Smells just like home

If you want to find a good baker and deli in Southwark, says Sarah Woodward, just follow your nose It was pouring with rain and I couldn’t find the Ev delicatessen, restaurant and bar, tucked away as it is down a pedestrian side street under the railway arches behind Southwark station. Later, I realised that I should simply have followed the delicious smell of baking. No wonder ev means “home” in Turkish, for is there any more domestic aroma than that of fresh bread? When I finally got there, I found in one corner of the vast deli area several bakers pounding with their hands at a spreading pile of dough. The bread for all five of the restaurants owned by Önder Sahan is baked on the premises – some 700 loaves a day. Using organic OO flour and fresh yeast, the team of bakers start at five every morning and as well as the classic pide more unusual breads such as ones flavoured with leek, olives or spinach are produced. “Bread is fundamental to Turks” explained Önder. “We even eat it with pasta”. He proudly showed me the beautifully packaged rows of pastas such as manti, erişte (“I love either of them with cheese and butter”) and tarhana for the Anatolian soup of that name. continue