Two Weeks in Turkey (part one)

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Turkey for a product development project for Turkey’s largest bakery franchise company, Ozsut.  While Turkey has never been at the very top of my “places to go” list, I found myself excited at the prospect when the opportunity arose.  The journey itself was the longest I have made in a single flight to get to a work destination–15 hours door to door.  I flew from Chicago directly to Istanbul then switched flights to continue on to Izmir, where I would spend the bulk of the next two weeks. 

The team with whom I worked most directly comprised 4 people, 3 Turkish-speaking chefs and one English-speaking production manager, Sena.  Sena was able to help facilitate communication among us most of the time.  During the brief periods where she would be called away to tend to other matters, communication became a game of charades mixed with the few Turkish words and phrases that I had picked up.  I can now at least list off 90% of the ingredients required for most cakes and icings without thinking.  Now if I can just learn how to order food in a restaurant, I will be all set!

The purpose of my work was to help develop some new flavor profiles and products for Ozsut’s cake line, which will be launched this Fall.  The first challenge was taking American-style products and modifying them to fit the Turkish palate; then we had to tweak the formulas to allow for differences in ingredients available in Turkey.    All in all the project was a great success and I am looking forward to many more visits to Turkey where I will continue to work with Ozsut on future projects.

While I was in Turkey, the “Cows on Parade” project came to Izmir.  Imagine my surprise to see something so Chicago on the streets of Izmir.  Ozsut even sponsored two cows, one of which is pictured here.

As you might imagine, some of the foods that I encountered were a bit different from what we consider staples in the States.  One that I enjoyed immensely is called “kokorec” (pronounced coco-wretch).  Kokorec is a plate of barbequed sheep intestines served with hot peppers and tomatoes.  I admit that I was a bit reluctant to try the kokorec as the description conjured up visions of a squishy mass with an unpleasant texture.  I couldn’t be more wrong.  The kokorec was served as a sandwich and was bursting with amazing flavor.  Adnan, the technical director at Ozsut and my primary contact there, took me to what he considered to be the place for the best (and cleanest) kokorec.  Adnan was always extremely conscientious in ensuring that I ate nothing that would make me sick during my visit to Turkey.  So, on that note, for every street food that intrigued me, he took it upon himself to find a reputable restauranteur who offered that food where I could sample it without fear.

One of the most memorable meals that I enjoyed in Izmir was at the fish market.  Adnan took me to an open-air market where we selected our fish of choice, sea bass and shrimp.  The fish were no more than 3 hours old, on ice, and sent directly to one of the restaurants behind the market where the chef prepared the fish to our liking.  I enjoyed lots of fresh fish during my stay in Turkey, but eating such a fresh catch sitting on the edge of the Aegean was nirvana.

Enjoy these photos from my recent visit…and tune in next time for stories about the cake show I judged in Istanbul and my visit to the bazaar!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.