Under the Irish Sky! or Gallipoli or Antep?

Aylin Öney Tan - aylinoneytan@yahoo.com

“‘Twas better to die ‘neath an Irish sky than in Suvla or Sedd el Bahr.”
I do not recognize the tune, but the words are stuck in my mind on my way to Dublin. I’ll be attending the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium and it will be my first time visiting Ireland. The reason I keep repeating this line is the Gallipoli battle of more than a century ago, the topic of my presentation. I will be scrutinizing the food provisions of both sides in the Gallipoli War, which is usually recognized for the heroic and dramatic stories of the Anzacs, but other nationalities that fought with the British Army, including the Irish volunteers, often go unmentioned. This line is from “Foggy Dew,” the heart-touching ballad telling the story of the courageous Irish youth, which turned out to be inspirational in the onset of the Irish War of Independence. 

I’m writing these words under another sky, that of the southern province of Gaziantep, another battlefield of the Turkish Republican War. The city of Antep had shown a legendary resistance to the enemy, and they saved both their own city and their territory, hence they got the prefix Gazi, the Martyr. Antep, as most locals still call their town, is now struggling hard to accommodate Syrian refuges, and while under the immense pressure of such hard times, the Antep people are also working hard, as always, to sustain and promote their values. Renowned for their cuisine, the city was recently designated in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, in the category of gastronomy. They continue organizing events and festivals and seem to embrace their culinary assets more than ever. This time it was time for the important staple food of the town, bulgur, which in fact may be the first ever food product of mankind. To celebrate this age-old staple, the 1st Bulgur Festival was organized under the umbrella of Gaziantep Commodity Exchange with the support of the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality. 

Bulgur is technically a way to keep wheat for a long time, preventing it from rot or germination. In the traditional millennia-old method, wheat berry is picked, husked, boiled and then left to soak up all the boiling juices full of nutrients while cooling. It is then spread under the sun to dry thoroughly, and then cracked in stone mills or mortars to the desired fineness or coarseness. Bulgur is never only one type, but comes in various types, often named according to town of origin (Antep, Urfa, Adana etc.), or degree of coarseness (iri/coarse, ince/fine etc), or to the dish it is going to be used (pilavlık/ for pilaf, köftelik/ for meatballs etc.), or even to the wheat variety (siyez, kavılca) and so on… Needless to say, bulgur was a staple of survival in both the Gallipoli battle and the Antep resistance. It made its way into soups in Gallipoli and in Antep it was made into meatless balls to fill the belly as a source of good quality nourishment. 

Wherever we are, we are all under the same sky! It may be foggy and cloudy in Ireland or bright and full of sunshine (this time with showers) in Antep, or windy in Gallipoli, but we all share our dependence on food and water. Humans can survive only three days without water and three weeks without food. Food is essential to mankind, plus our passion for food is also crystallized in our identity and belonging. Sharing our food and food stories is one way to understand each other and to communicate. I’ll be bringing a bottle of Suvla wine with a bag of bulgur to Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, the chairman of the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium. I’m sure we’ll sing “Foggy Dew” together and raise our glasses to independence!