If unprivileged ingredients exist then green lentils are among them: their color is hardly appetizing, and the taste can be easily bland unless some additional measures are taken. I confess, when it comes to soups I often prefer their red sisters. There is nothing more comforting than a red lentil soup being it dal seasoned with the warming spices or its soothing Turkish version with tomato and pepper pastes. However, I changed my opinion about green lentils last week after trying a green lentil soup made by a female cook who serves homemade meals at her tiny cafe not far from where I live in Istanbul.
October 2013
Yes, pumpkin is in town. The huge round type that you buy in wedges carved out with a gigantic saw, cleared off the seeds and peeled. I always admire the pumpkin guys (and in season you will see a few at any weekly market in Istanbul) who are on a mission to make this fabulous vegetable more accessible and less intimidating for the home cooks.
My life was easier when I knew just one kind of homemade poğaça, infamous Turkish cheese turnovers. Like any Turkish kid (in my case - adopted one), I was convinced that what your mother does is the golden standard by which you measure food made by the others. This was until I tried poğaça that Aysel Hanim prepares at her little bakery Serger in Moda: hers was large, short and airy at the same time, with dill mixed in the dough and a tiny bit of pungent ezine cheese hidden inside. First I got hooked myself, and then I made all my guests keen on that poğaça. Over the past summer, I developed an early morning routine: I would stop by Serger on the way to the ferry and get a mandatory poğaça to share it with my culinary walk participants at the breakfast we indulged at a local cay ocaği (shop brewing and selling tea all day long).
We (me and my sister) added Karaburun to this Aegean trip because of the house we found on Airbnb: a spacious stone house on a hill where a very personal touch of the owner was present in the cheerful colors and lovely details. When Ozgur learned about the Karaburun plan he was outraged because it had little to do with his idea of the seaside holiday (beach by day and town by night). Then pretty much everybody to whom we announced our travel route gave us blank looks when hearing about Karaburun.
While researching for the trip I came across a saying about Karaburun that looked even more alarming than the blank looks of the Istanbul acquaintances: “Karaburun, iki bakkal bir furun/ Zeytin ekmek yiye yiye ne ağız kaldı ne burun”. You can translate it as follows: “Karaburun, two grocery shops, one bakery / Eat olives and bread to your heart’s content”. And what we experienced on our first day fitted that description very well.
