Meet Gülsen: The Sille Mom
This is Gülsen, the Sille Mom.
Learning a language is no easy task. Listening to someone else trying to learn your native tongue is no easy task either. It takes a special gift of patience to struggle along with the person as they try to communicate with you. Not everyone has this special gift, so when Ginny Lou and I found a whole family who was willing to listen to our elementary Turkish, we counted ourselves very blessed.
The owners of Değirmen Evi Cafe are some of the kindest people we have met in Turkey. In fact, Ginny Lou and I refer to them as mom and dad. The Turkish word ev means “house” and the cafe that they own literally operates out of their home. The hospitality is unmatched. When we first met this family they were only serving saç böreği, a Turkish savory pastry prepared between thin dough with various fillings including cheese, spinach, and potato along with Turkish tea from the front porch of their home. As the business began to succeed and grow, so did the size of the cafe. Now there are three levels, including a beautiful rooftop terrace overlooking the quaint village of Sille, where the family has lived for their entire lives.
The Sille Mom making her speciality, saç böreği, over an open flame.
Sille is an old village with history reaching back thousands of years. Today some of the treasures you can find are a Roman bridge, a church built for Constantine’s mother in the 300s, cave houses and churches, and Ottoman baths (hamam) and mosques. The little village is situated just north of the city of Konya, and we highly recommend a visit to Sille if you are in the Konya area.
Sille is popular today with locals on the weekend for village breakfast, and Değirmen Evi Cafe is a great place to stop in for homemade cheeses, jellies, and sauces as well as fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives, a must for Turkish breakfast. And of course you must try the house speciality, saç böreği.
Make sure to order some tea and don’t rush. The rooftop terrace is a great place to enjoy good conversation while marveling at the cave houses above and the charming village below. If you have the pleasure of stopping in at Değirmen Evi Cafe, make sure you let them know that Ginny Lou and Leslie sent you.
To our friends in the West, keep looking East!
Leslie Connors
Leslie is a co-founder of West2East. Originally from Tennessee, Leslie has called Turkey home for the past eight years. To read more about her, click here.