There are places in Istanbul which have become very well-known and that commune with people of Istanbul such as Beyti, Pandelli, Konyalı, Borsa, Rejans, Kanaat and Hamdi. Always the same taste, the same cooking technique, the same handicraft. I met Hamdi Arpacı in 80s at Hamdi where I had meal during the time I was accompanying a foreign state guest. This time we met and spent a half day together, even cooked kebab in the kitchen. Now let’s have a look at the life of this extraordinary person. Arpaci is the son of a father born in Birecik district of Urfa and migrated to Istanbul. His first job was to make kebabs on the booth at the pavement in Eminönü. After a short while, with the support of a group of his regular customers among Tahtakale merchants, he opened a kebab shop on the entrance floor of the present center building. The place where the lunch service is more active and attracting tourists as well as being the meeting point of business people.
Hamdi Restaurant offers exactly the same dishes with the ones that it served 45 years ago such as pot dishes, Ottoman cuisine and kebab varieties. Some of the employees are educated children and grandchildren of illiterate cooks of those years. There are two important elements in creating the flavor; the first one is meat, the second one is isot, which is the special pepper spice of Urfa. The most important principle of Hamdi is that he buys 6 to 8 months old Trakya lamb if only it is about 14 kg and absolutely male. By the way, I would like to repeat his sentence: “In 44 years, not even 44 female animals have entered through this gate.” Since the establishment of the institution, Mr. Hamdi, just like an old Anatolian saying, has lent everyone hand and he has taught them the specifics so it is impossible not to admire him. The position of the skewer in the cooking range and cooking every part of it separately are small examples of these details.
These lovely dishes end with dessert. Baklava with pistachio and walnut, Nuriye dessert with cream, şöbiyet (multiflaked pastry with cream and pistachio filling), carrot slice, Hamdi special and tel kadayıf (shredded wheat in syrup) are the main ones. It is best to eat a little from each of dishes not to have upset stomach.
In the kebabs, 80 percent lamb meat and 20 percent beef meat are used. The most important element in preparing the meat is not to lose the juice in it while cutting into small pieces. By the way, paprika paste, isot, dried up vegetables to make stuffing (dried peppers, tomatoes, eggplant) and pickles, which are some of the main ingredients, are produced in Birecik and sent to Istanbul in the season.
My most important observation about Hamdi is that his love of work has remained the same as the first day. He told me about his project which impressed me greatly before I left there. He bought a big land in Birecik where he is having a mosque and a bathing cubicle built but more importantly he is establishing Birecik kebab training center. In this center consisting of six classrooms, cookers and kitchens, the children of the district will be trained and graduate as certified kebab makers. As far as I understand the wish of Hamdi is to make Urfa Birecik the center of kebab instead of Adana.
In the meantime I have to express that there is a business manager, Kerim Özevin, beside his son who keeps Hamdi going and the concept alive. Just like his preceptor, he also enjoys cooking and taking his place in front of the cooker to cook kebab. The entire staff has a single goal, which is guest satisfaction. I advise you to come to Istanbul, but not to leave without eating at Hamdi.
Great Place to Work competition “Happy Employee” motto brought awards Canpa, the insulation company, was awarded second prize in the Great Place to Work competition. The list of best employers in Turkey has consisted of 26 companies that have a “corporate culture with high level humanitarian touch” in the competition which has been organized by the Great Place to Work Institute for the 5th time in Turkey. Canpa got the second place in the 20-50 category. The aspects of Great Place to Work model, which consists of reliability, respect, equity, pride and team spirit, have been analyzed in the survey and the ranking has been made according to these criteria. With 30 years of experience, Canpa organizes various social events for its employees in line with its “happy employee” oriented business mentality. Murat Özcan, Member of the Canpa Group’s Board of Directors, said that they realized a system in which having happy employees is prioritized by having an employee-oriented management approach and establishing corporate culture,and added that the award was quite valuable to them.
Receiving their awards with his team, Özcan stated that having pleasure during work was no longer luxury in the new generation management concept and he added “If people can have fun while working, if they can find something from themselves and their social life, they will not leave their souls behind. They can perform more than their potential. The social activities that we constantly organize in Canpa increase employees’ motivation, in the end we can clearly observe their performance. We also become happy with our happy, diligent, creative and successful employees. We do not discriminate between white collar and blue collar. We call our craftsman professors of isolation. The importance we place on corporate culture can be also understood from the job applications that double every year. However, this award also shows us how right the works we did are.”
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