heidih -- thanks so much for the kind words, and the shout-out here.
liuzhou -- your check is in the mail.
Okanagancook -- I hope we'll find a Canadian publisher, but we won't know for some time. I don't know if Book
Depository ships to Canada or not but it offers deep discounts.
In regards to how 'Istanbul and Beyond' will compare to Somer's book, which I have and I love ...
my book focuses on regional Turkish cuisines. Dishes are divided into chapters focusing on regions instead of dish types.
In a way I am arguing that there is no such thing as 'Turkish food' because the country's incredibly diverse landscapes, along with history and migration, have
given rise to a mosaic of culinary regions whose foods are highly localized (it's no exaggeration to say that you may find a dish
in village A that the residents of village B, just 50 kilometres away, have never heard of).
I start in Istanbul to orient the reader, and then in the following 6 chapters cover (not comprehensively) Turkey's lesser-visited eastern half.
It's not a culinary travelogue but a look at some local ingredients (and how they are made) and culinary customs, plus a collection of recipes from home and
lokanta cooks, food producers and farmers, fishermen and market vendors that my husband, who photographed the book, and I spent time
with during the 16 months we devoted to research. Many recipes will be unfamiliar to most north Americans.
I hope that readers will be excited to discover these bits of eastern Turkey that I visit, some of which are not now safe to travel in (we were lucky in timing). But
mostly I hope that they find the food as interesting and delicious as I and my husband do.
Well, that's long-winded. But get me started and I can talk (write) about Turkey, and Turkish food, forever....
Cheers.
