AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Open Sesame AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Open Sesame!

Open Sesame! This is the magical phrase that seems to work wonders. Is there anyone who does not know this expression from the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, one of the exciting stories of the Thousand and One Nights? The expression “Open Sesame Open” was first used in the French translation of the work by Antoine Galland in the 1700s. This expression might be due to an interesting feature of the sesame plant. Sesame is difficult to harvest, and the difficulty is because of the nature of the sesame plant, as soon as the sesame grains reach a level of sufficient maturity, the capsule that has the sesame seeds opens abruptly and the seeds are spilled all over. Of course, this is a natural necessity of nature for the plant to grow again as a seed, but this nature of the plant makes the timing very critical, the harvest needs to be done right before this stage. Otherwise, the seeds scatter around and the crop is wasted. If the harvest is done too early, the desired oiliness and, therefore, flavor cannot be obtained.

October 09 2022
Feasting Al Fresco AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Feasting Al Fresco

Food is the core to our lives. Now it seems that food culture is also the core of tourism in the promoting of countries, regions and cities. In my article last week, I mentioned a few recent gastronomy festivals taking place one after the other, with a handful of the same speakers taking the stage at each of the festivals. In a row it was, Gaziantep, Antalya, and Adana, a mango event in Alanya, and a tea harvest in Rize, and now it will be Diyarbakır and another Alanya event, this time focused on avocados and another one in Antalya again, displaying a cornucopia of meze plates, and so on. After some time, it seems to be the repetition of another, naturally so, as most are organized by the very same public relation agencies in Istanbul. In such an inflation of festivals, it is hard to make a difference and attract the attention of true taste seekers.

October 02 2022
Glory of gastronomy festivals AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Glory of gastronomy festivals

There is a new fad in the country. Every city tries to organize a gastronomy festival. Food writers, restaurant owners, hoteliers and chefs are going from city to city, one after another, to attend panels and give talks or do workshops. It is like chain smoking. As one finishes, the other starts. The months of September and October seem to be fully booked for people in the food sector. Last week, it was GastroAntepFest in Gaziantep, this week, it is FoodFestAntalya, next week it will be Adana Food Festival. Both were packed with people visiting the food stalls, most flooding in for curiosity and of course to listen to the free concerts in the program.

September 25 2022
Mango mania AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Mango mania

Mango season has just started, the first Mango Festival was celebrated in the Mediterranean coastal town of Alanya. This sounds like fake news, as mango was practically unknown in this country. The only mangoes that appeared on posh market shelves used to come from afar, usually lacking in flavor as they were picked quite unripe with a high price tag unmatching this flavor flaw. But it is not fake news, we are talking about the domestic mango season, the harvest of locally grown mangoes. The mango fruit is the national fruit of India, Pakistan and the Philippines, and the mango tree is the symbol of Bangladesh. It may soon be the symbol of our southern provinces.

September 18 2022
Long Live the King AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Long Live the King!

It is almost an unbeatable feat to stay on the throne for 70 years. Being the queen of a country that has ruled countries afar like Great Britain is a long voyage. Britain’s longest crowned queen is also the world’s most traveled queen. One can imagine that her majesty had tasted all the delicacies of the world. But the reality is the opposite. These official visits are not open to taste adventures. The Queen visited Türkiye three times, in 1961, 1971 and 2008. I had the chance to talk with a couple of journalist friends and MPs who have attended the state banquets and according to the information given by those who accompanied the meals, the menus were modest and classic, avoiding elaborate creations. And of course, before such royal visits, there is always a communication carried out between both parties, to make sure that the list of foods to be avoided is well-understood, so there would be no unwanted surprises on the table.

September 11 2022
Red revolution AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Red revolution

September is a special month. “Eylül” in Turkish, it is often associated with sadness; in poetry, literature and songs the word “Eylül” equals another Turkish word “Hüzün,” which is sometimes hard to translate. It can stand for melancholy, sadness, sorrow, and blues all in a pack, and it is like the essential keyword along with Eylül in love songs yearning for the lost lover or similar. September is the opposite of the bright and cheerful Spring months, marking the passage to winter, leaves falling turned reddish copper and the end of sunny summer. But there is another fact about September. It could well be the most hectic month of the year both in the rural countryside and in urban homes. There is not a single moment that can be wasted, it is harvest time in vineyards, the time for collecting the last sun-ripened batches of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in vegetable gardens, and the time for preparing the winter provisions at homes.

September 04 2022
‘Bees Unite the World’ AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

‘Bees Unite the World’

“Bees Unite the World” is the motto of the 47th Apimondia International Beekeeping Congress to be held at the Istanbul Congress Center between Aug. 24-28 this year. The congress will bring together world beekeepers, honey industry professionals, scientists, honey traders, public institutions and organizations, as well as experts in apitherapy, bee biology, and beekeeping economy, to discuss a wide range of topics including beekeeping for rural development, bee health, pollination and bee flora, beekeeping technology and quality.

August 21 2022
Blessing the grape AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Blessing the grape

The grape season is open as of yesterday. Today is the day for blessing the grape. Today is the day dedicated to St. Mary, generally known as the Feast of Virgin Mary, (Meryem Ana Yortusu in Turkish), in Anatolia, it is also the day to celebrate the start of the grape season. The feast is celebrated by many churches on Aug. 15, while the Armenian Church celebrates it on the Sunday closest to Aug. 15.

August 14 2022
Ashura in summer AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Ashura in summer?

It is once again to start anew. It is the time for the symbolic pudding ashura, or “aşure,” the ultimate pudding of plenty. Aşure is a traditional sweet made in the month of Moharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Its main ingredient is whole wheat berries, but there are so many more to the pudding, the number of ingredients can sometimes exceed 40, with various pulses such as chickpeas and beans, dried fruits and nuts added, to make the pudding stand for its symbolic meaning, the plenty. It is rich, it is wholesome. Plenty it is, both in the sense of quantity and context.

August 07 2022