Ruth Paget: Turkish Festival

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Turkish Festival 101 - Part 2 - By Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Turkish Festival 101 – Part 2 – By Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The traditional ending to a proper Turkish meal is a strong cup of coffee. When you have drained the last drip from your cup, turn the cup over and let one of the Turkish Festival volunteers read your fortune in the grounds remaining in the cup.

Do not miss your chance to view the Turkish art on display, which includes:

-Arabic calligraphy – beautiful lettering enhanced a word’s meaning. Calligraphy was used to decorate religious manuscripts such as the Koran and Hadith, collected sayings of Mohammed

-tapestries – decorations include figures such as sultans, mosque motifs, and flowers

-ebru – stationery and paper marbling. The process for doing this will be on display at the Turkish Festival.

-carpets

Women weavers have anonymously made dominantly orange-red Turkish carpets since time immemorial. One-of-a-kind carpets carry tribal symbols, the guls, which vary in the same way that Scottish tartans do.

The weavers vary tone and minute details to create movement among the repeating shapes.

With artwork like this on the floors, the Turks naturally remove their shoes before entering a home.

Flowery “Garden of Paradise” carpets can make a desert lush and illustrate a weaver’s skill in coaxing circular shapes out of an angular medium.

Festival attendees can also view silk prayer carpets decorated with a mihrab, the Mosque niche that points in the direction of Mecca with a lamp that represents Mohammed.

A trip to the Turkish Festival would be incomplete without knowing about Turkey’s wise fool country priest, Nasreddin Hoca.

In one story, the Hoca was discussing the completeness of creation with a friend during a walk.

Hoca said, “I think horses would have been much more useful to mankind, if they had wings.”

Just then, some pigeon droppings fell on Hoca’s turban,

“Allah knows best,” he said.

End of Article

If you are interested in cooking Turkish food, these recipe books and others might be of interest for possible purchase:

Classical Turkish Cooking: Traditional Turkish Food for the American Kitchen by Ayla Algar

The Sultan’s Kitchen: A Turkish Kitchen (Over 150 recipes) by Ozcan Ozan

Turkish Delights by John Gregory-Smith (100 recipes)

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Turkish Festival 101 - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

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…