Dense, stretchy and durable, dondurma isn't like any other ice cream you'll find, and the epicentre of its production is still reeling from the powerful earthquakes that decimated the nation.

On a warm and breezy early summer evening in Istanbul, I took the metro to the city's Bayrampaşa district just west of the Old City in search of Maraş-made dondurma: the best ice cream in the country.

Produced in Turkey's southern Kahramanmaraş (or Maraş, for short) province, dondurma may translate as "ice cream," but this frozen Turkish treat isn't like any other gelato, sherbet or ice cream you're likely to find. Dondurma is renowned for its thick, dense and stretchy texture, and instead of licking it from a cone, you eat it on a plate with a knife and fork.

Dessert master Mehmet Vanlı, who runs the shop Hacıhaliloğlu in Bayrampaşa, has been making dondurma for half a century. He learned the trade alongside Osman Kanbur, the eldest brother of the family who runs Mado, Turkey's most iconic dondurma chain, with more than 300 locations throughout the country. (The name Mado is an abbreviated portmanteau of "Maraş" and "dondurma.")

When I arrived at the shop's neon-lit exterior and approached its expansive counter to ask for dondurma, Vanlı brought out two hulking cylindrical slabs the size of my forearm from a box, sliced three hefty pieces with a giantbutcher's knife and topped them with a sprinkle of pistachio dust.

As he offered me a piece, he explained that, traditionally, dondurma's only ingredients are milk (in this case, a blend of goat's, sheep's and cow's milk) salep (orchid bulb flour) and beet sugar.

"If you want the original, you make it with pure goat's milk. For the consistency, we use quality salep from the mountains. It dries out amid the aridness for a year. The single enemy of dondurma is the wind. In the heat of the Sun, dondurma doesn't melt easily, but it does in the wind," Vanlı explained, adding that Maraş' climate, with its hot, dry summers and cold, dry winters provides the optimal conditions for dondurma production.

Even on that muggy Istanbul evening, my plate of dondurma didn't melt quickly. I dove in with a knife and fork, marvelling at how this Turkish ice cream tasted smoother and sweeter than regular ice cream. Refreshing and creamy, dondurma somehow manages to both........

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