Food and drink

?A Strangeness in My Mind? by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Ekin Oklap (Faber £20/Knopf $28, 624 pages)

Municipality police in the Aegean province of ?zmir have seized so-called wild strawberries, which were in fact dried and sugared cherry tomatoes, and commenced a legal process against the suppliers and sellers of the fake goods. 

Serbia will not allow cultivation of GMO seed on its fields, State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Danilo Golubovic said on Monday.

This is the official stand of the current government and it will not be changed by any law for as long as it is in office, Golubovic told Tanjug.

The sale of unpackaged cheese will end in Turkey as of Jan. 1, 2016, according to a new regulation from the Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry.

Tomorrow is International Coffee Day, a day to celebrate sleepless nights, bulging eyes and brighter mornings. It's also a day to remember a loyal comrade on overworked nights and an unfaltering companion of conversations for five centuries. For the Turkish people, it's all of this and much more, with the preeminent place of Turkish coffee in our lives.

As Germany takes in record numbers of people fleeing Syria and other war zones, its large Turkish community is warning the country not to "repeat the mistakes of the past".
 
Europe's top destination for refugees is also home to the world's largest Turkish diaspora, counting some three million, a legacy of Germany's post-war so-called guest worker programme.
 

Every time I look at the face of Foody, I find myself embarrassingly staring at its bulbous nose. The focus point of Foody's face is definitely the nose; a plump garlic, ribbed with six fat cloves.

Cafés in Greece is not just an entertainment place, it is a meeting point, a place where you discuss with friends your problems and current affairs and plays a big role in Greek culture.

For years the Greek traditional café, called kafenion, was a place were mainly men used to gather to drink Greek coffee, ouzo and tsipouro, play cards or backgammon (tavli) while discussing politics.

A day of monumental significance, a day in which the future of our country takes a turn one or the other, it’s election day and most people will gather home and watch the election results.

And since there is no Greek gathering without food, see some ideas of what you can quickly and easily prepare for all of your family and friends.

Greek salad

Baking börek is not rocket science. Any idiot can do it. It is a trap for girls. Have you ever seen a man say he will learn how to make börek so his marriage can last? Börek is a Turkish pastry. We even have a song for it: ?Börekler açar?m sana,? (I will make böreks for you) by Nazan Öncel. I was going to give the link to the song but I listened to it and decided not to.