Welcome to Litsy!

I googled Turkish lamb stew, & found hünkar beğendi (sultan's delight): lamb cooked with onions, tomatoes & peppers, served on puréed eggplant mixed with béchamel sauce (and cheese). Nice and easy. Allegedly invented for the visit of Empress Eugénie (wife of Napoléon III) to Topkapi Palace.
Stew pretty much a “basquaise“ that would have been familiar to Eugénie who spent her holidays in Biarritz! 😂

#FoodandLit #Turkey
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

“We had patlican karniyarık, young aubergines filled with meat and herbs and slices of tomato steeped in red wine; chicken pilav; green peppers stuffed with rice and wild chicory; and melons served on ice“
I could make that meal! In fact I made karniyarık a couple of weeks ago, although my recipe didn't call for steeping the tomato slices in wine.

#FoodandLit #Turkey
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

I enjoyed Portrait of a Turkish Family enough to start another book by the same author. This one is about his stay with the Yürük nomads in the High Taurus mountains.
Paired with Turkish salep-flavoured icecream - a chance find: I was looking for Turkish coffee (they were out), and saw a glimpse of a tub of something interesting in the freezer. I'd never seen it before, although I've had salep as a hot drink before.
#FoodandLit #Turkey
@Texreader

Hard to rate this one; it‘s not quite what I expected. More of a wide-angled view of the Eurasian Steppes and the tribes it produced, than about one single topic or figure. So dry and detailed I often wondered if I had purchased a textbook!

I imagine this would be better read than listened to, assuming there are pictures and graphics. Still, I never regret expanding my worldview, even if I‘m not 100% sure exactly where the Eurasian Steppes are.

A English journalist who has lived in America most of his life and examines the role of the nomad in American tradition from Native Americans to mountain men to hobos to the modern one percenters who cannot fit into society. And he knows his subject having lived the life for years, travelling months at a time on the road in pursuit of both stories but also a great understanding of why some people must always wander. Dated but fascinating.

#BookReport 12/21

Three books this week. They were all good, not memorable however. Looking forward to some really good ones. I am in anticipation of the International Booker longlist!

This is the first instalment of Galsan Tschinag‘s memoirs and it shows a peek into the lives of the nomadic Tuvan people, living in the high Altai Mountains of #Mongolia. It is a hard and ancient way of life, determined by the seasons and the ubiquitous blue sky.
I learned a lot and was touched by the story.

#ReadingAsia2021 🇲🇳 #pop21 #IndigenousAuthor #Booked2021 #ColorInTitle

Oooh! I finished this middle grade book at work today and it was fantastic! I‘m looking for one more book to go with our summer kids book club. This is the story of a girl from the Kazakh nomads in Mongolia who defies her culture/stereotype to become an Eagle Hunter. ❤️

Thank you so much @squirrelbrain for sending this book to me! It sounds so good and you are right, I really need to get started on #readingasia already!! 😆 👍

A fascinating account of the author‘s year-long stay as an English teacher in one of the remotest villages of #mongolia, including a few months as a nomad.

Life there is incredibly tough and the author writes vividly of the privations but also of the friends that she makes and the positives that she can take away from her time there.

Available for #swapme once #mummysquirrel has read it too.

#readingasia2021