Anthony Bourdain, a celebrity chef who was also a writer, was known to the public especially from these two TV shows: No Reservations and Parts Unknown. He is a CIA alumnus, a former hard-working chef transformed into a writer and a global gourmet tourist. At least four of his books are bestsellers, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (2000), Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook (2010), The Nasty Bits (2006), and A Cook's Tour … [Read more...]
Elif Shafak – The Bastard of Istanbul – An Acclaimed Book
The Bastard of Istanbul is the sixth novel and the second one written directly in English by Elif Shafak. She is loved as much as her co-national Orhan Pamuk, the famous Turkish writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. They have two more things in common: they have been accused of "insulting Turkishness" and both were pardoned with excuses from lack of incriminatory proof. The reason for her being prosecuted is this very book, The Bastard of Istanbul, published in 2006, the … [Read more...]
A Touch of Spices – Politiki Kouzina
The Greek title is Πολίτικη Κουζίνα (Politiki Kouzina) and means Cuisine of the City, Πολί being the word for city, "I Πολί", "The City" refers to Constantinople, or Istanbul to be politically correct. This is a film who depicts a multiple love story. "Gastronomos contain the word Astronomos", I have the feeling that the translation is obvious. It is about a boy who likes to cook with significant spices and "the most beautiful city in the world". Istanbul is also a character in this wonderful … [Read more...]
Pope Francis Doesn’t Love the Turks
"We will not allow historical incidents to be taken out of their genuine context, and be used as a tool to campaign against our country," are the words said by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after Pope Francis urged the Christian European Lieders to recognize the killing of "up to 1.5 million Armenians"[sic] by the Ottoman Empire soldiers in 1915 as "the first genocide of the twentieth century". Not only that, but His Holiness urged the international community to recognize it as … [Read more...]
Pope Francisc in Turkey
After a meeting in Jerusalem with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, at the end of May, this year, His Holiness, Pope Francisc, visited Turkey these days, in order to meet His All-Holiness again. A lot of things happened. In his first day, he went to Ankara to meet Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an Islamist President. Because he doesn't drink alcohol, he is considered "extreme Islamist", which is lame, because the keepers of the faith are not drinking or intoxicating themselves with … [Read more...]
About Modern Censorship
Half of my life I lived under a regime of dictatorship. As a kid I didn't feel it that strong, growing up I have discovered it being insane. Beside any stupidities concerning the rulers, censorship is what I hated most. When Gorbachev launched his transparency in politics platform, people started to see hope in the near future. An apparent lack of censorship begun to manifest after December 1989, when CIA with help from key Romanians overthrown Nicolae Ceauşescu, the "King of Communism". They … [Read more...]