Gourmet city soup kitchens

Gaziantep – With temperatures below freezing, the line of earthquake victims waiting for steaming hot stews and soups stretches out into the dark in the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

Ajde Gunes is one of them, grateful to the restaurants that are feeding the army of homeless in Türkiye’s gourmet capital.

“The queues are enormous but the restaurants have done more than the government,” Gunes said, pointedly.

The restaurants are among tens of thousands of people working hard to help families in any way they can across the country after Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria.

From some of the country’s best restaurants to one pensioner selling her cow to send the money to survivors, Turks are rushing to meet survivors’ needs.

In Gaziantep’s Imam Cagdas restaurant, renowned for its Alinazik aubergine and meat stew and baklava sweets, have served up to 4 000 free meals a day since the quake that left more than 33 000 people dead in Türkiye and Syria.

“We are making food that is easy to prepare, easy to serve and good against the cold, like pastas, and soup in the mornings,” said Burhan Cagdas, the owner’s son.

Each day the restaurant prepares four or five different meals.

“If we run out of food, other restaurants and businesses help us. They know we are sharing it with people in need.”

At least 2 000 people died in Gaziantep after the quake hit, while tens of thousands have been forced out of apartment blocks considered unsafe or at risk from a new shock.

Imam Cagdas restaurant cannot make its signature hot meal because key ingredients are missing and some staff have not been able to come to work.

But there is tava, a mix of tomatoes, onion, meat and spices.

“Our co-workers are in a bad situation. Their families are victims and their houses are destroyed,” said Cagdas. His own family has been sleeping in cars since last Monday. “We want to help.”

Other top restaurants in Gaziantep have also started handing out meals.

Hundreds can be seen at midday outside Firino, an upscale coffee shop overlooked by Gaziantep castle where the ancient towers were toppled by the quake.

At Meshur Kalealti, also in Gaziantep’s tourist district, the staff give out 3 000 helpings of soup and bread a day. –