Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [166]
Classical Turkish Cooking: Traditional Turkish Food for the American Kitchen, by Ayla Algar (HarperCollins, 1991). To the best of my knowledge, this was really the first Turkish cookbook published in the States to receive attention. As I have introduced Algar previously in this section, I won’t go on and on about this book except to say the recipes are indeed “classical”—you won’t find any newfangled dishes here—but that is not a drawback: this is the book with which to begin learning about Turkish cuisine.
Contemporary Turkish Cooking, by Filiz Zorlu (Çitlembik, 2007). Zorlu tell us in her introduction that she never intended to write down all the recipes she’s been cooking for nearly forty years, but at her sons’ insistence, she finally did. Her recipes incorporate traditional Turkish home cooking with more modern takes and also include some innovative dishes with Western ingredients. As this is published in Turkey, it’s not that easy to find (my copy was found through an inter-library loan) but it’s also not a book I would call essential. However, I did make three recipes and they were winners: Cucumber and Zucchini Salad, Green Lentil and Cabbage Salad, and Zucchini Pancakes.
Flavours of Istanbul: A Selection from Original 19th Century Ottoman Recipes, by Özge Samancı and Sharon Croxford (Medya+ik, PMP Publishing, 2007). This fully illustrated paperback, from the team behind the terrific Istanbul Food Workshop, features recipes for dishes chosen from Ottoman cookbooks published between 1844 and 1900. The recipes are not complicated, nor particularly time-consuming, and any home cook could prepare a complete Turkish meal from this selection of recipes. The introductory chapter, “Cuisine of Istanbul in the 19th Century,” is fascinating and worth the price of the book alone. Note that this book isn’t readily available—I ordered my copy from Nettleberry (see Miscellany, page 566).
Middle Eastern Cooking, by Harry G. Nickles (Time-Life, 1969; revised 1979). As readers of my previous books already know, I’m a huge fan of the Foods of the World series published by Time-Life. There are few out-of-print books that grant me such pleasure as a volume in this outstanding series. Unfortunately, the editors of this series did not see the need to devote an entire book to the cuisine of Turkey, so “A Treasury of Turkish Delights” is one chapter in this Middle Eastern book. “My picture of Turkey’s lavish food,” Nickles writes, “often comes to a focus in the memory of one or another great meal.”
He and his wife, Muriel, experience dining at the homes of friends and in restaurants fancy and simple. At one banquet lunch served in a private waterfront yalı, with dish after splendid dish, a vodka bar, Turkish wine, and animated conversation until four in the afternoon, he learned a Turkish saying: “ ‘When a moment of silence falls during a meal, somewhere a girl is born.’ Surely, only boys were born that afternoon.”
Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, by Ana Sortun with photography by Susie Cushner (ReganBooks, 2006). The title of this wonderful cookbook is a bit misleading, which is why it’s here instead of with the other Mediterranean titles. Ana Sortun went to Turkey in 1997 and it’s no exaggeration to say it changed her life—she fell in love with the food and learned the cooking traditions from local women and was “inspired beyond measure.” What impressed Sortun most about Turkish cuisine were delicious, multicourse meals after which everyone left feeling energized instead of feeling heavy and tired as after a southern French, Italian, or Spanish meal. After earning a degree at École de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris and stints at three restaurants in the Boston area,