All posts filed under: Exploring Turkish Cuisine

Turkish Korean Wedding and Wine

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When your friend is a reputable photographer and you hire him on a friendship base, it’s hard to be demanding. I’d been dying to see the wedding photos because it was such a special event, and it’s been almost one month and they finally came through. Not quite but still good enough to take a glance at what happened. The first time I stood on top of the temple of Athena in Assos three years ago, I said to myself, “I’m going to have my wedding here.” Despite everyone trying to dissuade me from going there early in the morning and getting exhausted under the beating sun, I stood firm and made it happen. It’s about 1.5 hours drive, total 3 hours, from Çanakkale, Mr.O’s hometown, where our wedding took place so they had a reason to object. But I WE DID IT! I did everything from makeup to hair because I didn’t trust Turkish hairdressers after my disastrous last experience. We did a very casual shoot, laughing and giggling – I feel sorry for …

cigar borek

Cigars two ways, savoury and sweet

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Börek is a big part of Turkish cuisine and there is a börek shop(börekçi) at every corner. It is the cheapest way to fill oneself up but bad for the waistline. “If you don’t like pizza, you’re not human. If you don’t like börek, you’re an alien.” I just made that up. Ah, those good old days when I was eating spring rolls and beer, spring rolls for a starter, spinach ricotta filo for lunch…. now that I’m cutting down on carbs, it’s nothing but an occasional treat. However, it is always a crowd-pleasing finger food at parties but the frying part I’m not so keen on. Also, the problem is the dough, and my type of börek isn’t easy to find here among a myriad of börek shops as most of it has too much dough than filling. The closest I’ve found is Çengelkoy Börekçisi, which has generous filling and is not too greasy. One evening Mr.O’s parents came to help me put up wallpaper because Mr.O wiggled out of the job again, saying he …

chocolate raspberry cake

My first book and the kids cake

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Knock, knock… are you still there? It’s been a long break once again. My apologies… You can guess why I’ve been away, right? I got married and left for honeymoon without the ‘honey’. I spent 5 weeks in London for a wine course! Am I crazy? Yes, maybe I am. You need to be crazy in order to follow your heart and dreams, not money and fame. It’s challenging but more rewarding, no doubt. So I left the unpacking the boxes to Mr.O, the now-hubby, after moving to our new love nest, and off I went. I’ll share my experiences and discoveries in London soon. When I came back, I had loads of work to catch up on including the book. In addition, I had to organise the wedding – yes, I got married in May but the actual wedding ceremony was held last week – and also had to spend time with my family, who came earlier to travel around Turkey before the wedding. When my publisher sent me a photo of the book …

Coconut Crumbed Mung Bean Sprout Fritters

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Patience…patience… Life in Turkey is very slow, so slow that waiting is big part of my life. Take a deep breath and let it be, let it go… Boşver… the word Mr.O often throws at me who frets over small things. I’ve been waiting for my knife to be delivered for over 5 months, though I was told 3 months. What kind of knife, you would wonder, right? I ordered a special knife when we had a family trip to Babakale. I’m still waiting, bugging Mr.O’s dad to find out if it’s on its way or it’s still being made. We were told that the knife will be passed on to the family friend who is living there and then she will bringing it to a relative in Çanakkale, and then finally to Istanbul, not by post but in person, who will come to Istanbul, and god knows when it will happen. At the moment, two of my knives, Opinel and Sürmene, and guess who won in the tomato slicing competition, which is the best sharpness …

Best Turkish Olive Oil and Eataly

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Another long-overdue post…. I compared a wide range of Turkish olive oils in this article and promised to write about the olive oil at Eataly (a high-end food Italian market chain, which are currently operating in the US, Japan, Dubai, and Istanbul, and KOREA!) Doesn’t the list say something? Perhaps, only to my sarcastic eye… China will soon follow, I reckon. I’m not a fan of chain stores and didn’t even give this place a second of my thoughts, thinking it as a posh commercial place for well-off-expats and locals. However, having been there on several occasions, it turned out to be quite a good place for foodies. So when I go there, I get three bottles of the BEST olive oil, prosciutto, bread, etc. The only reason I go there – I don’t go to Macro Centre or Namli Gourme because they are a ripoff – is because it actually has high quality products and because of their philosophy of making products using local ingredients. Especially the mozzarella and prosciutto are to die for and …

Smoky Eggplant Mushroom Risotto

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On a rainy evening, what can be better than a bowl of warm risotto? A warm lentil or pumpkin soup for lunch, and a risotto for dinner will set you right even if you’re not big on carbs like myself. The weather and the month December are two good excuses to indulge in dishes you don’t normally eat. And this risotto will be THE ONLY risotto I’ll be making repeatedly from now on, and I actually have made this three times already! Char-grilled eggplant puree, Patlıcan Salatası in Turkish, is my favourite meze and I can eat it every day ONLY IF grilling eggplants over the open fire was a less messy job, though it’s usually one of Mr.O’s jobs in the kitchen. Which version do you like the best? With yogurt, with tahini, or with olive oil, or with a bit of all? Do you have your own secret method of char-grilling eggplants? While I was looking for an idea, I came across two articles on the best way to char-grill eggplants. The first was …