Mar 10
Wednesday
NewsHey EU, Hands off my doner!
Turkey’s EU accession talks have raised a lot of important questions on reform, accompanied by predictable growing pains. But the latest news from Ankara, which can be read in Turkish in this article in the daily Radikal newspaper, makes us more than a bit uncomfortable.
According to the article, Turkey’s food sector has much catching up to do with European “hygiene standards.” Turkey’s beloved doner kebab, kokorec, boza, salca and salgam were named as the prime suspects in the coming sweep.
Though a 21 million EURO budget has been allocated under the “Truefood” project to bring traditional food up to code, we’ll have to wait and see how this affects the vibrant street food culture that Istanbul thrives on.
(photo by Ansel Mullins)
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Post Tags: street food
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Mar 11, 2010
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Making my way through the streets of Istanbul over the new year I was haunted by the prospects of Turkey’s admittance to the EU.
After reading ” A Goose In Toulouse” and how the EU ruined the livelihoods of so many French food purveyors I couldn’t help but wonder what would become of all the glorious food stalls in Istanbul.
The list is endless but something tells me my beloved kaymak, as we know it, would really cease to exist in its’ current form.
What are your favorite Turkish foods and could they exist under the rigors of EU laws?
Mar 13, 2010
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i dont think that these new food hygiene regulations will be a problem, as Turks have their own way of dealing with new rules & laws. even there is a saying about it: “eski köye yeni adet getirmek” 🙂 smoking ban, for example, is no longer being applied in most of the bars and it is around only for 6 months.
so i say, even if they try really hard to apply these new food hygiene regulations, if we look hard enough, we will always find what we would be looking for 😉
but i would be terribly sorry for a lifetime if they try to ban kelle-paça, işkembe, midye dolma and kokoreç, not to mention the heavenly kaymak.