Recipes    

Turkish cuisine provides healthy, hearty, delicious food for family and friends.
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Cookery Classes

I teach Turkish cooking classes in England,Turkey & USA, hope you can join us!,
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About

Ozlem-at-the-spice-market2008I love Turkish food and would love to my share my homeland’s healthy, delicious, easy Turkish recipes with the home cooks and foodies. Having lived in Turkey over 30 years, I am also very passionate about the amazing history, landscape and heritage that my country offers. I look forward to sharing photos and stories of my culinary and cultural trips to Turkey and some wonderful Turkish recipes that you can easily create in your home. Your comments and questions are always welcome; you can post a comment under each recipe or send me a message.

I started the blog with our favorite Turkish word, “Hosgeldiniz”, which means “Welcome”. Hospitality is a big part of Turkish culture and you can feel it everyday life all around. I was born and raised in Turkey, and I feel very fortunate to be a part of this rich, generous and welcoming culture. I vividly remember friends and extended family members knocking the door of my Grandmother’s 400 year old house in Antakya spontaneously, and they were happily welcomed to the dinner table. We would all sit around her courtyard dinner table under the fig tree and have a feast of senses with arrays of wonderful mezzes ( small plates of appetizers), abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables cooked in olive oil (Zeytinyaglilar), succulent kebabs and many more. I sure was a lucky grandchild as I was introduced such wonderful food and how to enjoy them at an early age. Likewise, my mother would put extra two plates on the table, as she would know there is always someone turns out to say hi or join the meal. Turkish saying “Basimin ustunde yerin var” (“I would place you at the top of my head”) I think sums the Turkish hospitality very well. We Turks place our guests at the top of our heads, and would be delighted to share our food with them.

Entertaining is a big part of Turkish culture. We love having guests and our friends around, even it is for sharing the humble bread and cheese. My mother always used to say, “Greet your guests/friends always with a warm smile, make them welcome and feel they are a part of our extended family.” When someone would compliment my mother how delicious her food was, she would say with her infectious smile that it is because she has made it with her love, and I know she has meant every word of it. Isn’t it true though, our care is reflected through the food we affectionately produce for our loved ones?