Here is a recipe that is at least four thousand years old. Boil three cups of water in a saucepan and add one cup of bulgur (cracked wheat), a knob of butter and salt. Cook until the water is absorbed. This simple dish is extremely nourishing. It is widely used not only in Turkish Cuisine […]
Tere is one food without which no meal is complete, in Turkey at any rate. That is bread, a food we know so well yet never tire of. It is delicious all by itself when it comes steaming hot and crusty from the oven, and comes in innumerable varieties. We all have our favorites. It […]
Summer is warm in Marrakech, but there are ways to get around the heat – and with most properties in low season, an escapade in style to the city will cost you only a fraction of its usual price. Why don’t you consider La Palmeraie, the massive palm grove just outside the city, as the […]
On my way to the Georgian border at the far eastern end of Turkey to film a documentary, my curiosity was aroused by the sentimental reaction to the name Macahel. I did not meet a single person from the province of Artvin whose eyes did not light up when I informed them that we were […]
A sound echoing in the streets reminds us of cold winter nights in our childhood. With their familiar call of ‘Boza!’ street sellers carrying large metal jugs walk Istanbul’s streets in the evenings, bringing a delicious traditional drink to our doors. Sadly, masters and sellers are becoming rare today. It is a cold drink made […]
Of all Turkey’s delicious sweet confections, the most famous one is baklava. This exquisitely flavored pastry has been made in Anatolia for long centuries, and its ancestor may be a dish made by the Assyrians consisting of dried fruit sandwiched between two layers of pastry and baked in the oven. The earliest record of it as […]
If any aroma were especially associated with the East it would be that of coffee. In coffee a journey westwards over the centuries it has taken many different forms and acquired a unique symbolic role in the etiquette of hospitality. Coffee culture has thus become an inextricable part of social life. The Name Origin of […]
Asure has venerable associations, being ascribed to the times of Noah’s Flood. It is said to have been invented after the Ark rested on Mount Cudi in Southeastern Turkey (according to Islamic tradition) or Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey (Christian tradition). Whichever mountain it was, Noah ordered that all the remaining provisions on the ark […]
When the 17th-century Turkish writer Evliya Celebi, who traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire recording everything he saw, visited Malatya he remarked upon the plentiful water from numerous springs, the good air, and the orchards and vineyards in the green plain, and said that this was a city which aroused the admiration of all those who […]
“Do not dismiss the dish saying that it is just, simply food. The blessed thing is an entire civilization in itself!” Abdulhak Sinasi Turkish Cuisine: Prologue For those who travel engaged in culinary pursuits, Turkish Cuisine is a very, curious one. The variety of dishes that make up the cuisine, the ways they all come […]
