Süryani Winemaking in Mardin

As some of you may know, I'm writing my Masters thesis on the cultural heritage of winemaking in Anatolia (Turkey).  My main case study is the winemaking culture of the Süryani people in the region of Tur 'Abdin - which stretches roughly from the city of Mardin eastward to the Tigris River and south to the Syrian plain.

So last weekend I went to Mardin to see what sorts of remnants of winemaking culture exist amongst the Süryani people living there today.  This involved visiting monasteries, churches, an excavation of an ancient winepress and, of course, going to wineries and meeting Süryani winemakers.

the town of Mardin

grape vines on someone's back patio - almost everyone grows their own grapes

Tur ‘Abdin, means “the Mountain of the Servants of God” in Syriac. The region has historically been populated by Christian Aramaean communities who have been making wine there since roughly 1000 BCE.  Süryanis have left their mark on the landscape, including construction of Christian monasteries and wine presses within the region, some of which exist to this day and some of which are even still in use.

We visited some of the monasteries in the region to survey remnants of a history and culture of winemaking, and sure enough we found grapevine mosaics and rock carvings in these monasteries.

mosaics showing grapevines

winepress in one Mor Gabriel

 Grape vine carvings in Mor Gabriel Monastery

courtyard in Mor Gabriel

A remarkable ancient winemaking system was unearthed about a year ago outside of Mardin which has been named Çelibra.  It is unknown exactly when the system was made, but it is of a massive scale, comprised of 8 huge treading floors and 104 tanks, all cut directly out of one piece of stone.  The system was constructed in a way that utilizes gravitational force to funnel the wine from one stage of the process to the next.  Ingenius!  The scale of the winepress makes us think that it was producing wine for export, but it will be useful to know when it was constructed...more of that in my thesis!

one of the treading floors

one of the tanks

small tank directly under the treading floor that served as a kind of filter before overflowing into a bigger tank

some of the tanks directly under the treading floors

the funneling system

the tanks

the winemaking system

another view of the winemaking system

 

three tanks located underneat a treading floor

street in Old Mardin

Church in Old Mardin

 and then I met with some local winemakers!  This guy showed us his cork press.

view up to the acropolis from my hotel

this is the stone that a Saint carried back to his Monastery from (then) Constantinople after exorcising the devil from the Emperor's daughter soul! or so goes the story...

sign for Süryani wine shop in Midyat, a town near Mardin

And now some doors from the streets of Old Mardin...

okay, I'm off to write my thesis!

Bridesmaid Dress Shopping in Fatih: Every Disney Princess' Cupcake Dream

About a year ago, my colleagues and I went to the area of Istanbul called Fatih on what one might call a field trip for grown-ups, to visit the Fatih Camii (mosque).  Fatih is known to be one of the most conservative neighborhoods of Istanbul, where most women veil, and there is a mosque on just about every street.

While we were walking around the area surrounding the mosque we noticed a lot of bridal dress shops, this may or may not have anything to do with Fatih being conservative, who knows, but anyway!

So when my friend Ashley said she needed to go bridesmaid dress shopping for her friend Danielle's wedding this summer, we knew where to go.  and we knew who to call, Fatma!  Zac's wonderful, funny, motorcycle-riding, metal-listening, Turkish-speaking girlfriend.

We decided to meet up at Fatih Cami and go from there...

Now keep in mind, Fatih is a very conservative neighborhood. Most of the women not only wear the veil, many wear the full black garb (not the full burka which covers the eyes) but none the less, a stark contrast from the type of clothing we were in the market for.

Fatih has a TON of dress shops.  This is probably due to the sheer number of life-marking celebrations that occur in Turkish culture.  Apparently you need a dress for every separate occasion...and there are a lot of occasions...but we were looking for a rather specific dress: blue purple (not magenta pink purple), not strapless, not too gaudy/sparkly, which is harder to find than you might think.

and what did we find?  lot's of cupcake dresses

  look at that poof

the moment Ashley found the dress for her

mmm dresses of every color

after trying on many a dress, we decided it was time for cay: tea and cake break! the favored mid-afternoon custom of every culture

After perusing one or two more dress shops, we decided it was time to call it a day.  Fatma invited us over to her apartment in the neighborhood, where we could relax and play with her cat Bella's new kittens.

Kittens!

playing Tabla

and Fatma made manti (imagine really small ravioli with a yogurt sauce on top, drizzled with spiced butter), because she is amazing.

It was nice to have an excuse to go to Fatih, which is not a neighborhood most of us visit regularly, and seeing as we didn't find a dress, we will likely go on another excursion shortly!

Homemade No-bake "Lara" Bars

Every time I come back to Turkey, I always stock up at Whole Foods on as many wholesome snack bars I can manage justifying luggage space to myself for.  So I looked at the ingredients of one of my favorites, Lara bars, and it turns out that most are made of the simplest of ingredients which are seemingly just mashed up, so I decided to make my own this time.

So I went to the glorious Beşiktaş fruit and nut store and stocked up for the event.

It's a very basic idea: take one kind of dried fruit that can be mushed up (dates, apricots, maybe figs) and combined that with crushed nuts.

In a bag, place about 1/2 cup of any kind of nut you want. Take a wooden spoon, or better yet, a rolling pin, and just smash the nuts until they are in very small and even meal-like pieces. 

In addition, you might consider adding:

other types of dried fruit (chopped cranberries, cherries

seeds (pumpkin, flax)

chocolate chunks

coconut

Once you have your amalgamation of goods combined, spread it (with a spoon) across the bottom of a tupperware to desired thickness and place in fridge.  When ready to use slice and remove from tupperware, put in ziplock sandwich bag and you're ready to go.

Apricot/Cranberry/Walnut/Cashew bar:

First I picked out the juiciest of apricots from my dried/fruit and nut store. I took each apricot and sliced them along the side, opening up their skin to get into the meaty inside. Then took a spoon and just smushed them in a bowl. I then added chopped cranberries to this.

I crushed up 1/8 cup of walnuts, because that's all I had left, and then decided to add cashews.

Date/Cashew bar:

Take about 8-10 dates, slice them to open them up and remove the seed, then place them all in a bowl and mash 'em up.

In a bag, place 1/3 cup cashews and roll over them with rolling pin or spoon to mash them into little pieces.  Combine with dates to evenly spread cashews throughout date mixture.  Spoon into tupperware and spread to desired thickness.  Place in fridge.

Royal Wedding: Excuse for British Brunch

so this is a bit of a throwback...

I found these pictures taken last April, shortly after I stopped blogging.  So I'm going to start "back-tracking" with this quick post

THE ROYAL WEDDING

Did I or my friends particularly care about the wedding of Princes Charles and Kate Middelton?  Perhaps yes, mostly because, growing up in the early 90s, with the dreamy and dashing Prince William just a few years older, meant defacto growing up with the secret wish that...

I might have the honor of hosting a delicious British-style brunch one day to commemorate the event of his ceremonious wedding. 

Biscuits and tea!

 Our array of tasty goods included homemade heart-shaped sweet biscuits by my friend Emily which were covered with Vermont maple cream (imported by yours truly), chocolate snickerdoodle cookies courtesy of Ashley, fresh strawberries and oranges, and a plate of white cheese with dried figs, dried apricots and walnuts.

Ashley made these chocolate snickerdoodle cookies, dusted with powdered sugar.

Emily's heart-shaped British sweet biscuits, to be smothered with Vermont maple cream

the Vermont maple cream, various jams and dried fruit plate

and there was tea, of course...

Ashley and Emily getting excited about some part of the wedding...

The Duchess of Cambridge-to be, arriving at the Cathedral

Always good to have an excuse for British brunch and tea.  We're counting on Harry to give us cause for a reunion...

Ratatouille a la Italiana

Another adaption of the genius working over at Smittenkitchen.com.  (http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/07/rat-a-too-ee-for-you-ee/)

The first time I made this was in my kitchen last summer with my good friend David, who helped me with the most crucial part of ratatouille: to slice the eggplant, squash and red bell pepper in very thin slices.  

As we begin to flirt with Spring here in Istanbul, I thought I might invoke the Summer spirit by making this dish.  The only thing I added was a dollup of pesto to the base of the pan, forcing the great French and Italian cuisines to combine.  It was delicious, these two culinary power houses should combine their forces more often.

So ratatouille is REALLY simple. 

First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.

Now place:

1 cup tomato sauce

1/2 medium onion, sliced

3 or 4 cloves chopped garlic

pesto (optional)

in the bottom of a large baking pan.

Then you are going to slice very thinly (1/16 of an inch):

1 medium eggplant

1-2 squash

1 red bell pepper (I used some tomatoes, because they don't really have bell peppers here in Turkey - if you are going to use a tomato, make sure it's isn'y mealy)

Once you've thinly sliced the vegetables, place them in the dish, alternating eggplant, squash, pepper...push them up together so they are very tightly packed.

As you come to the edge of the pan, just keep your alternating pattern going around the corner and bring it around the outer edge of the pan, as if you were forming a big circle that than comes into the center...

Bake in oven for approximately 45-55 minutes, or until vegetables are nice and soft.

enjoy on rice, quinoa or just by itself.