Cuisine

The first ever gastronomy conference targeting professionals in Turkey, the National Gastromasa Conference, will be held on Nov. 14 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Istanbul's ?i?li district.

World leaders visiting Turkey this weekend for the G-20 Summit will enjoy the famous "Turkish delight" as they will be gifted 21 boxes of sweets by a local producer on the instruction of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.   

Greek moussaka
The wonderful Akis Petretzikis has a fantastic moussaka recipe using baked vegetables instead of fried to make it that little bit lighter. Delicious layers of potato, aubergine, courgette and beef, all topped off with a creamy béchamel sauce and a handful of parmesan.

Serves: 6 Preparation time: 20 mins Cooking time:36 mins Ready in: 55 mins

Ingredients

1 small cabbage cut into small pieces

2 leeks, coarsely chopped

3-4 sprigs of celery, chopped

1½ cup of rice

1 tablespoon chopped mint (optional)

"Como te ves me vi
 Como me ves te versa" 

A Greek delicious winter treat comes just in time for Halloween!

Serves: a medium-sized pan Preparation time: 30 mins Cooking time:1.30 mins Ready in: 2 hours

INGREDIENTS

One hummus cafe in central Israel put clashes aside and decided to offer 50% discounts to Jews and Arabs who sit together. The Hummus Bar at the M Mall in Kfar Vitkin wrote this message on its Facebook page:

The translated message:

Food is essential to life. Our existence is dependent on the food we eat, so it is no coincidence that we often identify ourselves with what we eat. Food is in a way the very core of our cultures and identities. Mankind has always struggled for food, fought for food and prayed for food. We all surely appreciate what we eat and feel grateful to be able to have it.

When I first saw the call for papers on H-Turk, a list-serve of a history-focused group of academics, I said to myself, "That's for me!" The title was "From Kebab to ?evab?i?i: Eating Practices in Ottoman Europe." I was a bit intimidated at the beginning as it was organized by the research group "Ottoman Europe," a group of historians from Giessen University in Germany.

As Germany takes in record numbers of people fleeing Syria and other war zones, its large Turkish community is warning the country not to "repeat the mistakes of the past".
 
Europe's top destination for refugees is also home to the world's largest Turkish diaspora, counting some three million, a legacy of Germany's post-war so-called guest worker programme.