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Food

There's no taste like home - Friday night flavours of Turkey

Every Shabbat, Julie Telvi recreates the tastes and aromas of Istanbul in her Mill Hill home.

September 27, 2018 07:58
PIC2

By

Claire Cantor,

clare cantor

3 min read

Each week, Julie Telvi's table groans with a colourful display of mezze-style starters, salads and fish.

“Friday nights are a feast for the eyes in the Turkish Jewish home” she says.

For Telvi and her childhood friend Terry Katalan, Shabbat was always a big occasion growing up in Turkey. “My kids can’t understand how we can eat so much! After the starters and fish we would serve a traditional Sephardic lamb stew, with rice, peas and a variety of vegetables.”

For Telvi and Katalan, cooking the food they grew up on is a way of connecting with their past and thinking about their families far away. Many of the recipes come from a cookbook she brought with her when she emigrated here in 1986, Sefarad Yemekleri, which translates simply as “Sephardic cook book”.