Turkish Cooking Class

Cheese is the centerpiece of Turkish breakfast

What is one thing you have always wanted to learn?

When asked this question, I have many different answers running through my head. I’d love to learn how to play an instrument (shamisen), learn to sing, learn a different language, and the list goes on. Sitting down, I thought more about this question. All these things I could learn, but they’re pretty typical of a response when asked.

With more thought, I reflect on how I’ve always wanted to learn how to not produce trash (as much as possible). To recycle everything possible, compost, and to make an effort to not buy things with unnecessary bags, etc.

Another would be survival skills. Kind of a critical skill to have if anything was to happen. Like zombies. Or robots. Okay, in all seriousness, it is an important skill to have.

Going deeper, I realize the thing I am most passionate about learning is something that I’ve actually been working on. I want to learn about as many different foods from different countries and cultures as possible. It is important to me to learn, cook, taste, and bring awareness to these different kinds of foods as much as possible.

When possible, I take advantage of learning about food from different lands. Last weekend, I took a Turkish cooking class going over Turkish breakfast. What is Turkish breakfast exactly? I wasn’t so sure myself going in. Turns out, it’s a delicious combination of cheeses, herbs, fruits, eggs, breads, and so on.

A lot of preserves, honey, and tahini are used with breakfast

I took a few pictures to share the experience (with my phone so you’ll have to forgive the quality). The women teaching the class were from Turkey. They had stories to share and tidbits about the food and where the names of the food came from. For instance, Tulum cheese is made of goats milk and is actually made inside a goat’s stomach (I’m sure you wanted to know that. But you should really try it, it’s good). It’s a very salty cheese and reminds me slightly of a mix of Manchego and blue cheese.

Mixing cheeses and dill to make a borek: a cheese filled dough that is warmed

Menemen cooking

Menemen is a Turkish egg dish that reminds me a lot of shakshouka. It’s a tomato and herb base with egg added. You can prepare this with the eggs sunny side up style or scrambled. They added sujuk sausage which is similar to a dry salami.

Preparing tea with two kettles! One kettle has the tea leaves boiling in water creating a concentrated black tea. The other kettle is just hot water so you can dilute the concentrated tea as much as you prefer. Kind of a genius idea really.

This salad was amazing. I’ll be making it this weekend to post for you guys. It was a arugula pomegranate salad. So good. I don’t have the measurements of the dressing, so I’ll have to play around till I get it right.

So this was my adventure in Turkish cooking. They should be offering another class next month and I’m looking forward to taking it!

I will continue learning as much as I can about different foods and cooking from different cultures. It isn’t as straight forward as other subjects of learning because it is so broad–but I like that. I feel that life is all about learning, and we need to constantly push ourselves to find new horizons and explore the world as much as we can.

What type of food have you always wanted to learn more about? Have to experimented with food from other cultures?