AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Message in the air: Food for the souls AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Message in the air: Food for the souls

Our customs will live on in every corner of the earthquake zone with smells rising from sizzling oil or butter conveying the message to the ones who are gone.

February 05 2024
Desperately seeking Bodrum spirit AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Desperately seeking Bodrum spirit!

How exactly does one define the spirit of Bodrum? Once, it was the sleepy little fishing village, with its main income being sponge diving. It was a typical idyllic Aegean town adorned with a magnificent castle, a remembrance of a distant glorious past. Known in ancient times as Halicarnassus, it was once home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Halicarnassus' Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

January 29 2024
Worth the local, worth the world AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Worth the local, worth the world

This year's International Istanbul Geographical Indications Summit's theme “Worth the Local - Worth the World” emphasized on products' local and global value.

January 21 2024
Olive groves as cultural landscape AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Olive groves as cultural landscape

Our olive culture is now on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List as a cultural heritage element in danger that is in need of urgent safeguarding.

January 08 2024
Following or setting the trends AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Following or setting the trends?

Every year, just before the New Year, it is customary to make guesses on what the new year will bring next year, what will be new trends, in gastronomy, what will be cool to eat and drink, what will be out of fashion and what will be new hot topics. The gastronomy world is all speculating what the new gastronomy trends of 2024 will be. Inevitably, here in Türkiye, we are also affected by those trends, often set in the West. Looking at some trends, I realize that some topics are already commonplace practices in kitchens and tables in this country. So why don't we set those gastronomy trends ourselves? Maybe this will be the topic of the coming year; presenting ideas from us to the world, showcasing our usual food traditions we all take for granted, not even thinking about that some of our daily fare might be great ideas for many others out there.

January 01 2024
Two women, two centuries, 200 recipes AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Two women, two centuries, 200 recipes

In Türkiye, we seldom get cookery books that are based on family recipes and never that goes back to almost two centuries. Now we have a cookbook that tells the story of a Levantine family from İzmir that gathers recipes from the recipe notebooks of two incredible women who were born, lived, and died in their beloved city, Marguerite Marie Josephine Aliotti Pagy (1875-1919) and her daughter Wanda Marguerite Pagy Arcas (1910-1993). The book “From Mother to Daughter” is compiled from their recipes written originally in French, with informative reminder kitchen notes, intended to pass recipes to the next generations. The book is also translated into English and recently was awarded the first prize in the “The Best Family Cookbook” category and the second prize in the “The Best Women Cookbook” category at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2023, where thousands of books from 71 countries competed.

December 25 2023
Two women, two centuries, 200 recipes AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Two women, two centuries, 200 recipes

In Türkiye, we seldom get cookery books that are based on family recipes and never that goes back to almost two centuries. Now we have a cookbook that tells the story of a Levantine family from İzmir that gathers recipes from the recipe notebooks of two incredible women who were born, lived, and died in their beloved city, Marguerite Marie Josephine Aliotti Pagy (1875-1919) and her daughter Wanda Marguerite Pagy Arcas (1910-1993). The book “From Mother to Daughter” is compiled from their recipes written originally in French, with informative reminder kitchen notes, intended to pass recipes to the next generations. The book is also translated into English and recently was awarded the first prize in the “The Best Family Cookbook” category and the second prize in the “The Best Women Cookbook” category at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2023, where thousands of books from 71 countries competed.

December 24 2023
Şeb-i Arus: The Wedding Night AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Şeb-i Arus: The Wedding Night

Dec. 17 was the 750th anniversary of the death of Sufi poet Rumi, Mevlana Jalaluddin-i Rûmî. Attributed to his name, the Mevlevi order is an ascetic Sufi order founded in 1273 in Konya, from where it gradually spread throughout the Ottoman Empire. Since then, every night of Dec. 17 has been celebrated as “Şeb-i Arus,” literally the wedding night. “Düğün” in Turkish, the term “wedding” here stands for the realization of the devotion and commitment to God. In Sufi belief, death is not considered an end, but a reunion of the soul with God. So, yesterday was the night of the ultimate reunion, the wedding, the unification with the ultimate creator.

December 18 2023
Machine power for Turkish coffee AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Machine power for Turkish coffee

Tomorrow, Dec. 5, is declared as the "World Turkish Coffee Day." Exactly 10 years ago, in 2013, Turkish coffee was included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List on Dec. 5, and the date of its inclusion was celebrated as “World Turkish Coffee Day.” A decade later, it is becoming more and more popular with the introduction of a variety of new machines that make Turkish coffee more accessible to consumers worldwide. The first ever Turkish coffee machine in the market appeared two decades ago in 2003, up to that date, Turkish coffee was thought to be impossible to be made automatically by machine. The belief was it could only be brewed manually, as one needed to watch over the exact moment when it starts to rise, building that desirable foam, otherwise the coffee would spill over, and the frothy bit would be lost. But innovation in Turkish coffee is the latest example to join the mechanization bandwagon.

December 04 2023