26 June, 2016

Gaziantep: The Soul of Turkish Food

The long table is set for breakfast. There are crinkly black olives, round brown olives, squares of fetta cheese, tomato wedges, cucumber crescents, creamy natural yoghurt, muscatels and almonds, soft white bread rolls, bowls of apricot nectar and honey, and a çaydanlık (or Turkish double teapot, similar to a samovar). Lightly scrambled eggs are served separately … Continue reading →
18 June, 2016

Bulgur: the first convenience food

On a recent trip to Gaziantep, a bustling, vibrant city of 1.8 million people in south-eastern Turkey, I made some astonishing discoveries. I’d been invited to Gaziantep for the city’s very first Bulgur Festival, a celebration to highlight the city’s recent addition to UNESCO’ s Creative Cities Network for gastronomy. Described by locals as “yellow … Continue reading →
14 May, 2016

Carol SelvaRajah on Dining with Dragons

I was running a little late for my appointment with Carol SelvaRajah, one of Australia’s leading exponents of Nonya and Malaysian cooking. When I arrived, she was on the phone to her brother, Dr Abel Arumugam, in Malaysia. She opened the front door, waving me in, while continuing with the instructions for chicken rendang. “After … Continue reading →
3 April, 2016

Blessed Are The Cheesemakers

We’d only just made our way out through Sydney’s heavy morning traffic along the Princes Highway when a news bulletin informed us that a truck carrying 26 tonnes of cheese had overturned, prompting the closure of part of the Princes Highway on the NSW south coast. The truck overturned last night closing the road in both … Continue reading →
22 March, 2016

One-a-penny, two-a-penny…

Have you ever smelt hot cross buns baking in a home oven?  If you have, you won’t have forgotten for the aroma is irresistible. And if you’ve actually eaten a spicy, buttery but-oh-so-light bun, fresh from the oven, you’d find it hard – if not downright impossible – to go back to those tasteless doughy … Continue reading →
2 March, 2016

The Ancient Cuisine of Gaziantep

I’d never seen such vivid green pistachios – brighter than the freshest green buds of Spring – that at first I thought I was hallucinating. They’d been crushed and were being strewn over tissue thin sheets of pastry lightly brushed with oil followed by a sprinkling of sugar and dots of clotted cream. The pastry … Continue reading →