Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts

Sunday, October 27, 2013

A Gift to the Future

The Sidewalk Along
Barbaros Boulevard in Istanbul
 
One of the pleasures of my daily life in Istanbul is this sidewalk. Every time I walk on it, I am filled with gratitude for the thoughtful planner and builders who created it. The width of it seems extraordinarily luxurious in a crowded city.
 
Trees were planted long ago by people who would never get to experience them grown the way I do everyday when I walk under them. These people created a gift to the future.
 
I always ask myself when I am walking here, "did I plant a gift to the future today?"
 
 
 
 
 
You might also enjoy these other posts with amazing walks:
 
 
 
 
 
 


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Afternoon tea and pastry with Guest Chef Yann Duytsche in the Gazebo Lounge at Cırağan Palace Kempinski

When Istanbullis want a sweet treat, they frequently head to the Gazebo Lounge at the Cırağan Palace Kempinski. The lounge has that see-and-be-seen stir of elegant people discussing engaging things while enjoying exceptional edibles. Were the food not so outstanding, it would be easy to take one's eyes off the edibles to appreciate all of the assembled aficionados of delectable desserts.

But it is actually impossible to stop looking at the food. The Gazebo Lounge features the pastry of Master Chocolatier and Philadelphian, Executive Pastry Chef William McCarrick, who was recognized by the entire Kempinski hotel chain when his dessert was selected 2013 Dessert of the Year in a blind taste test.  His creation is a sweet called the Bosphorale, combining bergamot-scented Earl Grey tea from the Black Sea region, and Turkish apricots from Kayseri with the finest Swiss Valrhona chocolate under a shiny glaze.

Talent greets talent:
Chef William McCarrick on the right
host to Chef Yann Duytsche, on the left
This year the Gazebo Lounge is celebrating its dessert destination status by inviting three world-class guest chefs to share their creativity with the Istanbul food-obsessed community. Pastry Chef William McCarrick suggested Frenchman Yann Duytsche as the very first guest chef for the Gazebo Lounge at Cırağan Palace Kempinski. Yann Duytsche is from northern France in Lille but finds himself drawn to the food cultures of the Mediterranean. He owns his own pastry shop in Barcelona, Spain named 'dolç par yann duytsche.'
 
Chef Yann suggests anyone visitng his shop in Barcelona try his signature breakfast sweet, the Karre Mango Croissant, and then take home his bestselling dark chocolate and passion fruit cake plus two or three kinds of cookies.
 
When Chef Yann asked where I was from, I shared that I was American. He said "America has delicious dessert creations - maybe not so sophisticated -but we all make them: cheesecake, cookies, brownies, and carrot cake."

 The chocolate club sandwich features
a crisp caramelized puff pastry. 
Chef Yann begins to assemble his
chocolate club sandwich
with help from Zeynep.
 
Notice the luscious green pesto
made of roka (arugula) and pine nuts.
It's a trend new to me to feature vegetables
in pastry.
 
A smudge of pesto
and a splash of carrots & apricot
nest a sandwich of thin luxe dark chocolate
with lighter chocolate inside.
"I like to play with a dessert that
one almost wants to pick up with one's hands."
The Chocolate Club Sandwich 
Having a guest chef come to Istanbul for a weekend is very much like having a top musician come in and give a master class, only in this case, it is a master class in pastry. "Yann is one of the top pastry chefs in the world," said Chef William. "I worked with him in 1989 in France for a week. We have kept in touch since then. Yann and I have had conversations through the months before he came about what he would make when he was here. His style has a sense of humor - you can see it in what he calls his chocolate club sandwich."
Cırağan chefs come out of the kitchen
to commemorate the moment
The energy in the Gazebo Lounge was sky-high as Yann and Zeynep, who was assisting him, began to assemble desserts for tasting. "The entire team is really excited to have him here," said Chef William. "I told my team to rest up on their day off and don't go shopping or be on their feet. The would need all of their energy for this moment."  I realized what sound advice this was later when Chef William showed me an app on his phone that showed he had walked 17 kilometers the day before just in the course of his work at the hotel.
The Valrhona chocolate ingots
created an inspiring foundation
for creation.
These desserts
have achieved global appreciation
and not just because of the gold leaf
on top.
 
Chef Duytsche led a team of Spanish
pastry chefs to first place
 at the Club de la Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie
(World Pastry Cup Club) in Lyon, France,
the premier world event for the pastry-making elite.

Chef Yann's creations will be featured at three afternoon teas from 3-5 p.m. Friday (yesterday), Saturday and Sunday. His creations will also be the showpiece of the Sunday brunch.

"Chef Yann is interested in the newest trends. The creative brief I gave him was to push the boundaries even farther." When Chef William McCarrick explained some of what the two of them had planned for Sunday brunch it sounded delicious, and frankly, gravity-defying. Also, on Sunday they will feature a festive cake at brunch enjoyed by Lionel Massi, a sportsman well known to Europeans.
 Another pairing well-matched for Istanbul:
a crunchy chocolate base supporting eggplant.
It was delicious.
 
Surely, the addition of vegetables
means all of this pastry is good for us.
 
Chef Yann has created desserts with
asparagus, tarragon, even potatoes.
He said it is easy to bring sweet vegetables
to pastry, and each element has sense in context.
And what is Chef Yann most excited to learn during his stay in Istanbul? "He's most interested to learn about baklava, because the hotel has our very own baklava chef. We made him a savory mushroom baklava to sample," said Chef William.

Chef Yann also added that "he enjoyed eating at Tuğra, the Ottoman-inspired restaurant in the Cırağan Palace Kempinski that overlooks the Bosphorus. I want to see the markets too, to see how Oriental meets Occidental."

What he most enjoyed sharing with the staff in the Gazebo Lounge is his combinations of ingredients, the sophistication of presentation, and his specific aesthetic. "It's like creating a garden. Pastry doesn't need decoration. The decoration comes by how it is all arranged."
Many of the city's writing foodies
enthusiastically watched the preparations.
Large newspapers and
food website representatives
 were present
plus solo bloggers like me.
A Japanese inspired dessert:
Doraiaki
My selection of treats
served alongside a very elegant
presentation of
Earl Gray English tea.
One of the most fun parts about participating in this
was meeting other writers,
especially Turkish ones.
Two young culinary students
who write for http://iyiyemek.com/:
Burak Özbay on the left and Gizem Dinçbaş on the right.
Burak said this about his studies,
"You don't pick gastronomy to study.
Gastronomy picks you."
Chef McCarrick and his mentee, Ayşe
Chef McCarrick wanted to make sure I met one of his team members, Ayşe. Having cooked all over the world in Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Phillipines, Malasia, Bali in Indonesia, Dubai, London, and Istanbul he felt particularly strong that his legacy at Cırağan Palace Kempinski must be more than "putting cakes on the counter."

He said, "Ayşe is like a flower that just needs to be watered. She has tremendous potential as a chef. I want to help women succeed in this role because she will need thick skin to rise in this industry. Turkey doesn't have a tradition of women moving past helpers or assistants. When I was just starting out as a chef in Delaware, a chef helped me move to Switzerland to learn from another great chef. Part of bringing a guest chef to Istanbul, is to make opportunities happen for up-and-coming chefs to learn all around the world. When someone has personally met you it makes it easier for them to take a risk on you being on their staff for a few months." As I watched Ayşe's face beam under Chef McCarrick's words, I had to turn away less the catch in my throat and the tears in my eyes peaked out.
Thank you, gentlemen,
for an exquisite afternoon tea
and an inspiring day
watching your excellence in action.
I could see why the Gazebo Lounge is the "heaven of desserts" where people in Istanbul go when they feel like having a sweet. It is an avenue to all of the sweet things in life.

 
 
 
Part Two of My First Istanbul Hammam Adventure at Çirağan Palace Kempinski Hotel

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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Five Minutes of Magic

I saw the man first.
He was in a long royal purple tunic with white pants.
A cult member, surely, I thought.

Then I rounded the corner
and saw another man in the same dress.
Ha! A cult convention.

Then I came up against the limits of my knowledge.
It couldn't be a cult.
There were so many of them.
Not just men. Whole families.
And so many beautiful women.
 
 Her sandals.
Those "I Dream of Jeannie" sandals!
 
Happy.
Joyous.
Crackling with energy.

I laughed at myself, recognizing my own American parochialness.
Don't we always compare new information to our old information?
I understood instantly these were a people I had never seen or met before.
One
exquisitely dressed woman
after another
poured out of the hotel.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"Pakistan, he said. "We are here for a wedding."

The island of Jamaica
sent spectacular sunshine.
"Are you from Pakistan too?"
I asked a gorgeous young woman
dressed differently than the others.
"No, I'm from Jamaica." she said.

"Of course you are!" I thought,
marveling at Istanbul's constant ability
to make the ordinary encounter extraordinary.
I'm sure Jamaicans at Pakistani weddings are a common sight,
don't you think?
Do they have ring bearers
at Pakistani weddings?
I wondered.
A tween
in all of her finery.
I'll picture these lovely people
when I read a story about Pakistan
in the future.
 
I'll picture this little girl
in all of her bracelets
and veils.
The beautiful Pakistani women
blew me kisses
from the bus
as they left.
 
I hope they had a wonderful time.

Friday, April 12, 2013

It's Tulip Time at Istanbul's Emirgan Park!

 
 A spectacular sunny day -
one of the first of Spring.
 
I was with Barb,
a new friend from America,
working here in Istanbul.

We were excited to explore Emirgan Park
for the first time.
 
A river of grape hyacinth
Such an imaginative planting!
 It was a perfect day,
and a perfect way,
to enjoy a conversation.
How relaxing
to just contemplate
which planting and flowers
were the prettiest -
it was so hard to choose.

 
 What do you like best?
Ribbons of color? All one color?
All colors mixed together?

 
 A traditional Turkish lady
with the Turkish flag
created in red tulips.
 
The crescent and the star
are the symbols of Turkey.
 A tree with idiosyncrasies.
It was so fun to have Barb
as a conversation partner.
She's done all kinds of interesting stuff
from owning and operating her own bakery
in Fairbanks, Alaska,
to working as a corporate labor lawyer
in Johannesburg and Istanbul.
She is helping an American corporation
integrate a Turkish factory into their portfolio.
I've often thought this tulip
with leaves that seem to form a crown
should be the official tulip of
the Istanbul Tulip Festival.
It's shape is most like the tulip
on all of the Iznik Tile.
What fun!
The "Nazar,"
or Turkish Evil Eye,
said to ward off evil thought.

A tulip made out of
soon-to-bloom tulips.

 Istanbul is famous for its youthful energy,
but it has its contemplative spots too.
You just have to seek them out.
I'm grateful to have shared a beautiful
morning with a new friend.
 
Do you have a favorite spring flower
you look forward to every year?
 
 
If you enjoyed this springtime walk,
 you may enjoy a couple other springtime walks in Prague:
 
 
 
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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Female Safety in Istanbul

Sarai Sierra, 33
Missing since January 21st
 
If you are in Istanbul,
please take a good look at her face
let us all be on the lookout for her.

Recently a young American mother on a photography tour went missing in Istanbul and this unfortunate story made the national news all across America. I pray for the safe return of this young woman.

My friend Joy Ludwig-McNutt wrote an excellent blog post about safety in Istanbul on her blog "My Turkish Joys" because she found the comments of Americans about this case so annoying. It's an excellent post. Click here to read it.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Topkapi Palace, Part One: Would This Environment Keep You Conquering?

A passing ship on the Bosporus.
The road down to the shore is off limits to visitors.
I wonder what's down there
besides a boring parking lot
wasting prime real estate!
Locals enjoying a beautiful spot
in the First Courtyard
A gorgeous promenade in the First Courtyard.
It's easy to see everyone and everything happening
in the First Courtyard of Topkapi Palace,
which had to make it the place to
"see and be seen"
back in the days of the Ottomans.
No need to restrain your inner five-year-old.
Hop away from stone-to-stone.
Looking across the Courtyard.
Notice the majestic trees.
During the Kurban Bayram holiday last year, I decided to stay in Istanbul and play tourist for a day at Topkapi Palace. A friend had walked me through it one afternoon, but it was such a cursory walk, I realized then to do Topkapi properly, I would have to devote an entire day.

When I really want to explore something, I like to go by myself, because I don't want to have to worry about keeping another person happy while I read every sign and listen to every last audio guide explanation about a sight.

I went the day before to buy my ticket so that I would not have to wait in the discouraging long line that forms to purchase a ticket. Yea! I was first in line the next morning to enter the palace. My strategy was to immediately go get the audio guide and then enter the Haram because I wanted to see it before it swarmed with people.

An alternative strategy might be to go immediately to see the Treasury exhibits because I noticed they form maddeningly long lines during the day and more people go to those because it doesn't require an extra expense to see (the Haram does).
A water fountain in
Ottoman Baroque style.
Topkapi is situated at the corner of the Golden Horn, the Bosporus, with the Marmara Sea within viewing distance. There could not be a finer location in all of Istanbul. Even if one doesn't go into the Palace to view it, it is possible to enjoy the first courtyard outside of the Palace at no cost. It's the perfect place for a leisurely stroll where one can enjoy some of the best people-watching and nature-watching in the city.
Let's pause in awe.

An ongoing, constant conversation among everyone in Istanbul is what contributed to the decline of the Ottoman Empire.  But I ask you, could you keep up the will to go out and conquer other lands if you lived in this place? Frankly, I'd be too relaxed.  It's that contemplative and beautiful.
 
You might enjoy my other two posts on Topkapi Palace:
 
 
 
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