Hi, I’m Namie!

Welcome to my blog where I keep my sanity by rambling about food and life.

My passion for cooking and wine started while living in Sydney through my 20s and early 30s. I abandoned cooking from cookbooks and left for France to find the origins of everything I had loved, especially cheese and wine.
Refusing to take the ordinary path of going to a cooking school, I threw all my savings into travelling, eating and drinking around Europe, which led me to rocky roads with twists and turns at time, but it eventually helped me find a new home in Constantinople, where the East and the West meet. Sounds cliché? Oh, well…

Why “Eat with Me”?

“She was born in Korea, raised in Australia, trained to be a sommelier in France and the UK, and now lives in Istanbul. She’s a true melting pot of flavors from around the world. And her food is brilliant.”

Cooking is a great way of exploring the local culture and flavours. I enjoy the process of creating new recipes and throwing pop-up dinners, where I get to meet new people and share each other’s stories. The chatters and laughters around the table keep me happy and alive. 

I hear incessant voices talking recipes day in, day out, even in my sleep, so I need to put them into products. I blame my Chef mum for that and, believer or not, the place I feel the most stress-free and calm is in the kitchen.

My “Foodosophy”?

I cook Fresh / Seasonal / Simple / Natural / Healthy / Creative and try to be environmentally friendly by minimising food waste.  There are no canned, processed, MSG food in my pantry. I often make things from scratch and revive forgotten food, which forms an important part of our culinary history.

Most importantly, I enjoy all this delicious food with good wine! I’ve been a long believer of wine diet and my husband is the living proof – he lost 20kg from drinking wine with dinner!

On this blog, I’ll share my culinary adventures and I hope you enjoy my stories and recipes. If you have any suggestions or ideas to share, please drop me a message by using the form below or email me at ewmistanbul@gmail.com

Thank you for stopping by!

Namie