AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

From the battlefield to balls AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

From the battlefield to balls

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was surely a great commander on the battlefield, a visionary leader to a nation, still an inspiration influencing generations of today, but one of his many assets is not stressed enough. He was truly a man of style. He was also the man who brought a new lifestyle to Ankara, the new capital of the young Republic of Turkey.

October 25 2020
Tarsus is for taste AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Tarsus is for taste

This year every food event is going online. It sounds a bit of an oxymoron when one cannot taste anything and feel the smells and aromas, but there seems to be no other way. Last week I wrote about the Gastronomika event in San Sebastian. Meanwhile, Terra Madre 2020 organized by Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity was taking off. It is hard to catch up with the pace, luckily most talks and presentations are recorded, and the videos are usually available. The event started with a week of talks and discussions, but do not be in despair thinking that you’ve missed it, a whole series of events will be spread to six months. So, there is still much to follow and join in.

October 18 2020
Chickpea chronicles AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Chickpea chronicles

Last week was the time for the San Sebastián Gastronomika event, which took place on Sept. 5 and 9. It was free and online; it would be a crime not to register. I signed in, hoping to see what is new in the gastronomic scene in Spain and watch the demos of my favorite chefs. The tasting part would not be possible but thinking about the flavors and even getting that sense of feeling that is inspiring is always within reach left to our capacity of imaginativeness.

October 11 2020
Soup for the soul AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Soup for the soul

Summer is almost over. When winter days are coming close, it is time to think of soul-soothing and heartwarming dishes. Obviously, soup is the answer.

October 04 2020
Beyond the bottle AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Beyond the bottle

Anatolia is like a cradle of grape civilization. When I say grape civilization, I mean everything related to grapes, vineyards, and culture developed around them, including food. Grape in Western culture is more about wine and other distilled drinks, but in Anatolia, it is beyond that.

September 27 2020
Strawberry grape AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Strawberry grape

A giant strawberry tucked into a tiny grape; round, and immensely juicy, bursting with the dual flavor of both fruits! That is what it feels like when you taste a single berry of Uça Urzeni. I’m sure even devotees of this fruit won’t recognize the name except a few elderly in the villages of the eastern Black Sea region in Turkey who still know the Laz language, a Kartvelian language spoken by indigenous inhabitants of the area. “Uça” means black, “Urzeni” means grape, the exact translation “Kara Üzüm” being its usual Turkish name in the same region. Outside its natural habitat, people who are not familiar with the grape started to call it with other descriptive names such as fragrant grape (kokulu üzüm) or strawberry-scented grape (çilek kokulu üzüm) or more chic with its common European name Isabel or Isabella.

September 20 2020
Save the sea, eat lionfish AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Save the sea, eat lionfish!

Invasive, poisonous and seductively beautiful! This intriguing fish is like the foxy lady of tropic seas. Attractive as a fish can be, one can imagine it gliding elegantly in an ultra classy exotic aquarium, a true showstopper in any aquatic ambient. Native to Indo-Pacific it is now invading other seas like the Atlantic, and now the Mediterranean. Venomous and carnivorous, it has become the nightmare of its new habitats, threatening sea life.

September 13 2020
Hop heaps pile up for hope AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Hop heaps pile up for hope

Late summer is harvest time everywhere. As peasants toil in the fields, their minds are often worried about how the market price figures will be for their crops.  In Turkey, there are cases when most of the crop is left in the field in fear that it won’t be worth the effort to harvest or dumped on roads or rivers for protest. One tiny region in Turkey does not go through such worries. Turkey’s northwestern province of Bilecik in the Marmara region, located in the east of Bursa, most locals are happy to grow hops, which is the most profitable crop to be grown in their lucky region.

September 06 2020
Cornelian color AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Cornelian color

Red with an orange tint, often with a pinkish hue, cornelian cherry has an unmistakable color. From light crimson to deep scarlet, the fruit is like the celebration of the color red. Seductive visually, but aggressively tannic and astringent to the palate, the cornelian cherry is an intriguing fruit, often used in making jams, jellies and marmalades. However, there are devoted fans, enjoying its mouth-puckering tartness when eaten fresh while some turn away instantly with a wry face. Nevertheless, there are only a few to resist an Ottoman-style sherbet made of cornelian cherry, an opaque scarlet beauty, in a misty chilled glass.

August 30 2020