Unpretentious places: Palace and Mevlevi cuisine

Desserts and sherbets have an important place in this culinary tradition. Especially in the Anatolian Seljuk culture, dessert is always served to guests after the meal at banquets. Apples, pears, figs, pomegranates, peaches and watermelons were frequently consumed. 

The most common drinks of the Anatolian Seljuk and principality periods were sherbets obtained from various fruits, honey or sugar. Boza produced from barley or wheat, as well as sirkencubin sherbet, which is obtained by mixing vinegar and honey and is known as Mevlana’s favourite mixture, is one of the most important tastes in this cuisine. Mevlevi Cuisine is also far from ostentatious, “cook in a pot; eat on the lid” attitude has been adopted.

Frankly, a cuisine of belief prevails. A similar situation exists in the palace. The only ostentatious point can be seen as tiles or gold pans. The same dishes are cooked in the public kitchen, dervish lodge kitchen and palace kitchen. It is not possible for us to talk about a ‘Palace Cuisine’ in our history until Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. However, it is possible to see that the dervish cuisine has become a little more distinguished in dishes such as ‘gold leaf kadayıf hash browns’, described by Ali Eşref Dede.

In Mevlevi culture, the kitchen was not different in structure from other kitchens, but it had different functions and meanings. The kitchen-stove was considered sacred, and education began in the kitchen. Those who wanted to enter the lodge were first tested in the kitchen.