Right now, I’m currently eating the sorrows found throughout the world. I’m being fed the injustices scattered throughout the world.

I thought maybe I’d do a cute little post on Turkish cuisine. There’s so many different things to write about! Like oven-baked eggplants stuffed with diced beef, onions, tomatoes, and probably other things I am unaware of; like pastirma, which is pastrami that can be served with warm hummus and olive oil; like Iskender kebab, a really famous and relatively recent invention which was created in the 19th century; like leblebi, chickpeas which are roasted and can have many different types of coatings (my favorite being candy-coated).

I was mulling this over while drinking some homemade Turkish tea, when suddenly I get a notification on my phone with this news headline:

18 Syrian Fighters Allied With U.S. Are Killed in Coalition Airstrike

And something in my heart broke. My mind said food. My heart said sorrow. Is there a way to reconcile this conflict? At this point, I thought “there’s no way I can write about Turkish cuisine in such a lighthearted fashion. What am I to do?”

Then I thought maybe I’d some research on Syrian food. I thought it’d be a cool way to pay some homage to my fellow Syrian brothers and sisters.

See, I actually have a vested interest in what goes on at Syria. I’m not speaking about this without having any perspective. My family is receptive of refugees. We have Syrian tenants in Turkey, and we try not to charge them too much. My aunt once told me my parents could charge our Syrian tenants more than 100% of what they should be charging them. For reference, imagine renting out a standard two bedroom apartment with two balconies for less than 1k. My parents have a heart of gold. 

And they’re such nice people! No stereotypes at all!

Turkey has always supported the Syrian refugees, taking them in with open arms. I understand that there may be some citizens in Turkey who advocate against taking in refugees, but there’s so much more going on there than pure bigotry. Turkey has been frustrated at the lack of open-door policies to accepting refugees. I can’t understand. What ends up happening is Turkey’s own refugee centers end up saturated. What’s one to do when their limited resources are all tied up? There are some amazing Canadian refugee programs taking in Syrian families, but even then a myriad of issues pop up. One could argue that having an open-door policy, wherein immigrants are allowed free passage between borders would be great, but then other issues pop up. Too many issues exist.

*sigh*

And like I said before, I’m being fed the injustices scattered throughout the world.

I wanted to take the time to research Syrian cuisine. And I did! To my surprise, much of the Syrian cuisine I found was integrated into Syrian culture since the Ottoman rule. One is shawarma, a dish found throughout many middle eastern countries. It’s country of origin is the Ottoman empire (a.k.a the modern Republic of Turkey). To be honest, all the different recipes I found on wiki are dishes commonly found in Turkey. So, I may be currently eating nothing but the news and Turkish dishes or psuedo-Syrian cuisine but I will soon be eating some authentically made Syrian dishes; because New York City is a culturally diverse place and I’m sure there is some Syrian restaurant out there.

peace out.

Onur Ayaz