[-empyre-] who owns the city? (Istanbul)

[Simon Biggs]

One evening we went to a restaurant (Aristane) that specialises in recreating or reinterpreting Ottoman cuisine. The dishes were dated (1473, 1620, 1701, etc). It wasn't cheap (eg: by UK standards it was approaching Michelin prices) but the food was fascinating, complex and in some instances astounding. If you are into serious cooking this would have pleased you. It was also out from the centre, quite a taxi ride. It was worth it. Memorable. Not a kebab in sight (there was a dish called a kebab - but it wasn't).

best

Simon


On 22 Sep 2011, at 08:02, davin heckman wrote:

> On a more mundane level, my friends and I went to dinner at a kebap
> house, the first one in Istanbul.  And, as we enjoyed the meal, they
> mentioned that there was a downside to kebap restaurants, and that was
> that they were delicious, inexpensive, and hearty....  but that they
> were crowding out the Ottoman cuisine, with all of its widely varied
> flavors and laborious techniques.  They then added that the
> traditional food of Istanbul was the refinement of many years of
> hybridization, reflecting the general uneasiness of change, modernity,
> and cosmopolitanism.  It was a regionally specific version of the
> debates about fast food culture (convenience, taste, expense), but one
> that I could very easily relate to, but never would have even noticed
> had I not been staying with Turkish friends.
> 
> Davin
> 
> On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 2:43 PM, Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I was there a week only but all ppl I met (Turks everyone) told me they felt
>> the "turkization" and the erasing of the Byzantine past, very well related
>> in the book "From the Holy Mountain", by William Dalrymple.
>> He did a trip between the monasteries in Syria, Palestina and Turkey and saw
>> the intentionality of the erasing of all traces of former cultures.
>> Did you enter the Hagia Sofia? Crumbling away with zero maintenance...
>> Ana
>> 
>> On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 8:48 AM, Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> hi Ana, just wondering why you feel 'all the remnants of the past are
>>> crumbling away' ? On the contrary, I feel the successive layers of history
>>> are very much alive, and also the mixity of the population and the
>>> neighborhoods
>>> , with so many recent first-generation immigrants from the rural Anatolian
>>> countryside, represent quite a mixture of temporalities, etc ... very unlike
>>> western europe, where only the buildings remain ... extented families and
>>> village cooperative solidarity also remain realities, as far as I could
>>> ascertain from speaking with Turkish friends (I gave a lecture to an
>>> all-turkish audience yesterday)
>>> 
>>> Michel
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 6:36 AM, Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I am bit curious about how did the people who travelled to Istanbul for
>>>> the first time experienced the city itself, Turkey and all the
>>>> contradictions and the multiple layers of meaning residing in this old city
>>>> where all the remnants of it's past are crumbling away. As you know many
>>>> Turks want to be a part of Europe and join the EC, but many others want keep
>>>> the country's isolation.
>>>> Ana
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> http://www.twitter.com/caravia1585353
>>>> http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/
>>>> http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia, wi
>>>> mobil/cell +4670-3213370
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with
>>>> your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always
>>>> long to return.
>>>> — Leonardo da Vinci
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> empyre forum
>>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
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>>> 
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>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> empyre forum
>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> http://www.twitter.com/caravia15853
>> http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/
>> http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia
>> http://www.scoop.it/t/gender-issues/
>> http://www.scoop.it/t/literary-exiles/
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>> http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0
>> http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/
>> 
>> mobil/cell +4670-3213370
>> 
>> 
>> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your
>> eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long
>> to return.
>> — Leonardo da Vinci
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> 


Simon Biggs
simon at littlepig.org.uk www.littlepig.org.uk @SimonBiggsUK skype: simonbiggsuk

s.biggs at ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art University of Edinburgh
www.eca.ac.uk/circle www.elmcip.net www.movingtargets.co.uk