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A soup restaurant in Türkiye's central province of Konya is serving up a rich offal-based dish known locally as "atom," combining meat from the head and trotters with cheek meat, brain and a specially prepared spicy sauce as temperatures begin to fall.
The dish builds on "kelle paca," a traditional soup made by slowly boiling parts of a sheep or other livestock, particularly the head and feet. The restaurant's "atom" version brings several different offal ingredients together in the same bowl.
Restaurant owner Ramazan Bademci said demand for hot soups had picked up with cooler autumn weather, particularly among customers who felt tired or believed they were beginning to come down with a cold or flu.
Bademci said he prepares the soup with head and trotter meat, pieces of cheek meat that he selects separately and brain, before boiling the ingredients together for an extended period.
The soup is then finished off with the restaurant's own sauce and a special hot pepper, with customers able to ask for additional spice.
Bademci said customers often come in when they begin experiencing cold or flu symptoms and ask specifically for the "atom."
"When we talk about kelle paca, atom is the peak of it. All the offal comes together in it. Once everything boils together and reaches the table, the ingredients blend into one another and create a different flavor," he said.
He also said the trotter broth provides collagen and claimed that the spicy pepper quickly raises body temperature and gives customers a feeling of relief.
Bademci said preparing kelle paca at home could be difficult because of both the smell and the cleaning process, adding that hygiene was a major part of preparation at the restaurant.
According to Bademci, the offal is thoroughly checked after arriving at the kitchen, singed again to remove any remaining hair and washed around four times before being put on to cook.
He said younger customers who had previously preferred soups such as lentil or "arabasi," a traditional soup associated with central Anatolia, had also begun trying kelle paca after he prepared it for them.
Bademci added that the kitchen was open for customers to see, saying the cleaning and preparation process was carried out carefully before the ingredients were cooked.
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