All posts tagged: Turkish cuisine

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 …

Antakya Food Trip – I love Antakya!

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Here you go the second part of my Antakya food trip, where I got deeper into the town and food, but no luck with museums and churches. We got up the next day to find out that the archeological museum was closed along with all other museums… Yes, usually museums are closed on Mondays in Turkey and I knew that part, however, I was sure that I’d read ‘Closed on Sundays’ on the museum site. Was I dreaming? So disappointed at the finding and so annoyed by the cold weather, I lost my appetite for food. Take a deep breath…..calm down… Only the fact that the museum was under refurbishment in a new location and currently only half of the site is available to the public made me feel a little better. Alright, then, let’s just eat whatever we come across. I definitely needed food to cheer me up. The cheese bread just outside the hotel was so so good, reminding us a bit of Georgian cheese bread. You must try it when you’re in …

kunefe

Antakya(Hatay) Food Trip – Künefe Secret

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I’m writing this while munching on za’atar chips I made using the spices I brought from Antakya in Hatay province in the south of Turkey near the Syrian border. Mr.O and I were not sure where we were going right up to the moment we landed at Hatay airport, me going “I wanted to go to Antakya, not Hatay, because there’s no food except Kunefe in Hatay!” and Mr.O going “You booked the ticket, not me, well, we are here now, so….” We totally sound like two naive tourists, don’t we? In our defense, the name of the city is quite confusing as is the history of this city, which is better known as ‘Antioch‘ by many, especially Christian pilgrims. There is even a Korean protestant church there, which was founded in 2000, and Mr.O said, “Let’s visit and say hi to practice my Korean!”, but we didn’t go. All I want was food. I couldn’t shake off the guilt for having convinced Mr.O to come with me by saying that the weather forecast said …

Meze and Raki – Turkish Flavours

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This post was meant to be posted 3 weeks ago but I got caught in work as usual… Having a personal blog, not for business or professional purpose, gives me the liberty of writing whatever and whenever I write and honestly, but I also have a silent wish that my blog can reach more audience. It was so timely that I ran into the wonderful and soothing article, ‘Maintaining a long-term blog‘ on 101 Cookbooks, which is one of my favourites. You might have already read it, if you’re following her blog. The author’s been blogging for 12 years and is still as consistent and committed as day one. While reading the article, I felt the heat rising in the cheeks, mostly probably out of shame for being so inconsistent with my blog. My blog will be celebrating its 2nd birthday in 2 weeks; I messed up my blog once by changing the domain name and I hope it doesn’t affect its birthday. While checking the first entry, I noticed some posts had been left …

Gastronomy of Kars came to Istanbul

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Wow, what an excitement it was to have found the gastronomic event at SALT Beyoğlu just in time! I’d been planning to visit Kars, the city that is unknown to many Turks. I was first interested in this place solely because of the Kars eski kasar cheese, which I felt in love with. Later while doing a bit of research on other culinary aspects of Kars, I learned that the city is also very famous for geese, or kaz as called locally. I’ve come across so many interesting historical facts, websites, and blogs, one of which is Eating Asia. Reading the articles about their gastronomic adventures in Kars, I was getting giddy and impatient. I exchanged a few emails with the photographer and journalist, who very kindly gave me useful tips for my future trip. As I was getting only a shrug and a dubious look, I was almost giving up the complicated journey to get there. However, “Following my passions will always get me to the places you want to be.” the encouraging words …

Zucchini series #3 – Candy Festival and Buckwheat Zucchini Fritters

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How lucky am I to have all the lovely people around who make a little mouse “me” – feel cared for and happy. On the day of Candy Feast or Şeker Bayram in Turkish, this holy gracious amaretto liqueur was served to us by Mr.O’s parents, along with the best almonds and almond paste. Surprised by this unexpected treat, I bugged Mr.O again with questions related to this Turkish amaretto. Perhaps, the reason Mr.O is losing weight despite all the food he eats with me is to be interrogated about food and food history. Anyway, what a treat it was! This is  one of the reason I love Mr.O’s dad so much; he reads my culinary mind perfectly. And we left with more zucchini….and you know what will happen, right? This series will never have an ending. Kids, whether they are 10 year olds or 30 year olds, are equally treated with sweet things during this festival. After a lovely meal, we made a visit to the oldest in the family, Mr.O’s aunt. We tend …