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entire class of mezes, olive oil dishes typically served cold. According to an article by Tom Mueller in The New Yorker (“Slippery Business,” August 13, 2007), a lot of olive oil produced in Turkey is shipped to Italy and later sold as Italian oil. Mueller relates how, between 1998 and 2004, an olive oil company called Casa Olearia “evaded more than twenty-two million euros (about thirty million dollars) in E.U. duties by illegally importing seventeen thousand tons of Turkish and Tunisian olive oil, apparently with the cooperation of Italian customs officials.”

There are olive groves all over Turkey, even in the far eastern part of the country where, according to Lonely Planet’s World Food: Turkey, “olives are not a favourite food and lard has prevailed as a cooking fat, the fields are dotted with these dusty-looking scraggly trees.” With so many groves, you might think there would be an abundance of shops selling all kinds of olive oil-based products. They are surprisingly few, but among the best (and my favorite) is Laleli, a family-owned company with an attractive boutique in Bebek (Cevdetpaşa Caddesi 46D / +90 212 265 6617 / lalelioliveoil.com). The family’s groves are around the Edremit Bay region in the Aegean, across from the island of Lesvos. “Turkish olives, Turkish oil, and a Turkish name,” is how Laleli was described to me by one of the shop’s friendly associates. The distinctive shop—with a bright white exterior and a beautiful chandelier of little glass bottles of olive oil inside—offers the full range of Laleli oils, which include extra virgin, early harvest, oil for cooking, classic olive oil, flavored oils, and Antik, my favorite—it’s made from the oil of very old trees and comes in a bottle shaped like an amphora. Wonderful soaps, a few vinegars, and olives are available—the olives come in jars or in vaccum-sealed packages—as well as attractive olive motif items. Tastings are encouraged, and Laleli has been honored with numerous awards, including a gold medal at the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2008 Competition. Mail orders are happily filled.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A book of any type requires the efforts of a staggering number of people, but an anthology requires even more. The likelihood is great, therefore, that I am forgetting the names of some people who helped create this finished book, and I can only hope that they will understand and forgive me. Enormous thanks most assuredly must go to Vintage publisher Anne Messitte, who was an early champion of The Collected Traveler sixteen years ago and who is almost single-handedly responsible for the series landing at Vintage Books. “Almost” because the support of Editor-in-Chief LuAnn Walther has been incalculable, not only because she embraced the books, but also because she turned this manuscript over to Diana Secker Tesdell, a gifted editor who is, serendipitously, a fellow Turkey enthusiast. In all my dreams I could not have conceived of a more perfect editor. Other talented colleagues in the extended Vintage family who diligently helped shape this book include Kathy Hourigan, Florence Lui, Roz Parr, Russell Perreault, Andrea Robinson, Irena Vukov-Kendes, Lisa Weinert, and freelance designer Jo Anne Metsch.

Teşekkür ederim to Tom Brosnahan, Gamze Artaman, Berrin Torolsan, John Scott, Ömer Eymen, Susan Ginsburg, Nabi Israfil, Mahir at the Turkish Tourist Office, and Cem Ongen and Marietta Mancuso at Turkish Airlines. Sincere thanks to each of the individual writers, agents, and permissions representatives for various publishers and periodicals without whose cooperation and generosity there would be nothing to publish. Extra special thanks to traveling companions and friends Maha Khalil, Arlene Lasagna, Amy Myer, and photographer Peggy Harrison, with whom I’ve come a long way since first working for WXAM-FM and WHSV-TV in Virginia. I am deeply grateful to Chip Gibson, my wonderful boss and mentor, who has graciously given me great latitude to work on this book. And finally, thanks to my husband, Jeff, and our daughter, Alyssa,