Occasionally we love to come together to enjoy casual-style events. Our first dinner in 2022 perfectly combined traditional Aegean cuisine with premium local and imported wines.

Fatma Girgin and her husband, Metin, dreamed of opening a bistro. A cosy, warm place where they could receive friends and guests serving delicious food according to Fatma’s own recipes.

The concept was pasta and wine. “When very good friends have requests, we cannot break their hearts”, declared Fatma. Gradually the menu changed. Good, old homestyle dishes from Fatma’s mother’s recipes were added. In Turkey “Mom’s cooking” is always the best. Fatma’s bistro became the “talk of the town”.

Fatma and her family originated from Turkey’s Aegean region. Turkish cuisine varies across the country. Aegean cuisine differs due to shared Turkish and Greek culture from the past; climate and soil suitable for growing a wide range of vegetables; prevalence of olive trees and olive-oil production. All have helped the Aegean develop a much more varied and probably healthier way of eating than elsewhere in Turkey. Olive oil replaces butter. Dishes generally called zeytinyaglı (literally “with olive oil”) are mostly from this region. It means vegetables cooked in olive oil served cold.

Fatma presented her menu to us: “Tonight, we serve you home cooked dishes ‘my way’ or my ‘my Mom’s way’ therefore ‘plain’ as they have been served for centuries.”

MENU

Artichoke salad, raisins, dried apricots
almond flakes, zucchini, celery stalks
Stuffed chard with pine nuts, fresh mint, basil, sour cherry
Umurbey Sauvignon Blanc 2020
7 Bilgeler Khilon Sauvignon Blanc 2021

Turkish-style quiche
spinach, Turkish-style pastrami
thyme, basil, cherry tomatoes
Suvla Clairet 2021
Badur Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot Rosé 2020

Grape seed tagliatelle
barbecued eggplant sauce
Chateau Nuzun Blend 2014
Porta Caeli Ament Blend 2018

‘F Mutfak’ tangerine liqueur

Veal tandoori
Aegean-style keşkek (meat and barley stew)
Dezzani Barbaresco 2014 - Piedmont, Italy
Dezzani Barolo 2015 - Piedmont, Italy

Aegean-style kalburabastı cake
olive oil, walnuts, cream, goji berry sauce
Taylor’s Fine Tawny Port
Douro Valley, Portugal

Our Vice-Conseiller Gastronomique Fatma Kozan surprised our members by choosing two wonderful wines with each course. Fatma enthralled us with inspiring wine back-stories to which it was a pleasure to listen.

We continue to honour and promote Turkish wine producers, of which we are enormously proud.

So warm, so cosy and “très amical”. For your information ‘amical’ translated into Turkish is ‘samimi’. What a word to remember!

Vive la Chaîne!

Leonie Kılıç
Vice-Chancelier