US culinary magazine savors Turkish cuisine
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 16, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - One of the top culinary magazines in the United States has devoted 16 pages to Turkish cuisine with the article "Soul of a City," appearing in the May edition of Saveur.
Author Anya von Bremzen chose to focus on restaurants and food favored by working people, rather than Istanbul’s famous and expensive dining establishments. "With its succulent kebabs and simple grilled fish, its healthful vegetable stews and bright salads, along with all manner of meze (small dishes), from stewed white beans to stuffed mussels, Istanbul’s food is easy to love," Bremzen wrote.
Comparing the local cuisine to the cooking of the Middle East and the Balkans, Bremzen added: "But Istanbul’s food has its own unmistakably urban identity, too. Its patchwork of flavors and eating styles reflects both Turkey’s shared nomadic heritage and the city’s past as the capital of the cosmopolitan, multicultural Ottoman Empire, which attracted vast waves of migrants." In her article, Bremzen described the mezes she ate in Beyoğlu’s traditional meyhanes and sang the praises of classic Turkish desserts like kemalpaşa, künefe and lokum, better known to foreigners as Turkish delight.
"Many of the best meyhanes reside in the very heart of one of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods, Beyoğlu," Bremzen wrote. "These days, tourists do their shopping and clubbing along Istiklal Caddesi, Beyoğlu's main promenade, flanked by former embassies and ornate Art Nouveau buildings. But off in the side alleys, history hangs on in the meyhanes, where old-timers wash down their mezes with the potent, anise-based liquor called rakı."
Famous for kebab
Turkish kebabs were not left out of the culinary celebration. "A pillar of Istanbul’s food ways is its kebapçı, or kebab joints; indeed, most visitors consider grilled meats and their tangy accompaniments to be among Istanbul’s native foods," Bremzen wrote. "Kebapçı meals usually follow a strict progression. Strong tulum cheese and puffy breads give way to içli köfte, torpedo-shaped fried bulgur shells filled with spiced lamb.
Then come lahmacun and, finally, skewers of meat accompanied by pomegranate syrup-laced salad of tomatoes and herbs. Our minced-lamb urfa kebab is salty and coarse, but everyone loves the eggplant-and-meatballs skewers and the ciğer şiş, which alternates liver cubes with crisp but plush nuggets of sheep tail fat."
According to a written statement made by the Office of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Information’s attach in New York, Bremzen is a writer who loves Istanbul as well as the country’s cuisine, culture, hospitality and geography. The statement said she often travels to Turkey and has published many articles on Turkish cuisine, Istanbul and the Aegean region in Travel and Leisure magazine.
The statement added that Saveur is one of the most-read food magazines in America, with a circulation of 400,000, and that Bremzen’s article on Turkish cuisine had a significant advertisement value.
Comparing the local cuisine to the cooking of the Middle East and the Balkans, Bremzen added: "But Istanbul’s food has its own unmistakably urban identity, too. Its patchwork of flavors and eating styles reflects both Turkey’s shared nomadic heritage and the city’s past as the capital of the cosmopolitan, multicultural Ottoman Empire, which attracted vast waves of migrants." In her article, Bremzen described the mezes she ate in Beyoğlu’s traditional meyhanes and sang the praises of classic Turkish desserts like kemalpaşa, künefe and lokum, better known to foreigners as Turkish delight.
"Many of the best meyhanes reside in the very heart of one of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods, Beyoğlu," Bremzen wrote. "These days, tourists do their shopping and clubbing along Istiklal Caddesi, Beyoğlu's main promenade, flanked by former embassies and ornate Art Nouveau buildings. But off in the side alleys, history hangs on in the meyhanes, where old-timers wash down their mezes with the potent, anise-based liquor called rakı."
Famous for kebab
Turkish kebabs were not left out of the culinary celebration. "A pillar of Istanbul’s food ways is its kebapçı, or kebab joints; indeed, most visitors consider grilled meats and their tangy accompaniments to be among Istanbul’s native foods," Bremzen wrote. "Kebapçı meals usually follow a strict progression. Strong tulum cheese and puffy breads give way to içli köfte, torpedo-shaped fried bulgur shells filled with spiced lamb.
Then come lahmacun and, finally, skewers of meat accompanied by pomegranate syrup-laced salad of tomatoes and herbs. Our minced-lamb urfa kebab is salty and coarse, but everyone loves the eggplant-and-meatballs skewers and the ciğer şiş, which alternates liver cubes with crisp but plush nuggets of sheep tail fat."
According to a written statement made by the Office of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Information’s attach in New York, Bremzen is a writer who loves Istanbul as well as the country’s cuisine, culture, hospitality and geography. The statement said she often travels to Turkey and has published many articles on Turkish cuisine, Istanbul and the Aegean region in Travel and Leisure magazine.
The statement added that Saveur is one of the most-read food magazines in America, with a circulation of 400,000, and that Bremzen’s article on Turkish cuisine had a significant advertisement value.