Zeynep Begüm Kalyoncu
Özyeğin University
Turkey, a country in the middle of Asia and Europe, has a culinary legacy that benefits from cultural diversity, as well as the presence of different climates and geographies. Starting from Mesopotamia, Turkish sweet culture was developed under the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires and has interacted with Central Asia, the Middle East, Persia, Europe, and North Africa. Sweets play a prominent role in every ritual and major life event in Turkey. Some of the more common are celebrating the birth of a newborn, religious feasts, memorial days, engagement and wedding parties, anniversaries, and special days, such as mother’s and father’s day, birthdays, baby showers, even including funerals.
Since the dominant culture in Turkey is Turco-Muslim where drinking alcohol is discouraged or prohibited, sweets and desserts have been revered almost spiritually. This is manifested in the widespread reference to sweets and desserts in literature, such as in poetry, colloquial proverbs and even linguistically as the word ‘sweet’ in Turkish literally means ‘having taste’. Turkish sweets that reflect the diverse culture of the country can be categorized into three main groups: traditional desserts, traditional confectionary, and modernized desserts and confectionary. In this presentation, the historical, cultural, and gastronomical aspects of Turkish sweet culture will be summarized, paying special attention to the aforementioned categories.
(Presented in the 2016 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: Sweet Culture and the Joy of Life, 17-18 August 2016, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies and Indian Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University)