I am often assumed to cook Russian dishes for my Turkish family or at least sneak in some Russian influences in our daily fare. The disappointing truth is I can’t remember cooking much Russian food here in Turkey apart from the potato fritters I prepared during the romantic stage of the relationships with my husband-to-be.
The fritters that manifested the Russian culinary ascetics were accepted and eaten for two reasons: 1) fried foods are universally lovable and 2) I was too new to the family to discourage my efforts even though Özgür’s mom did immediately suggest how I could ‘improve’ the Slavic classic, and I had neither the confidence nor the language ability to say that giving dish a Turkish touch does not equal improvement.
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Zucchini, poor zucchini, your popularity fades as soon as the other fruits of summer appear at the markets. Who wants to eat zucchini when the eggplants are nice and plump, and can’t wait to be roasted and savored in style? Even my husband was unprecedentedly supportive when I started writing this post. “Hm, why are you repeating yourself? Have you not already written about zucchini?” pointing to the 2 year old post about infamous zucchini fritters of my mother-in-law that I shamelessly deconstructed. Telling you: zucchini, poor zucchini..
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The other day I re-took Myers Briggs test to find out my personality type has changed over the past ten years. From ENFJ I have gone to INFP. I wonder if this shift reflects the fundamental change in my character or just describes the current moment. From extravert I have gone introvert: who could tell?! But then I have never been spending so much time with other people - my extended family, my clients, my market vendors and Istanbul crowds. After time with them I happily crawl into my own shell and love staying there for a while undisturbed. From judgmental I went to more reliant on intuition: I guess being in the new culture I can’t always rely on the logical clues to explain the behavior of people around me. So I develop sensing rather than judging.
My new resulting personality type is INFP, “The Idealist” which describes the current me so well. I am looking for harmony in people, things and relationships of them all. When I don’t find it I get very upset. I start seeing only imperfection around me and feel more and more miserable.
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Italy has been on top of my mind recently. I have finished reading Bill Buford’s “Heat” on his pursuit of real food at the Italian kitchens in NY and Italy. My sister has reported on her yet another trip to Italy and shared a plan to return this summer for more. Russian TV-chef celebrity Julia Vysotskaya has launched a new culinary show she films in Tuscany. Piled up these facts translated into an urge to get on a plane and savor Italy. Until it occurred to me that I live in Italy .. simply of another kind.
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Living in two homes is something I have been doing for the past 5 years. I would find one place I am really happy at.. and then would almost immediately find the other. So I would be shuttling between the two.
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It is fashionable to speculate on minimalism. Run minimalism experiments in clothing, eating, working and living in general. Cut down, get rid of, recycle, re-use, reduce. Sometimes out of real need. Sometimes of plain curiosity.
I must confess I have had a few minimalism projects in progress too. No clothes shopping, no coffee, no alcohol, no meat, no Twitter, no email, no television. These projects are at the different stages currently. With different results. Yet with the single learning.
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May has already been financially satisfying. I have made it to the breakeven - given my visa runs to Russia last year and ridiculously high rent I am paying right now in Istanbul. Which means I can give legitimate answers to the persistent questions my friends and parents still ask about the financial viability of my food career.
As Özge has started helping me with the food tours I can focus more on the cooking classes which I have been giving a lot recently. I have also had two big groups and piloted my idea of taking people to our countryside for cooking and food. Good busy times.
What’s next? What comes after the financial security is achieved again, 2 years after I quit my job? 5* vacation? A plan to conquer the rest of the world? Well, in my case it’s going to the countryside house, washing some dishes as our helper is away and then spending half a day to harvest nettle and making dry pasta. How is that for a reward?
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