Having been the capital of many civilizations, Istanbul's food culture is a deeply rooted area that babbles like the waters of the Bosporus.
For this, the Union of Istanbul Strait Municipalities has published an unexampled book on the entire corpus of the Bosporus culture, starting from its flavors to the sociological transformation of the area.
"Tastes of the Bosphorus" written by award-winning Turkish chef and writer Ömür Akkor, also known as "Ömür Chef," and his sister Zennup Pınar Çakmakcı, chronologically unfolds the cultural accumulation of the Bosporus with a flavor-oriented ontology. The book also traces the reflection of the social change taking place in Istanbul in the food culture with specific information about the Bosporus from the past to the present.
The work prepared in both Turkish and English offers a wide range of information about which fish should be consumed in which month, also mentioning the specific fishing style for each fish type. The work, which contains special recipes for each of the Bosporus fish species, reveals an original contribution to the cultural history of Istanbul and its strait by detailing the recipes of dishes that wafted from the mansions for centuries in the iconic city.
Beyond being just an ordinary cookbook, it is actually a sociological work, explaining a specific way of life and culture of some wealthy families who lived in the mansions located on the Bosporus as the region has a distinct identity in terms of way of life and culture.
For example, according to the book, the glorious swordfish, which is abundant in the waters of the Bosporus, was generally caught in the bay between the Anatolian Fortress (Anadolu Hisarı) and Kanlıca, off the coast of Kandilli, in Kanlıca-Çubuklu, Kavaklar Sarıyer region. As chef Ömür Akkor elaborates, eating swordfish is special and the first recipe for how to consume is found in the first Ottoman cookbook by Turabi Efendi “Melceü't Tabbahi.”
"When the fishermen sailed to catch swordfish, they took portable barbecues with them. It was to be eaten immediately after it was caught. It wouldn't be kept in fridges and then moved home or restaurants like now. They would also have some lemons with them in the boat that they collected from the trees for those who preferred squeezed lemon on the fish," Akkor elaborated.
The book also includes acorns, toric or tuna reliefs as symbols of the Bosporus on the coins that were minted at the time of the Roman Empire, highlighting the most obvious examples of the importance attached to fish.
Speaking to Daily Sabah, Akkor said: "This book is a review of Bosporus culture. We generally tend to think that some of our traditions are passed to us from other nations yet we have a deep-rooted principle on these matters. Sea culture, living in manors with a view of the sea, fishing and fishing techniques constitute an element of Bosporus culture that the Ottoman Empire formed."
According to Akkor, the strait was a prominent location for all the ancient civilizations, with the Romans believing that their gods lived within the sea.
"Sea culture has become an inseparable part of Istanbulities' lives. Going for a walk in the moonlight near docked boats, elegant and polite manners, books, prominent writers, literature and musical works are all shaped around the Bosporus," Akkor also said.
“We wanted to show our people the Bosporus culture we have. Our antecedents built mansions on the coasts, made fish ponds for their mansions and legislated a specific law to fish from their own mansions,” he added.
On the other hand, each district of the city offers unique elements, Akkor said, pointing out that Fatih was famous for its bread, and some districts had judas trees or violets used to make sherbet.
As a culture that specialized in a certain cooking type, Akkor added that Anatolia is a magical place for having 10,000 years of continuity in food tradition as recent findings also revealed that ancient civilizations processed wheat for nearly 50,000 years.
