I recently attended an event at Melissa’s Produce, where we met food and travel journalist Robyn Eckhardt, who was there introducing her new book Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring Turkey’s Diverse Cuisines.
The book features over 125 recipes, of dishes from Istanbul and eastern Turkey, which you can easily prepare at home. But this is not just a cookbook. It is also, a masterpiece of stunning photography — by Robyn’s husband, photographer David Hagerman — where you will see their incredible journey, eating their way through Turkey’s cosmopolitan cultural capital, to its lesser known eastern regions.
In the book, you will find their 20+ years of passion for Turkey, its people and its food, which takes readers beyond kebab, doner, and baklava, introducing the dishes of Turkey’s distinct regional cuisines.
Of course, we are lucky enough to enjoy a beautiful lunch created by Melissa’s chefs, from the recipes in the book. My favorites were Green Olive Salad with Pomegranate Molasses (pg.272), Cabbage Rolls in Tomato & Sumac Sauce (pg.237), Slow Cooked Beef & Vegetables (pg.152), and the Fragrant Orange Cookies (pg.75) which were not too sweet — which I loved.
You can find Istanbul and Beyond on Amazon.
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