Photo by Jenny White
The Sütis Pudding Shop in the village of Emirgan on the Bosphorus is discussed in my article on Turkish eating that appears in this month’s Gourmet Magazine (a link is in my blog entry below, the one with the picture of mezze appetizers).
Mezze at Develi Kebapci in Kalamis, photo by Jenny White
Click here for my article in Gourmet Magazine on historic restaurants in Istanbul — and their cultural traditions.
Excerpt:
…Despite the proliferation of foreign-style restaurants and chains in Istanbul, most Turks still insist on maintaining the authenticity not only of their food but of the entire eating experience. […]
Photo by Jenny White
Taking the smoking ban literally, Turkey’s media oversight organization, the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), has forbidden the depiction of smoking on the nation’s television screens. Click here for columnist Andrew Finkel’s (semi-)humorous account of watching “Patton: Lust for Glory” on TV, with the American tank commander Patton’s face blurred through scrambling (he […]
From Sahin Alpay’s column (click for full text):
… Perhaps the most interesting finding of the [German Marshall Fund] “Transatlantic Trends” survey is that 57 percent of Europeans and 55 percent of Turks agree that “Turkey has such different values that it is not really part of the West.” This reminds me of the findings of […]
Firearm ownership in Turkey has reached alarming figures, with the number of guns in the country estimated at 8 million, more than twice what it was seven years ago. According to current figures, 9 percent of the nation owns a firearm.
Turkey has approximately 2.5 million registered guns, while an estimated 5.5 million guns are believed […]
(click here for the full article, which also discusses Turkey’s only female Ramadan drummer). Excerpts:
…Each morning during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, an hour and a half before dawn, drummers tour the streets, hammering out a repetitive beat to wake people up to have their suhoor (pre-dawn meal) before dawn, when those who are […]
Almost half [45%] of urban Turkish women believe economic independence for women is unnecessary, and younger generations seem to share this view more than the older generations, according to [a newly published poll by the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey, or KAGIDER]. Almost 50 percent of women between ages 15 and 19 believed a woman’s […]
The Transparency International CPI measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys. The 2008 CPI scores 180 countries (the same number as the 2007 CPI) on a scale from zero. In this year’s index, Turkey ranks 58 and with […]
The Education Ministry’s announcement about changes to school uniforms has caused debate among secular segments of society, who have found the new “tie-free” uniforms to be “not modern.”… Istanbul’s provincial director of national education, Ata Özer, announced that students could wear t-shirts instead of shirts and they did not have to wear ties until the […]