AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Olive harvest in full speed: Dim season, bright future AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Olive harvest in full speed: Dim season, bright future

As olive harvest season is going on in full speed in Turkey, olive oil manufacturers have bitter feelings for the season.

November 11 2018
The first lady, the feast and the republic AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

The first lady, the feast and the republic

The table was stunning as one guest tells. An inverted cut crystal bowl was lit by little light bulbs and adorned with flowers, tiny plates holding caviar and butter were nested among the vine leaves swirling along the table.

October 28 2018
History hopping AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

History hopping

Antalya is often regarded as the locomotive of tourism in Turkey, which is often translated as the ultimate destination for the iconic three S’s: Sun, sand and sea. Antalya and its environs truly have the greatest beaches, lots of sunshine throughout the year and one will definitely have plenty of sand in their shoes. But this is only a fraction of the province’s potential.

October 21 2018
Meze means more AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Meze means more

One essential element to understand the food culture in Turkey is to master a meze table. Meze is often defined as a selection of hot and cold dishes typically served as hors d’oeuvre in Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern cooking.

October 14 2018
One thousand and one tastes AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

One thousand and one tastes

The tiny handwriting covered the whole page. It was not easy to read, not only because the letters were so miniscule, but also spaces between the lines were very tight, there were even no margins left in the paper.

October 07 2018
Meatball hopping in Thrace AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Meatball hopping in Thrace

When visiting the Thrace region, there is one dish that appears all the time. In most small villages, it seems to be the only choice. Sometimes it appears in a tiny shed-like shop, or is even sold from a street cart in the middle of nowhere.

September 30 2018
The ‘green gold’ AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

The ‘green gold’

I remember vividly the moment. When Robin Weir, author of “Ice Creams, Sorbets and Gelati: The Definitive Guide,” told me that exact sentence, “They put food color to pistachio ice cream to make it fluorescent green, but pistachio is never green.” This was my moment. I jumped in and said, “You’re both right and wrong! Yes, in most countries they put artificial color to pistachio ice cream, but pistachio is green, very green indeed!”

September 23 2018
Globetrotting goober AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Globetrotting goober

Peanuts, as the name suggests, are closer to peas, or the legume family, rather than nuts. They taste like or feel like other nuts when roasted, but categorically, they are legumes. Taxonomically classified as Arachis hypogaea, it is also considered to be an oil crop because of its high oil content. The flowers of the plant have a strange habit of thrusting their stems into the earth to grow their fruit pods underground. That is why the other popular name for peanuts is groundnuts.  

September 16 2018
The changing grape-scape of Thrace AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

The changing grape-scape of Thrace

Now in its fourth year, Thrace Wine Competition signals a change. Both wine lovers and wine producers should be following this small signal, there might be a big potential in the understated neglected good old grape varieties of the region.

September 09 2018