you eat it with a knife and fork. It's made with a unique ingredient too - salep, a natural gum produced from ground wild mountain orchids. Ice cream sellers will sometimes play a small game with their customers. They use a metal rod to give ice cream to the patron and patrons struggle to get it off the rod for a few minutes. Everybody has fun with this game.
When you're not fighting with ice cream rods, what do you do to enjoy Shanghai?
Shanghai is an opening city and very diverse, and you get to know many friends from different countries. After the restaurant opened, I would talk to many different people and get to know a lot of interesting and novel things. Also, I like to go to other restaurants, to learn from my peers.
