I once created a cooking class, called 'Zen in the Kitchen'. Then wrote a book called the same. Then started the group with that name and the blog came after. All this happened in Turkish. Now is the time for the English version of it. Let's see what will cook here!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

A cheesemaker from Kars


I took this photo last year, at one of the villages of Kars, an eastern city of Turkey. This woman and other women in her family (an in the village) make this string cheese, called 'çeçil'. They are the ones who makes the cheese but men take them to sell.


This is a fried bread (kind of a phyllo dough) I tasted at a small bakery called Tandoory Bread at Borough Park, New York. It was owned by Bukharan Jews. The bread (sprinkled with powdered sugar) was very interesting. I tried to get information on it but couldn't get much. She said it's made in Uzbekhistan all the time, daily and on holidays such as Navruz. I wonder if this bread is made in other countries as well or not and I'd love to know a little more about it.

11 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Very interesting! Mmmhh, that fried bread looks gorgeous!

Cheers,

Rosa

Anonymous said...

Hi!
Thanks for an interesting journal!
The fried bread is called 'khvorost' (brushwood in Russian). It's spread all over former USSR, I'm not sure of its origin though, might as well be from Uzbekistan. It comes in many shapes. Usually the dough is cut into strips. Each strip is slit in the middle. Then you thread one end of the strip through the slit.
I couldn't find a picture of the one I'm talking about but I found a really interesting one in a shape of a rose.

Sophie

sekergibi said...

Hİ! TİJEN Hİ!
vede vay vay vay
açmışsın ing. blog
benden kaçarmı ay...

sen sandın tülin görmez
görse bile ses etmez
öyle rahat yok canım
manisiz günün geçmez

ponks said...

That cheese looks fabulous. Happy I found your blog.
Greets from the cheese-maker´s daughter, Charlotta from Finland.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for an interesting journal!

and
ve
Tebrikler :)

Niko said...

Hey there!

In Uyghur (spoken in what is now known as Xinjiang, the northwesternmost region of China,) this is galled "sanza" or "sangza". It is usually made for special occasions, such as a wedding or Navruz celebration.

Malar Gandhi said...

Hi Tijen,

Your blog photos are wonderful. I like that fried bread too!

TAO said...

that is really interesting!! i want to eat them
i would love to visit XinJiang in my home country too!

Chibog in Chief said...

these are all gorgeous and tempting!!

Anonymous said...

this is great.. now i have an idea on how to make cheeze, :D thanks

Hennie said...

How interesting, I'd like to learn more about Turkish cuisine.

In spring I visited Kyrgyzstan (in the same 'region' as Uzbekistan and Xinjiang). At every meal bread like this was present, sometimes in lots of different forms. Most common form is a little bow, served in the afternoon together with tea.
Name: borsok.