It has been awhile since we have found the time to go to another "country", so we find ourselves still going around the Mediterranean. We chose Nizam's in Vienna for Turkey because they have been in the Washingtonian top 100 DC area restaurants for at least the past 15 years. The restaurant is supposed to be cozy in the main dining room but alas we never see it; We are seated by ourselves upstairs. This is actually OK because we can talk and not bother anyone. We walk by framed Washingtonian awards on our way upstairs. This should be good.As we always do, we try the country's traditional starters. I read in the menu that Raki (anise liquor) is often served with the mezze(appetizers). Since I am not fond of anise flavor, I make Julian try it. He can handle most anything but admits that he doesn't love it. John also does not love his Yogurt drink Ayran. Julia and I hit the jackpot with Turkish cherry drinks. She just gets juice. I get a Turkish version of a cosmo. Yummy!
The mezze platter gave us a good idea of what Turkish cuisine has to offer.
It is all becoming familiar now but some of their takes on the standard are different. The stuffed grape leaves have no rice in the filling; it is all meat. The hommus is very lemony and not as smooth as some. It is almost exactly like what I make at home. There were two mezze called borek that were phyllo wrapped one cheese, one meat. Who doesn't love baked phyllo. Still I felt like the cheese evaporated from the center of my cheese puff. The eggplant (Paltican Kizartma) was amazing;smoky and tender it was almost like meat. White beans in a tomato sauce(Fasiilye Pilaki) had a nice flavor but nothing to write home about. Feta chees and olives rounded out the platter. All in all a nice introduction.Main courses started with Doner Kebab. This is the house specialty. From
the description I expect the dish to look somewhat like Gyros. It is completely different. It looks like a stew of thinly slices marinated lamb served in a tomato sauce with eggplant. The stew is served on a mound of chopped grilled pita bread. Almost as if it was 
pasta and sauce. The eggplant is delicious they cook it perfectly. Julia' s lamb meatballs (Antep Kebab) are also served in sauce on top of chopped grilled pita bread. This really is a novel and tasty preparation. Julian has Beer Dumplings(Manti) that look to me exactly like tortelloni. The pasta is the same, but the meat filling has a different blend of spices. The sauce is unusual but good. It is yogurt based an has darker spices like cinnamon, maybe nutmeg or cardamom. I chose Red Snapper a la Bosphorous; probably not an authentic dish, but wow was it good. It is almost like a mousakka with a Red Snapper base. the fish is perfectly cooked and coverd withmushrooms and a lemony bechamel with a hint of cinnamon. This is baked until browned. The bechamel was almost custardlike it was so fluffy. I was expecting this to be a heavy choice but was pleasantly surprised by its lightness.We had a lovely apricot baklava and rice pudding for dessert. Julian could have his Turkish coffee, little sweet, medium or lots of sugar. For some reason I found that funny.
After dinner, I was completely confused about what Kebab means. I thought it meant grilled. So I asked our Turkish waiter Bejan(sp). He said " it normally means grilled but there are a lot of things that aren't. So me, I am Turkish and I am confused." So there you have it the difinitive answer about what is Kebab. As Bejan said I think we just call it all Kebab.
