Istanbul .. Day 11

Nişantaşı

The shops looked like Ave. Montaigne in Paris .. Prada, Cartier, Rolex, Gucci .. like Paris without all the lapdogs (and poop on the streets). But really we were on Vali Konagi in Istanbul's elegant Nişantaşi neighborhood to the north, where Elsa enjoyed a cooking class in a Turkish home. Months ago we tried unsuccessfully to book a flat up there .. but what a deceptive experience that would have been, an entirely different world. Instead, returning home after the class, we encountered a little herd of sheep coming down our street. Uffda!

Cooking Class

Elsa here. So what is Peynirli Börek? 

It and seven other Turkish dishes were prepared and consumed in four hours by a cadre of six travelers interested in Turkish food. There was a young female obstetrician from Vancouver; a Russian serving in the Canadian navy and his wife, a Russian lawyer for the Canadian navy, now living in Halifax; a young couple from the UK, both working in advertising for British television; and me. We gathered around a large butcher block table in the charming kitchen of Selin Rodanes where we cut, diced, mashed, mixed, rolled and stuffed the ingredients for börek baked with layers of filo dough and cheese, green beans in olive oil, Swiss chard rolls, spicy bulgar, green olive salad, carrots in garlicky yogurt, pomegranate molasses sauce and Revani, a Semolina sponge cake. 

All under the watchful eye and gentle guidance of Selin, former travel agent, now teacher to increasing numbers of groups like ours. She also leads Street Food Walks and Market Walks featuring everything from fish to nuts. Literally. Click here to learn about her at www.turkishflavours.com.

She refuses to call herself “chef” but offers a varied menu of dishes that are really just Turkish home cooking. Nothing sophisticated, more comfort food, they are simple to make with familiar ingredients. Nothing from a can but some home made tomato sauce and paste in jars, no butter but a bit of sugar in almost everything, incredibly fresh vegetables, lots of yogurt, garlic, and olive oil. Lots of spices, passed around, smelled and sampled that made a huge difference in the taste of everything we made. Some were a combination of spices like Janissary spice used in the pilaf, or Dolma spice used in the chard rolls. The most amazing flavor came from something called pomegranate molasses which we used in several of the dishes, an intense, sweet, fruity taste. We were told exactly which spice merchant in the Egyptian market would sell us all these things and of course I will pay him a visit in the next days. There were none of the measuring implements we use at home. Instead a tea glass full of this or a soup spoon of that. 

When I googled cooking classes in Istanbul I learned of several options, some held in restaurants, taught by professional chefs. I choose Turkish Flavors because it is held in Selin’s elegantly traditional flat. It was by far the best cooking class I’ve ever attended, resulting in the best food. Very hands on in a lovely, homey way. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. 

Four hours later we sat down at a wonderful table in her sunny apartment and enjoyed every bite. Then finished it off with the Semolina cake, by now saturated with a sugar, citrus syrup, and a dollop of clotted cream. And the best Turkish coffee ever. Who could ask for more?

Ataturk

While Elsa was in cooking class, I read the paper and ate a sandwich in a lovely park, at a fountain circled by bronze busts of 17 important Turkish leaders .. everyone from Atilla (d. 453) to Ataturk (1881-1938). In 1923 Atatürk fiercely established Turkey as a secular nation, a tradition increasingly under pressure from the rising tide of Islam. His given name was Mustafa Kemal but in 1934 the parliament adoringly bestowed on him the surname Atatürk (“founder of the nation”) and forbade anyone else ever to use it. His portraits and statues are everywhere. Apparently Turks don’t revere Atilla quite as much. Though he conquered great swaths of the known world in the 5th century, he never took Constantinople.