I feel strongly about baklava. Like, really strongly.
It was a factor in my choice to move to Harringay. I'm not saying other things weren't considered - rent prices, transport, blah la la - but easy access to some of the best baklava in London was definitely a tick in the pro column.
Baklava is like kedgeree and lemon drizzle cake in that I am generally too scared to order it because there is such a high hit rate for disappointment. Something dry or overly crispy or lacking in syrup is simply regret rendered in pastry form and so I want to see someone else's before I commit.
I have a mental checklist of the good and the great in my particular stretch of the ladder, but there is only one place I head if I have guests to impress. Or, you know, if I've had a tough day and want to fall into a blissful sugar coma. That place is Antepliler. I have never actually been to the restaurant section of this Harringay institution (which must be amended in the near future) but the little patisserie annexed on one side is the deserving recipient of much of my dollar.
It was my boyfriend who alerted me to this gem. A Turkish co-worker had got up early and brought some freshly baked Antepliler's to the office. At about 9.30 I got an excited text, containing a couple of expletives, a lot of punctuation and a rather evocative cloud simile. Colour me intrigued, I made it my business to get myself down there that afternoon.
And cloud is right. A syruppy, juicy, lightly nutty cloud of glory. If baklava is one of the great desserts of the world (and I will fight anyone who claims that it isn't) then Antepliler are - as far as I'm concerned - its ambassador to London.