Turkish Bread + Why We Started This Website

We were on our new neighbours’ balcony, sipping tea and chatting. Like many Turks, Mehmet and Derin were attentive hosts, taking a great interest in us.

“What is the bread like in your country?” asked Derin. “Well, it’s kind of like the bread here in Turkey, but it has lots of preservatives in it.” I explained. Or so I thought.

Their eyes widened. My husband Ender kicked me under the table. “That’s not the Turkish word for preservatives”, he whispered urgently. “That’s the word for ‘condoms!’”

Oops.

We moved to Turkey 2 years ago. My husband Ender had first developed a heart for the country and its people when he studied Turkish at university. As we dated, I hoped we might get the opportunity to visit Turkey together one day.

On our second visit, my own love affair with Turkey took me quite by surprise. It struck me as a country of such intriguing contradictions: both steeped in tradition, yet so wild and untamed. The people are astonishingly warm and extroverted, yet so elaborately suspicious. And of course the cuisine: centuries of food culture, yet largely untouched and unknown by the outside world. But I never dreamed we would one day live there.

One of the hardest parts of moving to Turkey was being exposed to the wonderful food culture, but not having sufficient language to explore it. I couldn’t read cookbooks or ask for much help from older women without more language. So at first I made do adapting recipes from home. But regularly I wandered through the street market, staring at the intriguing and unfamiliar food items– and promised myself: one day, I would learn.

This website is a result of that journey. It is my hope that people who make their home here in Turkey might find this website a useful starting point for their own culinary adventures here – even if they are not fluent in the local language yet. I hope too that people who don’t live in Turkey but love good food might also find something unique and different here. Turkish food is so much more than the tired doner kebap stereotype. And if people can get even a small taste of the food and life here in Turkey, then I am delighted.

#turkish #cooking #bread