New Book: A Meal for Each Day

Here is the cover of my new book: 'A Meal for Each Day' My publisher, Yapi Kredi Yayincilik (http://www.ykykultur.com.tr) started a series of '... for each day' series few years ago. First books of the series are for stories, lullabies, kid's games. 'A Meal for Each Day' is pretty much the first book for adults. This book includes 366 meals (including soups, desserts, salads, breads, jams etc) but moreover, it gives short information on the new year celebrations and festivals from different countries from China to Japan, France to Sweden) and customs, celebrations from different cultures. Turkey has a very rich tradition. With this book, I got a chance to look deeper. Just to give an example, in a city called Burdur, there is a carpet weaving tradition. In the old days, it'd take months to weave a big carpet and at the end of the job, women used to come together for a celebration called 'hali dügünü' (carpet wedding) where they ate, sang and danced all together. In Urfa (a souteastern city), there is a bread made with mahalep and some
spices called 'külünçe'. This bread used to be baked before one of the sons of the family is farewelled for the military service. The boy would eat a piece of it then the bread would be hanged on one of the walls. Whenever the family receive a letter from him, after it's read, it'd be attached on that bread. So the bread becomes a frame here. When the boy comes back, he'd be asked to have another piece from the bread and the rest of it is given to the birds. There is so many other traditional information that I found during the research period of this book. So many exciting bits and pieces. I included all the new year celebrations (Nawrouz is another one of it which is celebrated on the 21st of April), religious holidays, seasonal customs etc.
I wanted to add few pictures from the book:

The first one is 'acur tursusu'. Acur is a kind of cucumber which is grown widely in the southeastern part of Turkey. It has a lighter colour and is thinner but longer than cucumber. The Latin name of it is Cucumis anguria and the known English name is 'gherkin'. I took this picture in Mardin, another southeastern city. This is a recipe I got from a family in Mardin. It is a pickle which is made with coriander seeds. A tasty one.

Second one is a 'cacik' recipe. It is made with yoghurt, garlic, salt and cucumbers mostly but this recipe has hazelnuts and is usually made in the Blacksea Region. Hazelnuts are grown widely in the Blacksea Region of Turkey and as you might know, Turkey is number one hazelnut grower in the world and exports hazelnuts to so many countries.

The last one is a special dish which is called 'düdük'. Düdük's dictionary meaning is 'whistle'. This recipe is from the Çanakkale Region. It is a special wedding recipe and it's said that all families include this recipe for their wedding dinners. It is a kind of 'manti' (or ravioli) which is prepared with a similar dough as pasta. It's cut in small squares and given shape like a whistle. The dough is fried then. Afterwords it's cooked with chicken pieces and chicken stock and served in soup plates.
Please feel free to ask about the book and it's content. I'd very much like to see it translated into other languages so let this be the wish for 2006.
* Let me thank my brother Cem and friends Fethiye, Pinar, Asli, Mine, Saikal, Mirace, Basak for their support for the photos. More friends helped with the recipes. I thank them too for their support and friendship!

To order the book:
http://en.eren.com.tr/goster/kitap/kitap.asp?kitap=223957&SID=122818215589