When Muzinie Beitullaieva immigrated to Canada from Turkey in 2016, she came with a PhD in linguistics and a dream of becoming an academic. Read MoreThe woman-run kitchen turns out crisp phyllo parcels and full Turkish breakfasts with simit, served alongside strong tea and hot-sand coffee.
The woman-run kitchen turns out crisp phyllo parcels and full Turkish breakfasts with simit, served alongside strong tea and hot-sand coffee.
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When Muzinie Beitullaieva immigrated to Canada from Turkey in 2016, she came with a PhD in linguistics and a dream of becoming an academic.
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“But I got pregnant and all my plans changed,” says the 36-year-old.
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Nearly a decade later, she and her husband have moved from Toronto to Ottawa, which she describes as more affordable and quieter, a good place to settle down. She has two daughters now, plus a business in Kanata called Taksim Sweets & Bakes. Opened in January, the Hazeldean Road strip-mall shop takes its name from Taksim Square, a major tourist district in the heart of Istanbul.
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“Baking, making, and preparing food is a hobby. I’m relaxing this way,” she says. “This is why I like it. It will not be a job. It will be more of a hobby.”
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But the food at Taksim Sweets & Bakes, which Beitullaieva calls Ottawa’s only Turkish bake shop, tastes entirely professional, well-crafted and on point. Beitullaieva may be a hobbyist, but she has hired female Turkish cooks who bring plenty of expertise.
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“We make everything together,” says Beitullaieva of her woman-owned, women-based business.
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Of the many temptations at Taksim, I’ve been particularly attracted to two sweet treats that I first saw on the bake shop’s Instagram page. Both dolama ($12.99), which is round, and khatmer ($11.99), which is more of a rectangular parcel, are crispy phyllo dough pastries with soft pistachio-filling centres, baked to order from frozen and topped with ice cream for a winning hot-cold contrast. A scattering of pistachio bits completes both dishes.
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But you can also get many other baked items, from different kinds of Turkish baklava, including one-bite morsels ($1 each), to massive slabs of Dubai chocolate cheesecake ($12.99 for a slice, not made in-house), to chunks of savoury, made-in-house, cheese-filled borek ($5.99). On weekends, the bake shop serves a range of Turkish breakfast items like simit (Turkey’s version of bagels) and çakallı menemen, a cheesier shakshouka you might say, which melds softly scrambled eggs with Turkish peppers, tomatoes, and Turkish cheese.
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People who enjoy authentic Turkish beverages, from bitter teas that perfectly offset sweet pastries to coffee slow-brewed on hot sand, will also find what they want at Taksim.
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Beitullaieva chose to open in Kanata because a Turkish expat community has emerged in Ottawa’s western suburb in recent years, with a grocery store and several restaurants catering to the newcomers.