The best meal, an inspirational picture. (yes, Christina and I ate almost all of it before crawling off to the haman then bed.)

Travel is so inspiring, wandering around ancient buildings, chatting with interesting people, buying silk and perfume; in short doing everything that you don’t do when you are at home.

The more I travel, the more I love to cook. Since I have been traveling for more than a few years my cooking has improved in quality as I have eaten my way across Europe. Italy was my main inspiration for food the past several years; I worked on my pizza and bread recipes until my family cried for new tastes. So it was time to travel to Turkey.

Trying Turkish food on my trip last year inspired me to try and make more Middle Eastern foods, but alas, my food attempts tasted a lot like Italian with out the proper spices and directions.

The Egyptian spice market in Istanbul is a wonderful place to be a new chef, not only does it hold a treasure chest in spices, it has the most charming men, who know how to cook.

Doner kebab man

Imagine yourself in a fantastic bazaar, established since the early Middle Ages on the shores of the Golden Horn, just for the importing of spices to Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Baskets of fabulous spices are everywhere; rare and expensive spices are kept in containers at the back of the shop.

Today each Spice Market merchant has his own blend of special spices for meat, vegetables, and salad.

Since a fair amount of Turkish food is meat based, despite the rising price of meat, I had to have several varieties of spice packages both for meat and vegetables from different merchants. One charming man boasted that his mix had twenty-two different spices in it.

Locanta in Istanbul.

For evening I love mezes, another word for cute little bites of food. Stuffed mushrooms or “cigma” little rolls of philo and feta cheese. Shish kebab has restaurants dedicated to it, they serve salad and rice also.

Auntie rolling “pancakes pida” for dinner.

So I ate for two weeks, thought a bit, ate a bit more, tried the wine, (that’s another story!) and now am ready to try cooking Turkish here in Oregon. I have a bundle of spices on the table, a new pepper grinder from the Egyptian market.

So stay tuned for the cooking adventures of Justine the traveler.

Have a comment? Send us a letter!
Check the "Letters to the Editor" for other possible viewpoints!

Ready for more?
more from Justine-
9-17-04 A Rug Story by Justine
Rug stores are interesting, the salesman know an amazing information about rugs. Rug men tend to be well educated and full of interesting conversation.
11-6-03 Of Hamams and Bathing by Justine Merrill
The attendants giggle while dumping scalding hot water on the screaming, howling clients.

12-9-05 New Dance Contest/Theme Party ”A Night at Casablanca!” Photos by Lynette, October 2, 2004 at the Benicia Clocktower Benicia, California Sponsored by Siren In Sanity

12-8-04 Mona el Said in Dallas, Part 2 by Catherine E Barros
12-7-04 Mona el Said in Dallas, Part 1, by Catherine E Barros
Sponsored by Little Egypt at the Holiday Inn, Dallas Texas September 3 - 5, 2004.
It's always nice when you find that someone, whom you've put up on a big pedestal, is down to earth, just "folks" like the rest of us.

9-12-04 Sirat Al-Ghawazi, Part 4 by Edwina Nearing
Begun in the mid-1970's , the early sections of "Sirat Al-Ghawazi" were first published under the title "The Mystery of the Ghawazi." We are happy to be able to respond to the continued demand for these articles by making them available to our readers worldwide.