Turkish Festival 101 - Part 1 - by
Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
The
first article I wrote for The Monterey
County (CA) Weekly (Circulation: 200,000) was about the Turkish Festival
held on the Monterey Wharf. I felt like
I was finally putting together a lot of esoteric knowledge when I put this article
together.
I
have modified the article, but the content remains:
Tapestry of Turkey
I’ll
admit it!! The real reason I want to go
to the Turkish Arts and Culture Festival this weekend is to admire the belly
dancers. I love the sheer veils,
sequined tops outlined with gold coins, finger cymbals, and sinuous movements
of this art form that began as a ritual dance representing childbirth in a
region extending from Morocco to Turkey.
There
are other delightful distractions at the Turkish festival:
-falling
into a trance as I listen to Sahin Gunsel sing Turkish love songs while he
plays the oud
-tapping
my feet and clapping my hands as I watch folk dancers in brightly colored
costumes
-seeing
what Turkish towns look like at the Orhan Coplu art exhibit
I
also love sampling Turkish food made by women who learn to cook without
cookbooks and measures. Amazingly, the
chefs at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, the hub of the 600-year-old Ottoman
Empire, operated on the same principle.
An
Ottoman chef threw out Empress Eugénie’s French chef who was seeking an
eggplant purée recipe for his sovereign.
The French disconcerted everyone with his weights and measures.
The
Ottoman chef said, “An Imperial chef cooks with his feelings, his eyes, his
nose…”
So,
the empress never ate Turkish food again unlike the fortunate souls, who will
attend the Turkish festival this weekend.
The
succulent offerings at the Turkish Festival include:
-doner
kebap – slices of ground lamb seasoned with garlic that resembles Greek gyros
and Lebanese Syrian schwarma
-adana
kebap – ground lamb meatballs seasoned with garlic, onion, cumin, and red
pepper (Red pepper is popular in southern Turkey.)
-borek
– buttery phyllo crust pie filled with creamy cheese and spinach
-dolmas
– grape leaves stuffed with rice and seasoned with mint in lemon sauce
-musakka
– baked slices of layered eggplant in tomato sauce
-kisir
– cracked wheat salad with parsley, tomato, and onion and lemon juice and olive
oil dressing
-cucik
– yogurt and garlic sauce that goes well with doner kebap
-piyaz
– white kidney bean salad seasoned with parsley, dill, mint, and onions that is
topped off with lemon and oil dressing
-sheperd
salad – a tomato, onion, and cucumber dish made with the freshest vegetables
available
-baklava
– a dessert made of phyllo pastry and ground walnuts and honey
End
of Part 1.
To
be continued…
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
