Cookbook Crush: Turkish Fire

I recently listened to the audiobook for At Home in the World, a memoir by simplicity guru Tsh Oxenreider about spending one year traveling the world with her husband and three kids.  This book is lovely in every sense of the word; eye opening, inspiring, and brutally honest, recounting the good the bad, and the hard of globetrotting together as a family of five.  

Listening to this book, as Tsh recounts how she and her husband met - volunteering in a remote village in war torn Kosovo - you can see how their love of travel began.  As they move east to west, beginning in Beijing, China and ending in London, England, with several continents in between, Tsh takes you along for a front row seat on their global adventure.   One poignant stop of their itinerary is the city of Izmir, Turkey, where Tsh and her husband lived for three years with their young children. Previously, I had never considered Turkey as a destination worth visiting, however, this chapter definitely put Turkey, and all things Turkish, on my radar.

She explains the tea culture that is almost a religion in itself, the freshness of the milk, the eggs yolks as orange as sunsets, and produce so fresh it must be consumed within a day of purchase, or else succumb to rotting in the hot coastal heat.  Her recounting of perusing their familiar bazaar, and enjoying succulent roasted meats family style meal is enough to make anyone's stomach growl - and I wouldn't even consider myself a meat person.

Inspired by her detailed snapshot of Turkish food, I looked up "Turkish cookbooks" on my local library's web page and came across, Turkish Fire: Street Food and Barbecue from the Wild Heart of Turkey which narrates and explains the Turkish street food scene in lovely narrative detail.  While I have yet to purchase the book or make any of the recipes, it's on my bookmark list for a (hopefully near) return visit.

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