Kalamar tava

Rings of squid dredged in flour or dipped in a light batter, fried for a minute or two in hot oil and served with lemon and a bowl of tarator, the Turkish sauce of walnuts, garlic, bread and vinegar: kalamar tava is the fried squid of the Aegean and Marmara meyhane, ordered as a hot meze between the cold plates and the fish. It is on every seaside menu from Çanakkale to Bodrum and in every Istanbul fish restaurant along the Bosphorus, and it is the dish by which regulars judge whether a kitchen can fry at all. The squid is the local kalamar, caught in the Marmara and the Aegean in autumn and winter, and the frying is quick and unadorned; the Greek kalamarakia and the Italian calamari fritti are the same idea with different sauces. Tarator is what makes it Turkish.