"The Way to the Heart is Through The Stomach". Culinary Practices in Contemporary Turkey

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”The Way to the Heart is Through The Stomach”.

Culinary Practices in Contemporary Turkey

Marie Hélène Sauner Leroy

To cite this version:

Marie Hélène Sauner Leroy. ”The Way to the Heart is Through The Stomach”. Culinary Practices in

Contemporary Turkey. Arif Bilgin; Ozge Samanci. Turkish Cuisine, Ministry of Culture and Tourism

- Republic of Turkey, pp.261-279, 2008, 9789751733771. �hal-02458643�

261

“The way to the heart is through the stomach”

Culinary Practices in Contemporary Turkey ^*

Marie-Hélène Sauner

My Mother’s Food, Near the Oven, Taste of Istanbul, Ottoman Cuisine, Flavours of Istanbul, Food and Culture, Be Zen in the Kitchen, Cookbook, Savoury Places, May Your Table Be Cheerful, The Table ..e.g…So many titles which whet the appetite and offer cookery either in its general form or more specifically: a reference to the past, Ottoman or family style, regional specialities, minority cuisines (Greek, Armenian, Jewish), but also volumes of quick, economical, diet, party, Italian, Chinese, Japanese or Russian recipes. In Turkey at the moment you can find an impressive number of publications about cuisine, equally on internet sites and blogs, but it is an extremely recent phenomenon. This subject has only become fashionable in the last twenty years, since the end of the 1980s, along with the growth of tourism, mass media, and the market economy, but also with important social and cultural changes, such as the greater participation of women in the work place, or the redefinition of national identity. All these culinary publications are of uneven quality because of the lack of scientific studies of the subject, this fashion phenomenon itself and its economic

* This paper was written using the references below: Marie Hélène Sauner- Nebioğlu, Evolution des pratiques alimentaires en Turquie: analyse comparative, Berlin:

Klaus Schwartz Verlag, 1995 and from the same author: “Turquia”, in Atlante dell’alimentazione e della gastronomia, (Eds) F. Saban &M. Montanari, Torino:, UTET, 2004, II. Volume, pp. 751-765.

** Assoc. Prof., Galatasaray University.

impact. We are meeting the challenge here to present the main characteristic culinary tendencies in Turkey, while trying to take into consideration the principal evolution and changes it underwent at the turn of the century.

With a land mass of 780,000 square metres, Turkey is one and half times the size of France. On the borders of two continents, Europe and Asia, it is at the crossroads of several civilisations. The Black Sea, to the north, makes a natural border with the Slavonic world; the mountainous region to the South links it with the Caucasian world of the South, Iran to the North and Arabia to the South.

Finally the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas which border the country to the South and West, integrate the country with the Mediterranean world.

The countryside and climate also offer major contrasts, from coastal plains to high or medium mountain peaks, a dry central steppe, and varied forestry. The climate is damp to the north and west but dry in the South east;

winters are long and hard in the mountainous East but are mild near the west Aegean or Mediterranean coasts.

These characteristics make Turkey self- sufficient in food production and for certain products (like hazelnuts and dried fruit) amongst the main global producers. The existence of micro climates has encouraged certain crops, such as tea at the northern oriental extremity near

Döner

D. The Present Day Turkish Kitchen

the Georgian border, or the roses of Isparta (South West).

The flora and fauna is very rich, providing a vast choice of wild plants, with more than 10, 000 species, of which 3000 are endemic.

To this important climatic diversity, both ecological and geographic, must be added the legacy of history.

Anatolia has not always been part of Turkey, witnessing Mesopotamian, Hittite, Greek, Roman and Byzantine civilisations and also possessing its own native population, to which was added the Jews from Spain in the 15

century and the Caucasians in the 19

century. Extending as far as the frontiers of present day Mongolia, the Turks brought an Asiatic and nomadic touch to the Anatolian substrata. From the 11

century, principalities were founded in Anatolia, the most important of which made up the centre of the Ottoman Empire, which spread over several centuries from the Balkans to North Africa.

It is the palace of Istanbul where products from the four corners of the empire came together to develop the complex and refined cuisine, which served as a model to the Ottoman elite. In republican Turkey, founded on the remains of this empire, this culinary tradition has continued in part in the large urban centres and especially in Istanbul. The cuisine of Istanbul continues to serve as the urban model par excellence.

The population of Turkey today is approximately 70

million which, like a mosaic, represents a great cultural wealth drawing on diverse ethnic traditions and particular ways of life (nomads, farmers, sedentary). The population is more than 95 per cent Muslim.

The different regions which make up Anatolia each offer their culinary individuality linked to their ecological heritage and the various influences these receive or have received in the past. Istanbul and the province of Marmara make for a very varied and rich diet. Bursa is known for its fruit and vegetables; the region of Istanbul for its meat based dishes, notably meat balls of Inegöl and, Tekirdag, and remains the gastronomic capital of the country, home of the remains of the Ottoman culinary tradition, which is perpetuated sometimes well, sometimes badly, in certain private homes. This tradition includes cosmopolitan influences from the Christian population and Jews who lived in the capital, and from other 19

century European countries. There are an impressive number of restaurants, taverns and snack bars. Previously, the divisions in dining were quite clear.

Some restaurants existed which offered dishes close to those of old Istanbul families; a choice of stews or braised dishes (tencere yemeği), dishes based on olive oil (zeytinyağlı) and desserts, but there were also taverns (meyhane) where you could drink rakı or possibly wine, accompanied by an assortment of meze and fish dishes, frequented principally by men, often where previously minority groups lived.

Tarhana Soup

Tarhana soup in a village of Denizli province in 1991 (Photograph: M. H.

Sauner).

There were also little snack bars near the working areas, sweet sellers where you could also taste a döner or a chicken, and travelling street vendors such as sellers of pilaf with chickpeas or dried beans. The family style dishes were varied, fruit and vegetables used according to the season, shops were specialised such as the butcher, grocer, greengrocer, pickles seller, seller of savoury pastry (börek), and seller of offal, while other products were sold from travelling stalls such as sellers of yogurt, oil, fish, fruit, vegetables, boza, pickles, sahlep, and stuffed mussels. The choice of meat was more limited (mainly mutton) and animal fat (sheep’s tail), but the existence of vegetable gardens allowed access to vegetables and special herbs (mallow); lastly, the culinary techniques employed took time and attention.

Evening meals were generally taken at home; the frequenting of restaurants was not common. The profile of the restaurant, as a social meeting place, has changed dramatically in these last decades, to take on a more cosmopolitan character.

If certain traditional places of restoration are still present such as pudding sellers, travelling vendors, and cook shops in certain areas, others have developed, such as

“fast food” places and restaurants offering Ottoman or Anatolian cuisine. Nowadays Istanbul is also packed with foreign restaurants (Japanese, Italian, and French etc), vegetarian cuisine and even the new “fusion”

cookery. The number of commercial shopping centres which have opened in the cultural capital, offering all the big national and international names in industrial food preparation, are themselves bringing about changes in eating habits. Another notable development is the progressive disappearance of single sex male meeting places and the generalisation of mixed sex activity, be it in the numerous bars, cafés and restaurants, the pubs, taverns (meyhane), or simple cafes, patisseries and self- service restaurants. Istanbul remains the barometer of social and cultural fashions for the whole country.

Further south in the Aegean region, you find a more specifically Mediterranean diet, with a large part given over to fruit and vegetables, with little meat, and fish mostly eaten on the coast. The use of olive oil is widespread. Goats’ milk is enjoyed but also the meat of the goat, eaten in the spring. The diet of the region to the east of the Mediterranean is similar, with a large consumption of fish on the coast. In this tourist region, Antalya is an important centre, but tries despite this to preserve its culinary identity (citrus fruit, jam, piyaz

).

These areas, to which you can add South East Anatolia,

1 Sezer Sennur, “İstanbul’un unutulan lezzetleri”, Yemek ve Kültür, No. 4, Istanbul, 2006, pp. 14-21.

2 Dried bean salad served with a tahini sauce.

are mountainous regions influenced by the original nomadic population who show a special predilection for dairy produce and cereals. In a certain number of cases they have preserved the habit of seasonal migration to the mountain pastures in summer to escape the heat.

They still make food preparations for the winter (like vermicelli, tarhana, bulgur, pickles, dried fruit, and jam), though these preparations have decreased, compared to the past.

Near the frontier with the Arab world, and notably in the culinary centre of Alep, the south east of Anatolia is renowned for its meat dishes; its kebabs, its pizzas (lahmacun), its raw meat balls (çiğ köfte) and all sorts of stuffed meat balls (kübbi, içli köfte). Gaziantep and Antakya are considered important culinary centres, offering refined cuisine. The ingredients used to make the kebab vary according to the season, and each town – Antakya, Adana, Tarsus, Mersin, Gaziantep, Kilis, Urfa, or Birecik – offers its own variants (chillies or not, vegetables or not, with bulgur, or yoghurt), which all goes to make this a dish of considerable variety

. Generally speaking, the dishes are spicy and fatty; Olive oil is not used and tomatoes and aubergines were until recently preponderant. Cereal and vegetables occupy an important place alongside bulgur, firik (green wheat) and lentils. Another peculiarity is the presence of certain fruits such as cherries or Japanese plums (yenidünya) in dishes, which is not common in Turkey in general. The most sought after tastes are spicy hot, sour and sweet

– the baklavas of Gaziantep are famous.

The centre -region of the dry steppes and the wheat basket of Anatolia- offers a diet based principally on cereal enriched with vegetables and pulses. The dried fruit, like apricots, raisins, molasses of grape, poppy seeds and sesame seeds ground into a paste, are all used to enrich the diet. The region, and notably Kayseri, is also known for its cured and dried meat prepared as a spicy sausage (sucuk) or a kind of pastrami (pastırma). The stewed dishes in earthenware jars are also famous (testi kebabı). Konya makes a refined culinary centre, and the characteristic features of eating in the capital Ankara, influenced by those of the nomads (wheat, fat and meat), also have much in common with the food in Istanbul, except of course for the seafood.

The east of Anatolia has an extremely harsh climate with long and very cold winters. Food here is traditionally based on dairy produce, animal fat, and meat but supported by grown produce. You eat considerably less spicily than in

3 Dağdeviren Musa, ‘Kebapçı’, Yemek ve Kültür, No. 2, 2005, pp.147-155.

4 I would like to thank Musa Dağdeviren for this detail.

the South East and energy giving preparations are very popular. Fatter dough, dairy produce such as fresh butter, clotted cream (kaymak), yoghurt; honey, murtuğa (made of eggs, flour and butter ), kavut (flour cooked in clarified butter), cacık (thick yoghurt mixed with wild herbs); all these ingredients and preparations give a special flavour to breakfasts in the Van region. A kind of very salty herb cheese (Van otlu peyniri) made with onions, wild mint or sage is equally a much sought-after local speciality.

The province of the Black Sea which was previously very poor has, since the 1960s, discovered a certain prosperity through the increase of tea growing (near Rize). This region’s food shows some differences from the other parts of the country. Corn, introduced in the 19

century by Caucasian refugees, was until recently the main crop.

Corn bread (mısır ekmeği), a special kind of cabbage like collards (karalahana), anchovies and dry beans are also very much appreciated. The area shows associations of taste not found in other parts of Anatolia, such as that for sugar and pepper or even eating of hot pickles. Very little hot spice is used in this region where gruel and cheesy polenta (kuymak) were once common dishes.

Generally speaking, you can say that the change in eating habits reflects the opening up of the country, and its growing industrialisation. Eating habits have undergone a certain number of changes since the 1960s. The development of transport and the increasing importance of the urban model has led to the arrival of fruit and fresh vegetables in regions which previously did not eat them. Generally speaking these changes have introduced a greater diversity in the diet which

Stuffed meat balls

İçli köfte (R&B Et Lokantaları, 2008).

“Susam sürtmesi”

In 1990, in a village at Denizli, preparation of sesame paste (Photo: M. H.

Sauner).

was previously based on local products and linked very strongly to family economics. Vegetable oil (sunflower or maize oil) or margarine have almost entirely replaced traditional tail fat and butter, while the habit of drinking tea all day long has become established over the last forty years. Changes in eating habits have always existed, but the passing of the 1980s was decisive, in this area as in others. It corresponds notably with a big opening towards the exterior, the generalisation of the market economy, the concrete implications of massive urban migration, the participation of women in the business sector and the large-scale development of the media.

The urban population which now represents 70 per cent of the population, buy the basic ingredients which would previously have been home made. On the other hand, regional cuisine has gradually integrated the variety of ingredients available in the city. Numerous dishes prepared in Anatolia were little known in Istanbul until recently. Little by little these dishes began to appear on menus, either through meetings of women who exchanged recipes, or through restaurants, travelling food stalls, greengrocers or supermarkets. Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir have thus discovered first the pide or dishes based on anchovies from the Black Sea: then a certain variety of kebab or the lahmacun from the South East: and

much more recently the herb cheeses from East Anatolia, the various fine sheets of dough stuffed with cheese or spinach from rural Anatolia (gözleme), made before the eyes of the customer, and even wrappings (dürüm).

Locally however, certain varieties of fruit or vegetables disappear because they cannot be commercialised. The development of monocultures (tea, hazelnuts, cotton) has sometimes reduced the local production of other products.

“Kavut” and

“murtuğa”

Kavut and murtuğa at the breakfast table, Van, 2008 (Photo: M. H.

Sauner).

“Karalahana çorbası”

Preparation of black cabbage soup in Akçakoca, 1991 (Photograph: M. H.

Sauner).

In Anatolia the urban influence has brought about certain modifications. The small towns had practically no restaurants before the 1960s - electric ovens and fridges have slowly invaded the countryside. Cooking techniques have also undergone changes due to the use of electric cookers, while metal saucepans and pressure cookers have come into general use. The effects of the economic crisis have nonetheless caused the low consumption of meat to continue. Together these phenomena have created a cultural cross fertilisation. However the opposition between an urban diet and a rural one continues to represent an important factor of social difference. The urban centres continue to attract rural populations affected by the economic crisis. Even though emigrants preserve their main food habits in their new home, they also quickly adopt some aspects of urban food culture.

If previously the marriage feast was a prestigious event, nowadays marriages are often held in towns celebrated in a hall with light refreshments, owing to the cost of renting the hall which prohibits any further expense.

Added to which the development of supermarkets, the growth in the number of years spent in education, and the impact of the media, including the internet, all lead to a cultural cross fertilisation, which will no doubt have an impact on daily eating habits. The time given over to

the preparing of dishes or meals at home has noticeably diminished, the consumption of food eaten out has risen and food eaten on the move, fast food, is an important element in the eating habits of the young (15-29), even in the provinces

.

It is difficult to understand the details of this evolution, but the existence of several parallel movements can be noted, spreading from the middle class or well- off intellectuals who, to a certain extent, conform to the cultural globalization. As we know, one of the consequences of this globalization process can be the appearance of “local” movements, whose very definition is often idealized

. In the Turkish context, this definition is not so clear and the fact that qualitative descriptions like

“Ottoman”, “Turkish”, “minority” or even “traditional”

create lively debates make its own point. For example, the important development of interior tourism has multiplied internal exchanges, but also created a local demand for heritage, which aims to rediscover a taste for the authentic, and home-grown produce. Other tendencies like eating healthy organic produce, the

5 Bilgi Bankası – Trend Analizi, SMG Turkey Insighter Volume 2: Türk İnsanı- nın “Yemek Yeme” alışkanlığı , 12.09.2007, http://www.marketingturkiye.com/

BilgiBankasi/Detay/?no=458.

6 A. Appadurai 2001, Après le colonialisme, Payot, Paris. Poulain Jean-Pierre, Sociologies de l’alimentation, PUF, Paris, 2005 (2002).

Bazaar

Bazaar in Safranbolu province, in 2008 (Photo: M.

H. Sauner).

fashion for slimming or even health scares are some of preoccupations which have appeared recently.

Main Ingredients and Preparations

Cereals, dairy produce and vegetables constitute the structural elements of eating in Turkey. Cereals make up the base of eating in Turkey, essentially in the form of bulgur but also as pasta. From this point of view, cooking in Turkey is similar to what you would find in Italy: we are here in the kingdom of pasta in all its forms. Dairy produce represents a daily supplement and is plentiful and readily available, as are vegetables, eaten across the entire country (previously used as a useful filler between seasons), prepared differently according to each region. Meat remains expensive and is a luxury item - its consumption has even diminished in the last few years.

Cereals

Though barley or rye could be eaten regularly until recent times, now only wheat, corn and rice are included in the human diet.. Split wheat is well known, but it is cake-making, and the working of the dough, which is justifiably famous here.

Wheat as the main cereal

Omnipresent wheat is the staple food across the territory, except in the region of the Black Sea. It can be eaten whole for specific occasions but it is principally used in its form of split wheat, or bulgur. Undervalued until recently as being a typically rural ingredient by the city dwellers, the ecological movement of dietary heritage has recently given bulgur its high status amongst intellectuals.

The preparation of bulgur takes place in the autumn, in nearly all the rural regions of Anatolia. The wheat is precooked and split by the mill. Several different sizes of ground wheat are thus obtained; coarse (baş), medium (orta) or fine (ince). The fine grind under the mill stone is near to flour (kavut). Medium ground or coarse ground is used to make pilaf or stuffing: the fine ground (ince bulgur) is used in the taboulé (kısır), stuffed meat balls or in soup.

Wheat which is not precooked and crushed in the mill is called göce or yarma and is often added to soups. Flour is used in soups, some types of dessert like halva and of course dough.

The importance of the working dough is shown by the fact that a specific category of dishes is given over to it:

dishes based on dough (hamurlular). There are three types;

water based without yeast; with eggs and sometimes milk;

and with yeast.

-The leaves of pastry (yufka) made of flour water and salt are cooked on an iron plaque and often kept for

several months. Moistened before use, they are a staple in Anatolia similar to bread, and present in all meals. These leaves can be used to make puff pastry dishes either savoury or sweet: buttered (katmer), or stuffed (börek with spinach, meat or cheese), with raw vegetables, fried, or for simple wrappings (dürüm).

- Pasta (erişte, yayım) is made with the dough made from eggs. Prepared in the autumn, it is cut then dried and can be kept for several months. Eaten most often boiled and salted at the end of the meal, it is also added to soup (tutmaç, arabaşı). This pasta can be used to make a sort of cheese lasagne (su böreği), or cut into squares it is also used to make ravioli (mantı), stuffed with meat, boiled then served in a sauce of butter paprika and garlicky yoghurt and eaten cold. This egg dough stuffed with hazelnuts, walnuts or pistachio nuts and bathed in sugar syrup allows you to make baklava. Finally, it can be rolled into little round balls of pasta called kuskus and vermicelli, and eaten like pasta or in certain soups, or to decorate a rice pilaf.

Different types of bread can be made with yeast dough;

the ordinary town bread (somun ekmek) sold even in the villages by mobile vendors; the pide sometimes stuffed

Yufka

Yufka preparation for Ramadan, Akçakoca, 1992 (Photo: M. H.

Sauner).

with cheese, eggs or meat and previously only eaten in Ramadan as flat bread, and the lavaş, or bread cooked on the edge of the oven tandır). Finally there exist a large number of risen bread dough products of the viennoiserie style, savoury or sweet, stuffed or not. The most popular are the çörek, a sort of brioche, the poğaça, a little bread roll, or the simit, a ring of bread decorated with sesame seeds. Flour also comes into the preparation of soups, for example the soup tarhana, a spicy mixture of yoghurt, flour, tomatoes, and sometimes peppers; this mixture is kneaded then left to ferment for several days, before being dried and ground, to be kept for winter.

When it needs to be used, you only have to add water to obtain a thick soup.

Corn

Even though corn flour is sometimes mixed with wheat for making certain breads in Anatolia, it is principally used in the Black Sea region. Harvested in September/

October it is either ground to flour or crushed. Being very crumbly, the bread made with corn flour and warm water was cooked daily in bygone times and it continues to accompany the traditional dish of cabbage. Corn flour is also used in the making of all sorts of milk or water based gruels, both sweet and savoury and in fried food (fried anchovies). Lastly, crushed corn is also added to certain vegetable soups, very much enjoyed in the region.

Rice

Rice is without contest the noble cereal of Turkey. If bulgur is an ingredient which typifies the country, the use of rice has on the contrary become widespread generally, even if it remains most popular in the towns. Usually eaten as a pilaf, it is also used in stuffing for vegetables or sweet desserts. The rice pilaf can be decorated with little pasta balls or prepared with tomatoes, or more rarely, stuffed with baby raisins, tiny pieces of liver and pistachio nuts (içli pilaf). Rice flour is used in the making of certain milky desserts, like muhallebi.

Milk and dairy produce

Turkey is the country of processed milk. Dairy produce complements cereals and is universal as much in the town as in the country, from breakfast to evening meal.

From region to region different milks are used, but goat’s milk is rarer as it is only produced in small quantities

. The most often-used milks are those of the ewe and the cow, while that of the buffalo has almost disappeared.

Otherwise, industrialisation of the market economy has had a large impact on this type of product where traditional local production has seriously diminished

. Butter used to be made in the villages but is now produced industrially and largely replaced by margarine or vegetable oil. Skimmed from the surface of freshly boiled buffalo’s milk, cream (kaymak) is eaten at breakfast with honey or added to pastry.

Yoghurt

The eating of yoghurt is widespread. Whole milk, previously boiled, is cut with a lactic fermentation (a little bit of old yoghurt) then left to ferment. Eaten as it is or strained (süzme, tutma), it can be thinned again or made thicker. Yoghurt is not eaten sweetened (despite the famous Kanlıca in Istanbul); its bitter taste is appreciated.

It can be added to soups (yayla çorbası), or poured cold on certain dishes (Iskender kebabı, stuffed vegetables, and ravioli) or as meze with vegetables: purslane. Diluted with water and salt, it makes a very popular refreshing drink, the ayran.

Cheese

Cheeses are enjoyed at breakfast, not during a meal, unless added to a specific dish or as part of meze.

Manufactured cheese is made with cow’s milk or ewe’s milk or a mix of the two. The fermentation methods used are currently industrial, while in the past it was rennet or a vegetable fermentation.

7 Only 5% of cheese is made from goat’s milk, Artun Unsal, Süt Uyuyunca, Türkiye Peynirleri. Istanbul: YKY, 2000, p. 41.

8 Notably in the region of Konya, Halıcı Nevin, Konya’da Kışlık Yiyecekler Üzerine bir Arastırma, Konya: Güray Ofsef Matbaacilik, 2000: 72.

Phyllo making

Preparation of phyllo bread, Denizli, 1992 (Photograph: M. H.

Sauner)

In everyday use the most well known cheese is feta cheese (beyaz peynir). Traditionally it was prepared with unpasteurised milk, but nowadays it is made with pasteurised milk, fermented and then drained. Eaten cold or preserved in brine, it is sold in blocks. From the boiling liquid obtained during the pressing of this cheese, we get fromage frais, lor. Çökelek cheese is obtained from buttermilk, boiled then reduced or even from drained yoghurt and salted. In certain regions this type of cheese is called minci or kesik. When dried (kurut or keş) it becomes particularly hard and is eaten grated. Cheese conserved in the hide of a goat or ewe is popular (tulum peyniri), notably in central Anatolia, made in the mountains from goats milk or ewe’s, skimmed or whole. This is then salted and placed in the skin, which gives it a characteristic and sought-after taste.

In the east of Turkey, sometimes wild plants, which have been previously salted (otlu peynir), are added to the fermentation. In Cappadocia, the fromage frais is boiled at 50-60 degrees then crumbled and salted. It is then preserved in terracotta jars hermetically sealed and kept in the cold, or buried for three or four months. Made in Thrace or the region of Kars, kaşar, a hard cheese is very much enjoyed, mild or strong according to its maturity. Mihaliç, a salted hard cheese made from ewe’s

milk is said to have been brought to Anatolia by Albanian immigrants. Since the beginning of the 20

century you can also find in Kars a gruyere close to Swiss gruyere (gravyer peyniri). The Caucasian refugees seem to have introduced cow’s milk cheese, lightly salted (çerkes, abaza peyniri) or dil peyniri, which has an individual texture as it melts in strings. This type of cheese also exists in Kars, under the name of çeçil.

The milk-based desserts

While dishes made from a base of yoghurt are bitter, everything which is made from milk is sweet and sugary.

This is the case for milk desserts, a category which includes rice with milk (sütlaç, sütlü), muhallebi, a milk cream thickened with flour and perfumed with rose water, and keşkül (cream milk perfumed with almonds).

Güllaç (starch wafers soaked in milk with nuts and perfumed with rose water) is eaten in the towns only during Ramadan.

Vegetables

Vegetables make an important addition to both urban and rural diets. Vegetables and fruit are eaten fresh, but also undergo processes in order to be preserved, the most usual of which is drying. Wild plants and legumes are prevalent. Garlic, onions and leeks are endemic to Anatolia; the aubergine remains a favourite, along

Baklava dough

Preparation of baklava, Akçakoca, 1991 (Photograph:

M. H. Sauner).

with legumes (red lentils or chick peas). The potato, the tomato, corn, green beans, green peppers and courgettes were only introduced during the 18

century. In east and central Anatolia where their presence is more recent (after 1970), green vegetables formed a social distinction because they had to be bought. Fruit on the other hand has always been freely available.

Wild plants

Anatolia possesses a prolific number of wild plants. Little known but nonetheless present, these plants, which differ by region, make a real contribution in lean times. The most often used are the white nettle (ısırgan otu), sorrel (efelik, kuzukulağı), mallow (ebegümeci), dill (dere otu), borage (hodan), knotweed (madımak), and chicory (radika, hindiba).

The terms “grass” (ot); greens (yeşillik) or forage (yemlik), indicate “everything which grows on its own”. The use of wild plants is common in all regions, but the techniques of preparation vary; whether boiled then cooled or fried (on their own or with eggs). They are dried or preserved in brine (kazayağı turşusu), and also integrated into meals in various forms: in soups (nettles, dill, dried mint, parsley) or the preparation of tarhana which they flavour;

in cheese in the east (Siirt, Van, Kars): black cumin, mint, thyme, or wild garlic; in gruel and consommés, with olive oil in a salad, or with a rice pilaf or bulgur; by sautéing in oil (ot kavurması) and their leaves (e.g sorrel) being used for stuffing; some of them, like spinach, make up the stuffing for certain puff pastry savouries.

Rather indistinctly described as “mantar”, mushrooms are eaten locally, but in limited quantities because of a fear of being poisoned. They are grilled and eaten in sandwiches or with rice pilaf or bulgur. With the appearance of cultivated mushrooms, these have recently been integrated into urban dishes.

Vegetables and legumes

Vegetables are never simply boiled or offered as a garnish. They take an important place in Turkish cuisine and meals are often conceived around the vegetable rather than the meat. So stews are called “vegetables with meat”: beans, peas, or okra with meat. In the mountain regions, their importance is less.

The stuffed vegetables (dolma, sarma) are prepared with aubergines, courgettes, a special kind of cabbage like collards (karalahana) or vine leaves. The urban version is made with minced meat and rice, but in the country, a stuffing made with onions, tomatoes and bulgur can be completely sufficient. The mixture of vegetables can be cooked in an earthenware dish (güveç). Aubergines, courgettes, peppers and potatoes are also fried, and eaten

with a yoghurt and garlic sauce. Legumes are used in soups, meat dishes (chick peas with meat), but most often they make a nutritious support when associated with a rice pilaf, bulgur, or savoury pastry. In the East, Green lentils can be mixed with bulgur in stuffed vegetables.

Aubergines, tomatoes and green peppers can also be grilled. From the grilled aubergines one can make purée or salad (patlıcan salatası, beğendi, alinazik).

To the west and in urban centres, dishes “with olive oil”

(zeytinyağlılar) are very much enjoyed. Stuffed vegetables with rice, pine kernels, and dill cooked in olive oil are normally eaten cold. For preservation, most vegetables are dried (kurutma) in the autumn. Tomatoes and peppers are generally the subject of a special preparation, the concentrated paste, salça, which is a basic ingredient when fried with onions. The making of preserved vegetables soaked in brine or vinegar, the turşu, is common. It is made with a great number of vegetables (green tomatoes, beans, aubergines, peppers, carrots, turnips, wild plants).

These pickles are placed on the tables as condiments in winter; everyone can serve themselves during the meal.

In summer, they are replaced by raw vegetables. A lot of purslane, rocket, or cos lettuce is eaten as salad.

Fruits

Anatolia is filled with fruit, all the year round in all regions;

fresh or juiced in season, and in other forms in winter.

There are apples, pears, figs, plums, grapes, apricots, melons, water melons, peaches, cherries, morello cherries, strawberries, cornouilles, quinces, pomegranates, oranges, almonds, and diospiros kakis (Trabzon hurması), etc. They are most often dried but, in the region of production, apples, figs, plums, persimmons, grapes, blackberries can also be made into a rob (pekmez). Preserved grape jelly (üzüm pekmezi) is made in most regions and was used as a sweetener before the arrival of sugar, as was the rape.

This is also used to make a nut cake (tatlı sucuk). There exists a lightly fermented drink made of grape rape and mustard (hardaliye). Pestil (or bastık) is obtained by adding starch to the preserved grape jelly to make a dry paste.

Jam making is common. Also eaten is a sweet dish of quinces or pears in syrup (ayva, armut tatlısı) with added cream (kaymak).

Dried fruit is eaten as an aperitif, sometimes salted or at the end of the meal as a fruit in syrup (hoşaf-komposto) accompanied by bulgur pilaf or pasta.

Plums, quinces, apples, or dried apricots are used locally

to bring a touch of acidity to meat dishes (Sinop, Nevşehir,

Bursa, Tekirdağ, Erzincan, Tunceli). In the south east of

Anatolia, dishes may be made with the tastiest fruits

like cherries, Japanese medlar, or figs

, notably kebabs.

Pomegranate juice is also used in this region, added to dishes and salads. Chestnuts and walnuts in winter can also enhance menus.

Meat, eggs, fish

Meat remains a luxury item, even though it is currently eaten more often in the towns. On average and for all of Turkey, its annual consumption went from 10 kilos per habitant in 1980 to 19.5 kilos in 1995. Nonetheless the economic crisis, the rising price, and also the fear of some foods made this figure fall again to 10.1 kilos in 2005, losing its place to poultry which is less expensive, and whose consumption in the same period went from 2.7 kilos to 8.5 kilos

. However, this is just an average figure; these figures can be doubled or tripled in an urban context. Meat is eaten everywhere at least once a year for the Sacrifice Festival (Kurban bayramı). Similarly, it is on the menu for collective parties and family celebrations (marriage, circumcision). The meat eaten is primarily mutton, lamb, beef, veal, goat, and poultry. Game (feathered or otherwise) is an additional source of food in the country but is not sought out in the towns.

9 I thank Musa Dağdeviren for this detail.

10 Radikal Journal , 22 June 2008.

Red meat is prepared in quite a limited number of ways:

whole, in pieces (kebap, kuşbaşı) or as minced meat (kıyma), each of these giving the possibility for infinite variations.

The variants for Kebabs are innumerable. This term refers principally to pieces of meat (possibly minced) cooked without water. In stews (yahni) the meat is cut into pieces but cooked with water or fat. Grilled meat (mangal) forms part of a hobby or relaxation for men, either in their own home at the weekend or in green spaces at frequent picnics. Minced, the meat is prepared as balls, more or less spicy (köfte) or is used as a stuffing for dolma, to strengthen a vegetable dish, or add to a spicy pizza (lahmacun).

Offal was very much appreciated in the past; there were restaurants which specialised in its preparation (Albanian style liver, kelle, paça, beyin tava). They are much less common than previously. The trotters and the head meat (kelle, paça) are boiled with a vinegar sauce in the towns; these dishes as well as the marrow bones are eaten in the family setting. Only tripe (işkembe) prepared as a soup (işkembe çorbası) or grilled on skewers (kokoreç) is still popular: Tripe soup is eaten after an evening of heavy drinking.

On the day of the sacrifice of the animal, the offal is grilled or roasted on skewers. The animal is sometimes

“Karalahana dolması”

Preparation of stuffed black cabbage in a village of Akçakoca, 1991 (Photograph: M. H.

Sauner).

roasted whole, as in Konya (çebiç). Certain breeding areas possess the most enthusiastic meat eaters, for example South East Anatolia. While meat is present in the towns, it is in the villages that every autumn they prepare preserved meats (kavurma), to last over the winter and cheer up the dishes of cereals, vegetables or legumes.

In the region of Kayseri, meat is traditionally dried then preserved, coated in a paste of cumin, paprika, pepper and garlic, the fenugreek. This preparation called pastırma is very popular and sold in all the urban centres like another speciality, the sucuk, a kind of sausage, made of veal or lamb, garlic and spices.

Poultry is less sought after than red meat but remains an ingredient for celebrations. Its consumption has however strongly increased these last years following the rising price of red meat. Boiled, grilled or fried, it is rarer to see it prepared as a stew, but it is often added to soups. In the towns, it is eaten with rice pilaf.

Generally, little fish is eaten in Anatolia, but more so on the coasts or in Istanbul. They are generally cooked whole or floured and fried. Hunting booty like freshwater fish are generally eaten amongst fishermen. In the town as in the country, their consumption is often linked with alcohol. The anchovy is prepared in many different ways (deep or shallow fried, steamed, in omelettes or marinated) principally in the Black Sea area. In Istanbul fish is eaten very fresh and everybody knows, even nowadays, the calendar of the arrival of each type of fish, like red mullet, anchovies or skate. Fish sandwiches are sold by the sea, and make a quick meal in Istanbul.

Regarding seafood, mussels (stuffed, fried), squid, shrimps and octopus (fried or in a salad) are consumed in Istanbul and on the coast, often with alcohol.

Eggs are scrambled (menemen), poached in yoghurt (çılbır) or fried with sucuk or pastırma. In all regions of Anatolia fried eggs are prepared with wild plants (hodan, kaldırak).

Eggs are also used in numerous cakes.

Sweets

All sugary preparations are covered by the term sweets:

the tatlı, which are not necessarily linked to a meal. This term covers pastry soaked in syrup (hamur tatlıları) : the puff pastry baklava, with walnuts, hazelnuts or ground pistachios, soaked in sugar syrup, presented in a lozenge shape or as a folded cylinder (burma) or thick rounds (bülbül yuvası); doughnuts (vezir parmağı, hanım göbeği), choux pastry (lokma), semolina cake (revani), angel hair with pistachios (tel kadayıf). The baklava is the party dessert par excellence, and proposing it cements a social bond.

It is offered at numerous occasions; a meeting between

friends, marriages or meals breaking the fast. The term tatlı also includes the milky dishes (sütlü tatlılar) such as rice pudding (sütlaç), pudding (su muhallebisi), blancmange (tavuk göğsü, kazandibi), and güllaç, the special dessert of the month of Ramadan. Halva makes up a category on its own. Made with butter, wheat flour or semolina then diluted with sweet water and sometimes milk, it makes a moist paste which is cut into lozenge shapes or rolled into balls. They are given to mark important events in the life of an individual, such as birth, death, starting school, military service, the return from a pilgrimage, or for the reciting of a religious poem called the mevlût.

This is a preparation designed for all occasions when we anticipate contact with the powers above.

Confectionery

Crystallised fruits, marmalades, compotes, and jams are eaten at the end of meals or outside meal times. As for locums they are bought to be offered, notably for the feast which marks the end of Ramadan, aptly called the sugar feast (Şeker Bayramı). If the consumption of ice cream is ancient

, and very much enjoyed in summer, notably by children, the habit of offering an ice cream on a certain number of puddings, like kazandibi or keşkül is very recent.

Sweetening

In the country, before refined white sugar became available, robs (pekmez) or the grape pulp (şıra) were used as a sweetener. Rob is used in the preparation of a kind of sweet sausage stuffed with dried fruit (tatlı sucuk), with tail fat to prepare a kind of halva (köpük helvası) or mixed with starch to make pelvaze. Honey is highly appreciated throughout Anatolia; the honey coming from certain mountainous regions is very sought after (Anzer balı).

Honey is eaten alone or with clotted cream at breakfast.

Drinks and conviviality

Turkey possesses numerous mineral sources and water is the most popular drink, enjoyed chilled. In the past to quench ones thirst in summer, the sorbet (şerbet), fruit syrups, flavoured and diluted, were everywhere, today a variety of fruit juices have replaced them. Diluted and salted yoghurt, ayran accompanies meat dishes and is as refreshing in the country as in towns. Across the whole country, fizzy drinks of the coca cola type or sodas are present and drunk even during meals. In winter, boza (a thick drink based on fermented millet) served with grilled chick peas or cinnamon or sahlep (boiled milk and powdered wild orchid root) are sought out to warm you up. In the past in the country infusions based on plants

11 Özge Samancı, “Kar, şerbet ve dondurma”, Yemek ve Kültür, no. 9, pp.146-150.

(sage, lime blossom, and dig rose) were drunk, infusions which are becoming fashionable in towns in a certain milieu.

The star drink is without contest is tea (çay). Produced on the banks of the Black Sea near Rize since the 1930s, its consumption spread slowly across Anatolia to become the most popular drink after water for the last 40 years.

A glass of tea is never refused: it is offered everywhere, at the end of a meal, in cafés, at work, in shops or at home.

Prepared using the samovar technique, a little dark concentrated red tea is diluted in little transparent glasses.

Turkish coffee is still present but is less popular than tea.

Taken slowly to boil in the little metal recipients (cezve), you add the quantity of sugar desired. Traditionally, women were accustomed to meet up in their homes around a coffee, and fortune telling (reading the coffee grains) was, and still is, associated with this drink, which accentuates its convivial aspect. For a few years you could no longer find Turkish coffee in certain Istanbul cafes, but now it is again present, and some even offer to read the grounds for free.

Fermented drinks are forbidden by Islam, but their consumption is traditional in Turkey, most particularly in Istanbul or Izmir, towns where numerous minorities lived in the past, ie. Greeks, Armenians, or Jews. The

production of wine is insignificant, but has been in real progression since the growth in tourism. It is raki, a grape based alcohol flavoured with aniseed, 45% to 50% proof, which remains men’s favourite drink. Drunk with friends, in a tavern or at home, it is accompanied by specific dishes called meze. These numerous dishes are varied (stuffed mussels, aubergine caviar, börek, stuffed vine leaves, tarama) and are eaten in small quantities.

They make up either the beginning, or the framework of a meal. They will follow a particular order in this case, beginning with cold dishes then hot dishes. The meal will continue afterwards with fish and end with fruit. Eaten with friends this makes for a very special conviviality.

In the country this sort of masculine friendship is found during hunting expeditions or fishing trips. Beer was introduced fairly late in Anatolia with relatively restrained consumption. All the same, the figures for this year show a diminution of 10% of the sales of raki, wine, vodka and whisky while that of beer has risen over the same period. This rise seems due to the rising price of raki and strong alcohol but can also be seen as a change in the dietary behaviour of the new generations.

Utensils and Kitchens

Previously in the country and sometimes in the towns, there was no specific room to cook in. The dishes were

Baklava

Baklava tray.

prepared at the entrance to the main room. In the western regions, there existed a room next to the house, in which bread was made, flour based preparations and sometimes skewered meat, in the cinders or on the iron plaque (sac). This room was called “the bread room”

(ekmek evi). Elsewhere and notably more to the East, bread and preparations using dough were often made

outside, but in a tandır which is a cylindrical oven dug out of the earth. Modernisation has progressively brought about a distinction between the source of heat and the preparation of food, by means of the introduction of central heating and stoves, then electric ovens. In contemporary homes, the kitchen is a separate room.

In summer there is often cooking outside or on a terrace for it is the time of deep frying and grilling. Kitchenware is made up of saucepans of all sizes and other utensils, frying pans, stew pots, and skewers. Small electric items, the processor and the pressure cooker are in general use. Wooden spoons are essential for making soups and pilafs, as well as low wooden tables (sofra) and the long slim rolling pin (oklava) to roll out the leaves of pastry.

Wooden mortars are used to crush walnuts, hazelnuts and garlic or paprika. Numerous other jars complete this list, previously made in terracotta now produced in glass or plastic. They contain numerous preserved foods.

Enormous cauldrons are used in the villages for collective meals (marriages or village feasts) or for the winter preparations. In the country and sometimes in the town, an iron plaque is still used, even on gas cookers, to cook these sheets of pastry. Numerous women also possess a circular metal oven conceived to cook the large dishes of baklava and the puff pastry dishes.

Wedding Dish

Wedding meal preparation in a village, Denizli, 1990

(Photograph: M. H.

Sauner).

Cookstove

Cookstove in the garden, Akçakoca, 1991 (Photograph:

M. H. Sauner).

Table Manners and Culinary Preparation Concerning food preparation, the Koran has had an influence on the recipes. The sacred text distinguishes between lawful foods, and their divine beneficial effects and illicit foods. It is forbidden to eat birds of prey, carnivorous animals, pork and any animal which has been consecrated to a divinity other than Allah, any animal not ritually slaughtered, dead animals, blood, alcohol and substances toxic for the body. The banning of pork is strictly followed, as is the ruling on blood. The animal has its throat slit and the blood must be evacuated. This rejection of blood has a consequence on the preparations of meat, in that they produce as little blood as possible (mince, pressed, stews). The preparations contain no trace of blood and even if steaks are eaten, they are flattened before cooking. The technique of preparing the döner kebab (the meat is secured on a vertical pike and turned in front of a heat source until each side is grilled and cut in fine strips) is designed to eliminate any trace of blood.

The cooking process is always extremely insistent; nothing is eaten raw apart from ingredients considered as greens.

Even in the case of raw meat balls, cooking is achieved by a long kneading of the meat, together with the bulgur

and spices. We can distinguish four different methods of cooking; Dry heat (grills, cooking on the iron plaque, on burning embers (gömme); cooked in its own juice, without any extra ingredients known as kavurma; frying (in the pan with oil); and in water and with oil (stews, pilaf).

In the country, two meals are eaten in winter and three in summer, while in the town three are eaten: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Previously taken with soup, breakfast is made up of several ingredients (cheese, olives, tomatoes, jam, eggs, sucuk) accompanied by tea, and more recently amongst young people, cereals and yoghurt. The evening meal is always more plentiful than at lunchtime, because all members of the family are reunited. At the table, no knife is necessary: all the work of cutting has been done beforehand. Soups are liquid and eaten with a spoon.

The meat dishes or vegetables are eaten with a fork or a spoon, sometimes helped by a piece of folded bread.

Even though urbanisation has noticeably weakened the habit, the dichotomy between a style known as “alaturka”

or “alafranga” is present in a certain social milieu. Two ways of eating can thus cohabit, sometimes within the same family. The “alaturka” style means eating around a raised low table (sofra) or a circular tray, placed on a linen cloth which serves as both napkin and table cloth.

Evening meal

Dinner table in a Denizli village, 1991 (Photograph:

M. H. Sauner).

The dishes are placed in the centre and guests serve themselves with a spoon, a fork, or a piece of folded bread. The sofra, which is rapidly put away, means that you not have to limit your number of guests to the number of chairs. It is the urban “alafranga” style which is preferred for its prestigious character, which prevails nowadays nearly everywhere. The meal is taken seated on chairs, around a table and the dishes are served to each of the guests on their plate.

Meals are mixed, except when strangers to the village community are present, and in certain milieu when there are too many guests for a celebration meal. The father of the family or the guest is generally served and re-served first. Traditionally, the meal takes places in silence; each is served according to his status, which depends on his age, his sex, and his place in the family. The lady of the house, the daughter or the daughter in law serves rapidly, conscious of not keeping her guests waiting. There are no leftovers, everyone is meant to clean his plate. The meal begins with the thin tepid soup (çorba). The main dish (yemek) of various types (stews, stuffed vegetables, fried) can be followed in towns by a dish with olive oil. The term pilaf indicates a way of preparing rice and bulgur.

It was until recently eaten at the end of the meal (like the savoury pastry or pasta), with a spoon and yoghurt or fruit in syrup (hoşaf) placed in individual ramekin dishes.

The male guests rise from the table quickly, to settle down in the drawing room or in the corner of the room to await a sweet dish; some peeled and cut up fruit, and tea, sometimes preceded by coffee. Discussion can now begin. It is a special moment of the day and it is often at this moment that guests are welcomed with a glass of tea and some cake or aperitif snacks (çerez).

Taste and Its Evolution

Taste remains of primordial importance in comparison with the look of the food; food was chosen until recently in season and for its freshness. A harmonious mix of flavours, is enjoyed with an enduring taste for the bitter, as under-ripe fruit is enjoyed, such as a variety of plums eaten sprinkled with salt, green almonds in season (çağla), green tomatoes in brine or jams of green figs. If certain preparations cooked in the cinders (gömme) keep a special taste (aubergine puree), there exists a real disgust for anything burnt and its smell, the overcooked, over ripe or over fermented: Very ripe fruit is not much appreciated and neither are cheeses which smell. Raw food is limited

“Mantı”

In 2007, cheese ravioli preparation in Safranbolu (Photograph: M. H.

Sauner).

to fruit and salad, meat dishes undergo several cooking stages (stuffed, stews) and in general, the long-cooked is preferred. The superimposition of hot food and cold food is also very much enjoyed: sauces with yoghurt, with or without garlic, on the ravioli (mantı), the meat stuffed vegetables, with certain kebabs or even with pasta, and pilafs. The mix of sweet and sour is less often seen, and is usually in the South East or in specific dishes, with the tiny raisins of Corinth. The food prepared with meat is generally eaten hot, while that prepared with olive oil is preferred cold. There is a real difference between sweet dishes and savoury dishes, a difference underlined by the distinction in the use of yoghurt or milk.

Sauces and Condiments

Tomato concentrate (sometimes peppers) called salça, is used in most dishes served in a sauce. Added to onions softened in fat, it acts as a culinary base. In the region of Sivas, they add mint, thyme, salt and pepper to this preparation (sohariç) which is added to many dishes

. Elsewhere they add basil (cevizli bat, batırık). Certain of these preparations have the consistency of compact pastes and are used like condiments, sometimes spread on bread or served as part of meze: thus çemen which is put around the dried meat pastırma. In the South East, it is muhammara (bread crumbs, chopped onions, ground walnuts, salça of peppers, olive oil, concentrated pomegranate, cumin and pepper)

, or in the Black Sea acika, of Abkhazian origin, a spicy preparation (ground nut oil, garlic, cumin, oregano and ground walnuts). Before the arrival of the tomato, prunes and dried apricots were used to give acidity to dishes. This acidity is still sometimes obtained from the adding of pomegranates, prunes or quinces. The flavouring and spices should not overwhelm the flavour of the dishes, which are generally not very spicy except in the South East. The most often used are paprika, black pepper, allspice, parsley, mint, dill, coriander, basil, cumin or turmeric. In some regions, adults often crunch on a chilli pepper during the meal.

Recently Taste has gone through a considerable evolution, with the abandoning of old categorisations, and a preference for more neutral flavours. According to certain surveys, people prefer beef to lamb because of its less pronounced taste

. Offal has been abandoned as has the use of animal fat which is avoided more and

12 Müjgân Üçer, Anamın Aşı, Tandırın Başı, Sivas Mutfağı, Kitabevi, Istanbul, 2006 13 Yılız Cıbıroğlu. “Belkis Kutlar ile Gaziantep Yemek Kültürü Üzerine”, Yemek ve Kültür, issue 3, p.125.

14 Okan Atay, Özdal Gökdal, Turgut Aygün, Hasan Ülker, Aydın İli Çine İlçesinde Kırmızı Et Tüketim Alışkanlıkları, http://4uzbk.sdu.edu.tr/4UZBK/

HYB/4UZBK_053.pdf, consulted on the 4^th July 2008.

more because of the fashion for slim bodies and what the doctors say (fear of cholesterol, cancer). For this reason more vegetable fat is eaten, and industrial yoghurts without cream, while pasta based dishes are avoided.

Certain exotic tastes have entered into the eating habits of the elite, like the use of balsamic vinegar and the eating of raw fish - Japanese sushi. It is partly a class distinction, as poorer people have a much more limited choice.

The Calendar

Despite all the changes brought about by commercial distribution, people try to follow as far as possible the progression of the seasons and eat produce as it becomes available; it is true in part for fruit and vegetables but also for fish in Istanbul and on the coast.

Winter is the season of dried food, the legumes. In the spring, numerous young plants bring variety to menus, and salads replace preserved vegetables at the centre of the table. Summer is the time for fresh products. Traditionally autumn was the time for preparing winter supplies like bulgur, tomatoes or pepper concentrate, vegetables in brine (turşu), pasta, jam, grape jelly, dried fruit and vegetables, and preserved meat. But these foods are now more and more often purchased ready-prepared in supermarkets.

Having lunch in the field

A village of Denizli, 1992 (Photograph: M. H.

Sauner).

Religious festivals are not on fixed dates; they follow the lunar calendar and vary each year. The religious calendar features two big festivals, that of the sacrifice (Kurban Bayramı), which commemorates Isaac’s sacrifice, and the one which ends the month of fasting, the sugar festival (Şeker Bayramı). Celebratory meals put meat to the fore and sweet cakes, which are eaten less at other times. These dishes are considered as essential.

All Muslims who have sufficient means must sacrifice an animal for the festival of the sacrifice (Kurban Bayramı). Meat is omnipresent for the five days of the festival - stewed, boiled, grilled, or skewered. It even puts in an appearance at breakfast. As meat is available in large quantities, it is during this period that marriages, circumcisions, or engagement parties are also celebrated. The festive atmosphere is apparent in the increasing number of shows and collective amusements, as tents are erected in the principal squares of towns. Fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset; the meals of breaking the fast (iftar) often begin with the eating of an olive, are very copious and always include a sweet dish as dessert. Numerous invitations are distributed at this time of year which sees the strengthening of family and social bonds even amongst non practising people. For the sugar

festival which ends the month and lasts three days, everyone visits his family, particularly the oldest members. Sweets and sugary cakes like baklava are offered to visitors.

Outside these two occasions, five sacred nights are celebrated in Turkey called kandil. They celebrate the conception of the prophet (Regaib), his birth (Mevlüt), his night journey (Miraç), and his investiture (Berat). The night of destiny, the 27

of the month of Ramadan is also part of these celebrations.

These nights are characterised by the distribution of cakes (simit, çörek, lokma). The memory of the death of Hüsseyin, grandson of the prophet is a day of mourning in the Chi’ite calendar. In Turkey there is a celebration marked by the offering of a certain dish aşure to the entire family, made up of cereals, legumes and dried fruit, and popular belief suggest its origins date back to Noah. One has to distribute this food to neighbours and relatives.

Food and Social Bonds

Food preserves in Turkey a particular role as a symbol of social bonding. Every guest is offered a gift of food, whatever it may be. For festival occasions this aspect is generally over indulged in, with the abundance of the meal as well as the number of guests reflecting the status of the

Baklava

The preparation of baklava for Mevlüd, Akçakoca, 1990 (Photograph: M. H.

Sauner)

organiser. When you make a dish in big quantities like aşure or a dish whose preparation has an aroma such as halva, or cake, one shares it with the neighbours because you have to share it. It is the “right of looking”(göz hakkı).

Generally speaking, food is intrinsically linked to women.

In the division of domestic tasks, men used to do important shopping, but now where it is possible these are performed by the couple. But the preparation of dishes remains a feminine activity. In certain milieu it is even the obligation of the wife, the husband appearing un-virile (kılıbık) if the woman does not do everything. Even when they go out to work, women are expected to take care of domestic matters and, in particular, cooking

. A big part of a woman’s time is consecrated to moments of conviviality between women for very varied reasons (important events in life, ritual occasions, religious festivals, female get-togethers, a recitation from the Koran), but during which food is always present, especially sweet and savoury pastry.

It is food which cements the social bonds (by initiating them or reinforcing them) and it is women who are in charge of this. This link is nonetheless changing. With more and more involvement in active life styles, with a reduced budget and a lack of time, a certain number of dishes are for these reasons

15 Bolak Hale Cihan, “When Wives are Major Providers: Culture, Gender, and Family Work” Gender and Society, vol. 11, No. 4. (Aug., 1997), pp. 409-433.

being less and less often prepared. The age of marriage is increasing; the young women cook less in the parental home, and therefore acquire less dexterity. However at the same time, women are also introducing changes and a great number of innovations: their active lifestyle puts them in contact with people from other regions, and also there is the access to the internet, magazines, and specialist books.

On top of this, social behaviour is also changing. In the big towns, mixed-sex socialising is more and more present in numerous cafés and restaurants which have replaced the old style cafés, which were places for masculine socialising, even in the taverns. As for men they preserve their culinary prerogative at the weekend for numerous picnics and traditional barbeques. Cooking skewered meat on a grill is specifically masculine, as is the taking of strong alcohol which sometimes accompanies this activity.

To conclude, it must be noted that there is a sacred and emotional dimension attached to food. At the moment of the initiation of a voice in the soufis, the eating of the first halva takes on the sense of a meeting with the divine. As a source of pleasure, food is generally shared and, far from being condemned, it is said here that “the way to the heart is through the stomach”.

“Dişbuğdayı”

The preparation

“dişbuğdayı” in Esenler, Istanbul, 2008 (Photograph:

M. H. Sauner).