Taste of the rose

The rose is more than a rose in this part of the world. The name of the rose, simply “gül” in Turkish, was once used to refer to all flowers, perhaps because it was the ultimate flower, perfect in shape, color, smell and moreover, in taste. Culinary use of the rose dates back to ancient times, but it is the Ottoman, Iranian and Indian cookery that make the most of the taste of the rose.
 
Rose-water or rose petals are used primarily in sweets and drinks, like the gulab-jamun of India, or rose-flavored sherbets and ices of Persian and Ottoman palace cuisines. Milk puddings, aşure and zerde always have a good splash of rose-water in Turkish cuisine, and the ultimate rose dessert is güllaç, as the name implies, it means “rosy dish”. In olden times, it was also used in savory dishes like meat stews, but this remains a thing of the past now, especially in Turkey. In Iran some salty dishes still have a touch of rose, one delightful example being Iraninan cacık, the refreshing cucumber-yoghurt cold soup. 
 
Apart from being a culinary delight, rose is also a remedy. Ottoman medicine praised rose for its curative properties. Ottoman medicine was based on a unique blend of the teachings of Hippocrates, father of western medicine and Avicenna (or Ibn Sina), his eastern equivalent for the Islamic world, who studied the Indian Ayurvedic system, Islamic practice and the ancient Greek medicine. According to Ottoman belief, rose is cool and refreshing; it smells sweet and lifts the spirits up. Rose is a strong anti-depressant, that’s why rose-water is sprinkled on guests paying their condolences in the funeral house. Rose gives you a sense of light-hearted wellbeing, and that may be the sole reason why we all have a lofty...