Bidda Badadez (Pitta and Potatoes, with Köfte and Hellim)

Bidda Badedez (Potatoes in a Wrap - as well as köfte, hellim, tomatoes and parsley 😂🙌🏼) . I love the Turkish Cypriot lingo, there is such an endearing quality to the dialect (“Badadez” is correctly pronounced “Patates” in Turkish), and if this meal doesn’t scream Cyprus in the summer at a beach cafe then I’m not sure what does.

In fact, my mum would make these bişi for us when we were little (even for a midweek breakfast, I’d come downstairs before school and she’d be filling them with fried or grilled hellim and tomatoes to take with us in the car - search for my recipe using #melizcooksflatbreads), as I do for my two now too. 

But Bidda Badadez takes it to another level - each bişi is filled with grilled or lightly fried (in olive oil) hellim, grilled köfte (you can see my bbq köfte recipe under my BBQ highlights on Instagram - feel free to leave out some of the spices and keep it simple but cumin, paprika, fresh parsley and grated onion are all necessary), chips (I made my crunchy baked chips but left out the herbs, use #melizcookschips) and fresh tomato and parsley. 

My kids had theirs with cucumber (in place of tomatoes) and my eldest took his first bite tonight and said “I could eat this all day!” Have you had this before?  It’s not exactly a “light bite” but more of a very rustic, carby indulgence, and we love it! -