Gaziantep Cuisine UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Gastronomy: Culinary scenes at Emine Gogus Culinary Museum

The warm June day in Turkey is sunny. I walk along the shadows of the old buildings in a narrow alley right in the heart of old Gaziantep. Sehzat guides me to the courtyard of an old building. A huge flag of Turkey hanging vertically from the first floor to the ground floor flutters in the breeze. I am in Emine Gogus Culinary Museum— the first museum of Turkey which is dedicated to Gaziantep cuisine, cookery and eating etiquette!

Ali Ihsaan Gogus, an esteemed journalist and politician of Turkey, who later went on to become the first Minister of Tourism of Turkey was born in 1923 in this building. The transition of his residence into a culinary museum was his vision and idea, which now fits as a natural extension of the character of Gaziantep. Turkish cuisine is an amalgamation of Kurdish, Arabic, Syrian, early-Armenian and Greek influence. The city is a collage of intimate sensory experiences — a gastronomy hub with delectable cuisine where everyone takes their food very seriously. Keeping in mind the popularity of Gaziantep cuisine UNESCO enlisted it in its Creative Cities Network for Gastronomy.

Basaltic stone walls of the building give respite from the heat. Constructed in 1904, the house is considerably spacious, having spring, summer (the coolest), autumn and winter (the warmest) parts. Now a  being a museum, the display is divided into the following compartments— kitchen, Gaziantep dishes, ingredients, preservation and storing procedure, drinks culture, kitchen tools, equipment and tableware, hosting etiquette, picnic culture and meals for special occasions. Each section is properly labelled with text in both Turkish and English explaining the displays and the ensuing context in details.

Gaziantep dishes and ingredients: With Gaziantep Cuisine UNESCO indeed found a jewel

You only need to roam around in the city to realise the importance of the oak charcoal grilled kebaps. In the Emine Gogus Museum, under the rafter ceiling, you will learn interesting nuggets of information— kebaps of lamb liver, heart and kidneys are early morning snacks in Gaziantep, often cooked by the male head of the family. Prepared as stewpot meals with vegetables and fruits, meat is everywhere in Gaziantep dishes. Sehzat tells me about the significance of Mumbad— animal intestine filled with stuffing, sewed and boiled. Even heads, feet and tails of the sheep are historically used here in soups, pastries and other dishes.

I have never tasted cherry juice before coming to Turkey. I religiously stick with mango, but I ran out of my favoured fruit here and I am glad. In Gaziantep, Maltese plums, sour cherry, figs, quince and apple are the most commonly occurring fruits. The vegetable platter is however almost similar to India— eggplant, onion, tomato, bell pepper, squash, red peppers, garlic, okra and cucumber. The recurring one in my plate during my entire stay is eggplant— sometimes as babaghanoush, other time as dolma.

Herbs, Spices and Grains in Gaziantep Cuisine

The ingredient talk is hardly over. Herbs always garnish meat dishes like kebaps and rissoles. Mallow, mint, tarragon, parsley, thyme, cress, sorrel, artichoke, penny royal, and pigweed are common occurrences in the kitchens of Gaziantep. Romanian lettuce is consumed as an afternoon side dish with meatballs. I still remember the variety of herb tea offered to me in the shops of both Gaziantep and Istanbul.

Given the wide array of food available in Gaziantep are almost all wheat based, it is not hard to guess wheat is the grain that keeps the kitchen together. What leaves me astonished is the knowledge of the versatile by-products of wheat that are used in the local cuisine here. Ground wheat produces flour. Boiled wheat, sundried and then ground produces bulgur. Wheat scorched in fire and then beaten produce firik. Bulgur is used in Rissole, a lip-smacking meat filled patty and in Tarhana soup. The most common dishes, Lahmacun, borek, vermicelli, noodles, baklava, katmer and many more, are made of flour.

During my span of stay in Turkey, I feel a strong similarity between Turkish food and Indian food. Grains like chickpeas, lentils and beans are partly responsible for it, but the liberal use of spices often leads me to believe I am still in India. Black pepper is the most widely used one. Cumin, cloves, cinnamon, fennel —all common on my (Indian) kitchen shelves— find their way into the dishes here. The most expensive spice in the world, saffron, is widely harvested in Turkey and is common in Turkish cuisines. Rubbing newborn babies with a unique spice-mix is considered a healthy habit in Gaziantep.

In a souvenir counter, spices and calciferous jewellery are on sale. Here I come across hazfir, a cheaper substitute of saffron harvested in Anatolia.

Kitchen tools, equipment and tableware: The most valuable material possessions after the agricultural revolution

It is in this region that thousands of years ago, forager bands changed their lifestyle and started settling down. Utensils were their first and foremost requirement for food storage. Sundried clay bowls are the forefathers of all the sophisticated utensils found today in Gaziantep kitchens.

Large metal ladles, pots and pans reserve display space. Artistic carvings embellish the handles. Pictures of a coffee pan from 1915, a fire spoon from 1965 and a colander from early 1900s populate bits of my camera’s memory card. For me, the most special of these are probably the old handmade Antep copper utensils, an art that is still very much alive in the city. Just a few minutes ago, in the coppersmith’s market, I witnessed artisans busy with their hammers and chisel.

Preservation: Work, preserve, sleep, thrive

I leave the arched hall with utensil displays and enter through another arched cane-wood doorway to the preservation section. In the shops of Gaziantep, I have already seen skins of vegetables tied to strings, being sundried, to make them usable in dolmas. This morning, when I attended my first breakfast in Turkey, the table was a smorgasbord of jams—the numero uno technique of preserving the essence of fruits. Ketchup available in discardable small packets has been an age-old tomato preservation technique in Gaziantep. Pickles, a usual item on Indian dining table is yet another recurring item here too. Before refrigerators were common, the locals used the topac method of meat storage that involves slicing, roasting and rolling the meat between the palms before stowing them away in hanging baskets for future consumption.

Picnics and special occasions: How Turks celebrate

All special occasions in Turkey are celebrated with elaborate feasts. Weddings, baby namings, circumcision ceremonies, engagements, henna nights, teething soothers, inviting haj pilgrims and of course breaking of fasts in Ramadan see a culinary exhibition of savory soups, kebaps, dolmas, rice, kofte, green beans, rice noodles, meat with vegetables dishes, rice pudding, cookies, baklava and endless glasses of ayran.

In typical dining etiquette, the eldest is served first and no one leaves the table until the eldest leaves. The host serves all the courses simultaneously, except the dessert. Guests who arrive in the afternoon or after dinner are offered a fekke cikarmak—dried fruits and melons in a copper tray. Mannequins dressed up in the traditional local attire duplicate picnic and meal scenes.

In my hometown Kolkata, picnics are the high point of winter. Throughout the year, communities look forward to planning picnics—an outdoorsy daytrip with self-cooked food and some fun games. Sweltering summers, messy monsoons later, crisp winter days are something we look forward to. I am surprised to find it’s not much different in Gaziantep, though the summers here are not as harsh and winters not as pleasant. Sahres (Turkish picnics) are arranged in the countryside with sumptuous food either cooked at the location or carried from home. Games are played. Men sahres, women sahres, fiancé sahres, sleepover sahres and so many classifications are made based on the demography of the parties involved!

The visit to Emine Gogus Culinary Museum had been extremely overwhelming for me. It was like doing a crash course, but very worthwhile.

To watch my Gaziantep video on Youtube, please click here.

Have you visited Gaziantep or Turkey? Did you enjoy reading about Anatolian food culture? Comment below and let me know!

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Disclaimer: Tania was hosted by Turkey Tourism Board. All thoughts and opinions expressed in the post are of her own.

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