Those of you who live in Turkey will know that brunch is almost an institution. Lazy Sunday mornings that stretch into endless afternoons where you eat too much, gossip a lot, and just enjoy yourself. Then “…after everyone has eaten enough and drunk their last glass of tea, it’s time for coffee. Coffee is drunk according…
“… of all the traditions that say Turkey to me, the use of lemon cologne is the earliest and strongest memory I will always have. When I first came to the country back in 1990, I took long road trips on buses stinking of cigarette smoke. Despite the nicotine fug I always came out smelling…
At least once a month I set off to explore Istanbul’s lesser known streets and sights. Armed with a vague plan to see at least one specific place, I often come across unexpected delights. The day I headed to Nısancı Mahallesi with my husband and two friends, was no exception. This time I discovered an…
In a little known film set in Istanbul spanning the last century, Turkish seasonings play an important role. In Turkey herbs and spices represent the continuity of history as well as the diversity within cultures. After interviewing my baharatçı, my spice seller Ayhan Baloğlu, I can see why. Born in Gaziantep on the hot dusty plains…
Unlike the people I come from, Turks don’t plan much in advance. Faith in inşallah (if Allah permits) and the reality of a bureaucracy that is simultaneously archaic and ever changing, means it isn’t usually worth the effort. Any plans that are made in advance are done so on an ad hoc basis with little…
The Muslim religious obligation to fast for a month, known as Ramazan in Turkish, is held at a different time each year. The start is determined by the lunar calendar, and the first fasting day is around eleven days earlier each year. Muslims fast to show solidarity with those who rarely have enough food to…
I am intrigued by the way Turks look at life, particularly when they view it using their own unique take on Western advertising. As I’ve already written in “I never knew love until I knew Roger” (Inside Out In Istanbul), Turks have a passion for the foreign. Foreign music whose lyrics they don’t understand, foreign…
Back in 2000 when I first lived in Istanbul, most of the foreign women in Turkey I knew were blonde. Whenever we met up for coffee they would regale me with stories of being followed by strange men and touched intimately and inappropriately on the shoulder or the backside. Perhaps I was more prejudiced than…
I can vividly remember the first time I came face to face with the results of the feast known in Turkey as Kurban Bayram. It’s the traditional religious holiday when all Muslim are expected to commemorate the strength of Ibrahim’s faith by sacrificing a cow, sheep or goat (read more about the meaning of Kurban…
After Republic day in 2002, the main topic of conversation among my students was voting in Turkey due to the the upcoming Turkish elections. It was impossible to ignore them because every other day some party leader came to Kayseri to mount the hustings and win votes. Posters appeared everywhere advertising rallies in Cumhuriyet Meydan,…