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Comment by spapas82 | Hacker News Reader

Here in Greece (actually central Greece) houses traditionally make Baklava for the Christmas - new years eve period. It is considered a "holiday" treat.

Most people use almonds to fill it and ready-made pie-sheets (from the supermarket, these are common in Greece because people use them to make pies). It's not difficult to make but, because it needs a lot of almonds it has very expensive, that's why it's not usual to make it on other times.

I don't really like it, I find it boring.

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True baklava is not boring. The one you describe is boring because it has no finesse. I’ve had it in Greece, and I make it at home, it’s just a sugar fix. True baklava is an experience. Most baklava in Turkey is bad too. The one mentioned in the article is pretty good but the bests are the other ones in Gaziantep. Something about the combination of worlds best pistachios and grass fed clarified butter. It is sublime. Michelin star level shit. Worth flying to Gaziantep for. Too bad it’s the butt of the world. I order from here [0] when I’m in Turkey. I think it’s the brother or cousin of the guy mentioned in the article. They fly it out the day it’s made. I think they send to some European cities too. It loses its amazing smell after a couple days, though so tough luck for other parts of the world.

0:https://www.farukgulluoglu.com.tr/fistikli-midye-baklava-1-k...

> ...I find it boring

If a multi-layered, crunchy, sweet dessert with filings of various nuts, and dipped in clarified butter, with a little salt to the mix is "boring", I'd love to know of a dessert that you consider 'interesting'.

Hmmm probably I had eaten that too many times as a kid so now as an adult I dislike it? Or maybe it's the way that people here make it? It all depends on the execution!

An interesting desert for me? Not really easy to answer, I guess I'm not into sweets very much ...

My problem with most baklava to me is that all the subtlety and refinement you are talking about just gets lost is big old mess of "sweet". My general baklava experience is that the first bite is good, the second bite is enough and after the third bite I kind of wish I hadn't. It's like some people and chilli heat, once you pass a certain level, it doesn't matter how refined and complex the underlying dish is, all they can taste is 'hot'.

Interesting deserts to me manges to balance sweetness against acidity, tartness, bitterness and similar flavours to create more contrast and where the sweetness isn't the dominating taste experience.

Every time I have tried baklava it was so overpoweringly sweet that I could not manage to finish even a tiny piece. The sugar/honey overwhelmed everything else. So count me as one that agrees with baklava being "boring".

Look up a south asian grocer for Soan Papdi, it's a similar sweet that's not too sugary (by south asian standards anyway) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soan_papdi

Here in Serbia, baklava is mostly too sweet for my taste. I prefer another Turkish dessert called tufahija, which is cooked apple with central part with seeds taken out and filled with grinded walnuts and honey, soaked in sugary water and topped with whipped cream.

Too much honey, most likely.

The big problem with baklava is that it turns into a blob of solid glop unless you pay strict attention.

Everything has to be kept very "light". But, when you do, everything is on the verge of falling apart. It will not transport very far or last very long.

Same situation for albanians but we use walnuts instead of almonds.

Same for us Bulgarians, at least in my region

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