AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Melting the ice AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Melting the ice?

Melting the ice or freezing the relations? That was the dilemma when Vladimir Putin offered a cone of Russian ice cream to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Moscow last week.

September 01 2019
Homage to an Istanbul lover AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Homage to an Istanbul lover

I will never forget a panel on Ottoman cuisine held in Topkapı Museum last year. It was a lousy rainy day. I had to carry myself dutifully to attend just to listen to my friends, Özge Samancı and Arif Bilgin, two expert historians on the topic. However, I was soon to find out a surprise, a last minute speaker that gave the most interesting talk of the day.

August 25 2019
Sweet delights: Grapes and figs AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Sweet delights: Grapes and figs

Grapes and figs always belong to August in Turkey. First it is the grapes, then the figs, they signal that the summer has reached its peak, and now autumn is fast approaching. Either fresh green or a mature deep purple, grapes and figs are the ultimate sweet delights of Anatolian landscapes. They are enjoyed fresh but also provide sweet sustenance for coming winter months in dried form. They surely reflect the bounty of August.

August 18 2019
Time is ticking for pickling AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Time is ticking for pickling!

The pickle shops in Turkey are like candy stores for the ones who have a savory palate rather than a sweet tooth. The multi-colored pickle jars filled with shades of green, red, orange, yellow, purple vegetables and fruits are a delight for the eye, as well as a treat for salt-thirsty appetites. Dark green gherkins and unripe baby melons, pale green snake cucumbers, long and thin green peppers, purple stuffed baby eggplants, coral red peppers, pale yellow cabbages, magenta beet slices, ivory cauliflower florets, orange carrot sticks; they all shine in the most tempting way in the pickle shop window. And that intoxicating smell of briny fermentation, even if you try to look away from the pickle shop, that seductive sniff of pickle captures you instantly; I can never walk past one without stopping in for a quick shot of pickle juice. And yes, in Turkey we eat our pickles and drink its juice too.

August 11 2019
The flavor factor AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

The flavor factor

It was the photograph of a fully ripe big tomato that inspired me. The photo was taken by my food writer/blogger friend Tuba Şatana, then responsible for the photography of a book I was working on. The book project was half way through, it was on the cuisine of the southeastern province of Gaziantep, but it still did not have a proper title, and I was desperately short of finding a catchy one that captures the true spirit of local dishes. Just as I was browsing through the pictures we selected for the book, I stopped at one, and as if the apple had fallen on my head, I had my Eureka moment. It was a picture of cut open big fat tomatoes, threaded like giant beads on a huge skewer, grilling deliciously over hot glowing embers with its oozed juices dripping. “A Taste of Sun and Fire,” I yelled what describes the cuisine of Gaziantep.

August 05 2019
Fish, Bosphorus and beyond AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Fish, Bosphorus and beyond

We were in a boat with a large group of foreign journalists, sunset cruising on the Bosphorus Strait.  It was a picturesque midsummer’s evening, the perfect moment for a drink.

July 28 2019
The Giant Melon AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

The Giant Melon

When reading novelist Roald Dahl’s well-known children’s stories, I always wonder what all his food descriptions would have been like, had he not been of Norwegian origin living in Britain but instead, been born and lived in this part of the world.

July 07 2019
The grass and the Gruyere AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

The grass and the Gruyere

Lush green pastures, clear blue sky, cotton clouds passing by, zillions of flowers blanketing the green slopes.

July 01 2019
A bunch of grapes AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

A bunch of grapes

The history of civilization, in many ways, is intertwined with the history of grapes, at least here in Turkey.

June 24 2019