Food and drink

Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek’s nearly two million Twitter followers had a surprise this morning, with tweets inviting them for a delicious simit in the city’s main square and announcing free public transportation, which sounded too goofy even by the eccentric standards of the social media-loving mayor.

Rolled and wrapped leaves stuffed with various fillings are the most distinctive dishes of Turkish cookery. Wrapped leaves of all kinds, the ubiquitous yaprak sarma, especially of grapevines, appear on the table either as a meze, or as a main dish, undoubtedly in all corners of the country.

Inspectors from Bulgarian Regional Food Safety Directorates in the floods-damaged areas are taking urgent measures to prevent food-borne illnesses and infectious animal diseases.

The production, storage and marketing sites for wholesale and retail foods will be inspected in order to prevent any foodstuffs unsafe for human consumption to enter the markets, Nova Tv reports.

What would Lady Macbeth be without something extravagant in which to sweep on stage or Hamlet without a silk doublet and padded hose?       

We are proceeding in a very warm agenda, such as Turkish diplomats and drivers being taken hostage, the spreading of clashes in Iraq and the nomination of Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu as the joint presidential candidate of Turkey’s two major opposition parties.

A handful of Islamic preachers in Turkey will earn more than a million Turkish Liras with their special shows on Turkish TV screens throughout Ramadan this year, which will start on June 28.

Top of the list is Islamic scholar Nihat Hatipoğlu, who has clinched a contract worth 600,000 liras with ATV for 30 episodes of his trademark Ramadan program, according to daily Vatan.

Bulgaria's Agriculture Ministry has updated the data about the production of basic cereals in 2013.

After the update, an increase in stocks by 857 000 tonnes was registered, mainly due to maize and sunflower, according to data of Bulgaria's National Grain and Feed Service, as cited by farmer.bg.

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.

Consumption of bread and pastry products in Greece posted a considerable decline at the height of the economic crisis in 2012, according to the latest sector study by Infobank Hellastat.

After years of acrimonious debate, European Union states are finally near a compromise solution on the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops that will give reluctant governments the right to opt out from the practice.