Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

After a turbulent 3 years, fighting for their existence, this Dipkarpaz women's group has at long last been 'allowed' to open their little shop and Café. It is situated on the Eastern edge of the village right beside the road to Apostolos Andreas. (It used to be the DAMLA Restaurant)
It is a lovely elevated spot. There is always a light breeze and you have a view of the sea, Dipkarpaz and the hills. Why not stop to have a snack or a little retail therapy.
The women are always busy producing all sorts of handicraft as well as cooking wonderful food to eat there or to take away. When you plan your next outing to the Karpaz, bring a cool box and take away the most delicious things.
You can watch and learn how to make Mantı (Turkish Ravioli) with a variety of fillings,
Gözleme (round wraps with a filling of your choice
Cigar Börek filled with cheese
Fresh vegetables from the women's garden will also be available as well as freshly made yoghurt.

Open every day from 11.00 to 23.00
Tel 0542 851 02 43
Please support them

A hearty "well done!" for your persistence Ladies.

Excellent!

Another place that I can recommend to people - I'll insist that they ask for you in person, so that I can be sure that you'll send me my commission...

...This is Cyprus, after all...

Wonderful achievement for all the Ladies. It shouldn't have been necessary to have to go through all that though, should it? Hope it s a great success and goes from strength to strength.

Thank you all for your good wishes!!!! Here is Onur playing the Saz for our first evening

Kahve alır mıydınız?

Anyone for Coffee

Enjoy it at the Dipkarpaz ÇATOM Shop and Café

If you find yourselves heading to the Karpaz why not pop in to the ÇATOM KOOP Shop and Café for a drink and buy some lovely home grown organic veggies

Today The ladies are making yufka = filo pastry

and then they used it to make some cigar börek filled with cheese
You can eat them freshly cooked at their Café or buy ready to cook packs of 10 cigar börek TL 7.50
You can also buy packs of 5 sheets of yufka/filo for TL 5
Tel 0542 851 0243 (English speakers always available)

We both visited the cafe when we was in Dipkarpaz this week and had two wonderful sandwiches and two homemade lemonades, so thanks very much for being friendly and welcoming
We also purchased two little gifts and will return when we are next in the area
Ann & Roger

Today we are making jam from big dark plums harvested in our gardens. For sale at:
ÇATOM COOP Shop and Café, DIPKARPAZ Zafer Burnu Road at PROF.DR.NECMETTİN ERBAKAN BULVARINDA.. open 11am to 11pm
Tel. 542 8510243

Yesterday evening we decided to show our French friends the ÇATOM Café. We came prepared with our box of red wine as the Café does not as yet have a license for alcohol (yavaş, yavaş)

After some nice meze, two of us had Mantı with the traditional yoghurt mint dressing and the others had Izmir Köfte. All was followed by very tasty Turkish rice pudding. The restaurant is situated on higher ground and there was always a light breeze, not to mention the sea view before it got dark.

They will cook something to order, if you phone ahead early enough.
Great Evening

Popped in on Tuesday morning, just for a cold drink, but did buy a few items to bring home, the home made limonata was divine.
What lovely ladies they are, and so helpful. There was no one who spoke English when we arrived, which did not really matter, but the next thing, one of their ladies who did speak English turned up, so suspect that she had a telephone call.
Am glad that she did though, as we had a good chat about the project.
We were invited to help with making the stuffed vine leaves, which were being made. Unfortunately, the water was turned off that day, so couldn't wash our hands, and did not want to deprive the ladies of the supply of drinking water that they were using for that purpose. Perhaps it was more that we would have made a disaster of the stuffed vine leaves, which looked absolutely delicious. We were also shown melon skin cooking which was being made into some kind of a sweet, with a full explanation.
The craft work is superb, and very reasonably priced. A couple of crochet items were bought for the ladies, and a cute little donkey for the granddaughter, who later insisted that it would only eat spaghetti bolognese, which just so happens to be her favourite at the moment.
Truly inspired by what the ladies are doing, and wish them all the very best. Will definitely be back.

We had a bit of trouble initially finding the place, as the original post said it was beside the road leading to the monastery. It's actually on the road leading to the monastery, and is a good bit along that road, on the left hand side.

Thanks for this lovely comment!! Sorry about the problem finding it, will address this asap. Will get my husband to make one of his clever maps and post it here.

Thanks Dippersgirl, a map would be very useful for people unfamiliar to the area, and those like me, with poor navigational skills.

In the original post, Damla Restaurant is mentioned as the previous incarnation - in Google maps, I searched 'Damla Restaurant Karpaz' and got this spot is this it? (Zoom in if necessary...)
....If you have a satnav that accepts coordinates, here they are - 35.591307, 34.391224 (depending on satnav, you may need to reverse the order... )

jofra wrote:In the original post, Damla Restaurant is mentioned as the previous incarnation - in Google maps, I searched 'Damla Restaurant Karpaz' and got this spot is this it? (Zoom in if necessary...)

That's exactly it. Unfortunately, never dawned on me to check Damla, so shall go and hide in a corner.
Thank you for posting map location, might save Dippersgirl's other half.

At the same time, at least it is keeping this worthwhile project alive. The lady who spoke English explained that this is the first womans co-op here, and hopes that more will follow. The village women are normally stuck in the home, so this project is a great way for them to meet up for a chat, whilst earning some money for themselves, which they have never had, and also to teach their crafts to others. They come from many different areas originally, so are sharing ideas and crafts. Am sure that Dippersgirl will forgive me for my very rough summary, and hope that she will correct things if I have got it wrong.

..and here's the map... ...and the logo to look out for... ...and in case you're wondering, Çatom is an acronym - 'Çok Amaçlı Toplum Merkezleri' - which means

Multi-Purpose Community Centers

If you have a Mapping App on your 'phone, here are the coordinates: - 35.591231, 34.390729

Thank you so much for this Keith!!!! I have passed it on to the 'Boss'

And here's a different version...

Thank you again Keith!!!!

Went in today 12.15 looking forward to a good lunch but it was closed and looked deserted.

dippersgirl, have just sent you a pm. Hope you get it OK.

thanks Sophie - just replied!

i am very sorry to say, that at the moment the little ÇATOM Café has a big problem. The roof is leaking seriously and they tried to get funds for the repair but after paying for the electrics, water etc. there just wasn't enough left. They had to close the place for the winter, hopefully by spring they will have all sorted. they assured me there would be a notice on the door, maybe it was a bit slow in getting there

Best of luck. Let us know when it's reopened