’The General’s Command’ (Hazelnut and Milk Baklava)

When the last military coup happened in Turkey (in 1980) I was nine years old. One of the generals who took control of the government decided to involve himself in the details of daily life. He thought some baklava houses were overcharging, so he ordered all baklava houses to standardise their price.

One of the artisan baklava houses in Istanbul, Güllüoğlu, was not prepared to sacrifice quality for the sake of meeting cost regulations, so they decided to create a new type