The right spot for culinary journey
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Barçın Yinanç
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 22, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - One small city in Turkey is set to tap into the culinary tourism trend: the Aegean town of Ayvalık. This seaside town offers not only unique eating but also a combination of healthy and mouth-watering cuisine, battling fast food.
For the majority of travelers, Turkey is the country of kebab. That is obviously not a completely wrong perception, as the country offers different types of delicious kebabs. But Turkey also offers so much more for those looking for a culinary journey.
It’s fair to say that culinary tourism is a relatively new phenomenon in the world, let alone in Turkey. It has been a rising trend since the end of 1990’s and is valued by tourism industry professionals as one of the most popular niches in the world’s tourism industry.
One small city in Turkey is set to tap into the culinary tourism trend: the Aegean town of Ayvalık. This seaside town offers not only unique eating but also a combination of healthy and mouth-watering cuisine. With consumer focus on healthy eating in modern times, Ayvalık is equipped with the right ingredient for a healthy diet: olive oil.
Typical Ayvalık dishes are made of olive oil. This seems only natural as Ayvalık is surrounded by the oldest olive groves in the country. But Ayvalık’s culinary culture also reflects the social texture of the town.
Until the early 20th, century the town had a large Greek population. After the retreat of Greek forces who invaded Aegean provinces following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Greek population had to leave Ayvalık, as Greece and the young republic of Turkey agreed to a mutual population exchange. Most of the new population that replaced the former Greek community was Turks from Lesbos, Crete and Macedonia. Today, most of the olive oil production in Ayvalık is family business run by the third or fourth generation of those subjected to population exchange.
This social texture undoubtedly reflects itself in the province’s cuisine, which is a Turkish-Greek synthesis, writes Erkan Acurol in his book called "The cuisine of Ayvalık." The name of some typical Ayvalık dishes reflects this synthesis: Akuvadis, kydonia, papules, papucaki. Fish as well as the vegetables grown especially in the Aegean region are the main ingredients of the typical Ayvalık dishes, which have very little if no spice at all.
Variety of local tastes
Contrary to the general trend in Turkey, where restaurants selling traditional Turkish specialties have not been able to survive against their fast food competitors, especially in big cities, Ayvalık is trying to defy modern times by offering a variety of local tastes. This owes special thanks to the restaurants in Cunda Island, which is connected to the mainland by a road.
Obviously it would be too presumptuous to say that Ayvalık is immune to the "kebab culture" and has kept its traditional cuisine unaffected by the imposition of modern times. Although it was always part of the local cuisine, the use of olive oil in restaurants has increased only recently, as the medical findings of the 1970’s revealed the health benefits of olive oil, according to Ahmet Yorulmaz who wrote a book dedicated to Ayvalık.
Certainly some of the local tastes have faded away or are about to fade away. But the level of consciousness of the local residents gives hope that Ayvalık can escape the fate of succumbing to the homogenization of the modern-day diet.
Some of the local olive oil producers, like Mehmet Cömert and Ali Kürşat, two years ago became the initiators of the local branch of the slow-food movement, which is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, as well as the disappearance of local food traditions.
Cunda a main attraction
Although Ayvalık itself could not resist to the spreading of restaurants selling kebab and fast food, Cunda remains a stronghold of local cuisine, said journalist Şahin Alpay, who is from Ayvalık. After all, islands are known to resist whatever comes from the mainland. With the rise in the number of tourists coming to Ayvalık in recent years, restaurants in Cunda became more aware of the merits of culinary culture, according to Alpay. He recounted that in just one night, restaurant owners decided to cut playing loud music on the island with the argument that it was disrespectful to the gourmet culture.
For some, tourism equates to destruction of what is authentic. In Ayvalık, the contrary principle seems to apply. Many testify to the fact that the rise in tourism has encouraged the reflex of cherishing and safeguarding the region’s authentic local tastes. There are already restaurants that have acquired a fame for their local dishes.
For culinary experts the secret to attract gourmet travelers lays in the restaurant’s effort to create a memory not just a meal. Bay Nihat , Nesos and Deniz Restaurant on Cunda, and Deniz Kestanesi in Ayvalık are among those that fit this understanding. The mezes of Ayvalık are legendary says Mehmet Yaşin, one of Turkey’s most famous experts on local tastes.
It’s fair to say that culinary tourism is a relatively new phenomenon in the world, let alone in Turkey. It has been a rising trend since the end of 1990’s and is valued by tourism industry professionals as one of the most popular niches in the world’s tourism industry.
One small city in Turkey is set to tap into the culinary tourism trend: the Aegean town of Ayvalık. This seaside town offers not only unique eating but also a combination of healthy and mouth-watering cuisine. With consumer focus on healthy eating in modern times, Ayvalık is equipped with the right ingredient for a healthy diet: olive oil.
Typical Ayvalık dishes are made of olive oil. This seems only natural as Ayvalık is surrounded by the oldest olive groves in the country. But Ayvalık’s culinary culture also reflects the social texture of the town.
Until the early 20th, century the town had a large Greek population. After the retreat of Greek forces who invaded Aegean provinces following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Greek population had to leave Ayvalık, as Greece and the young republic of Turkey agreed to a mutual population exchange. Most of the new population that replaced the former Greek community was Turks from Lesbos, Crete and Macedonia. Today, most of the olive oil production in Ayvalık is family business run by the third or fourth generation of those subjected to population exchange.
This social texture undoubtedly reflects itself in the province’s cuisine, which is a Turkish-Greek synthesis, writes Erkan Acurol in his book called "The cuisine of Ayvalık." The name of some typical Ayvalık dishes reflects this synthesis: Akuvadis, kydonia, papules, papucaki. Fish as well as the vegetables grown especially in the Aegean region are the main ingredients of the typical Ayvalık dishes, which have very little if no spice at all.
Variety of local tastes
Contrary to the general trend in Turkey, where restaurants selling traditional Turkish specialties have not been able to survive against their fast food competitors, especially in big cities, Ayvalık is trying to defy modern times by offering a variety of local tastes. This owes special thanks to the restaurants in Cunda Island, which is connected to the mainland by a road.
Obviously it would be too presumptuous to say that Ayvalık is immune to the "kebab culture" and has kept its traditional cuisine unaffected by the imposition of modern times. Although it was always part of the local cuisine, the use of olive oil in restaurants has increased only recently, as the medical findings of the 1970’s revealed the health benefits of olive oil, according to Ahmet Yorulmaz who wrote a book dedicated to Ayvalık.
Certainly some of the local tastes have faded away or are about to fade away. But the level of consciousness of the local residents gives hope that Ayvalık can escape the fate of succumbing to the homogenization of the modern-day diet.
Some of the local olive oil producers, like Mehmet Cömert and Ali Kürşat, two years ago became the initiators of the local branch of the slow-food movement, which is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, as well as the disappearance of local food traditions.
Cunda a main attraction
Although Ayvalık itself could not resist to the spreading of restaurants selling kebab and fast food, Cunda remains a stronghold of local cuisine, said journalist Şahin Alpay, who is from Ayvalık. After all, islands are known to resist whatever comes from the mainland. With the rise in the number of tourists coming to Ayvalık in recent years, restaurants in Cunda became more aware of the merits of culinary culture, according to Alpay. He recounted that in just one night, restaurant owners decided to cut playing loud music on the island with the argument that it was disrespectful to the gourmet culture.
For some, tourism equates to destruction of what is authentic. In Ayvalık, the contrary principle seems to apply. Many testify to the fact that the rise in tourism has encouraged the reflex of cherishing and safeguarding the region’s authentic local tastes. There are already restaurants that have acquired a fame for their local dishes.
For culinary experts the secret to attract gourmet travelers lays in the restaurant’s effort to create a memory not just a meal. Bay Nihat , Nesos and Deniz Restaurant on Cunda, and Deniz Kestanesi in Ayvalık are among those that fit this understanding. The mezes of Ayvalık are legendary says Mehmet Yaşin, one of Turkey’s most famous experts on local tastes.