Lectures on food, spirits, gastronomic traditions

ISTANBUL

Culinary habits of the eastern Mediterranean people will be discussed.

The Consulate General of Greece in Istanbul will hold a series of lectures entitled “Food, Spirits and Gastronomic Traditions in the Eastern Mediterranean” at the Sismanoglio Megaro between Oct. 21 and May 2.

 “Bakeries in Byzantine Constantinople,” “Forty kinds of bread in the Ottoman world,” “How tavernas operated in the 16th and 17th century,” “Changes and alcohol prohibition,” “Byzantine Diet, Myths and Realities,” “The Old and New Diet of the Aegean Population,” “Byzantine, Indian and Saracen meals: glimpses into Byzantine and Arab eating habits,” “Fish and Fishermen in Ottoman Istanbul” are some of the headlines that will be discussed in the series of lectures.

The lectures, which are being conducted in collaboration with the National Hellenic Research Institute (Ottoman Studies Program), trace the web of economic and cultural relations associated with food.

They present the role of basic Mediterranean products (wheat, oil and wine) in the economy, as well as in the political life and the culture of everyday life in space and time, in the Balkans and Asia Minor from antiquity to the late Ottoman years. 

Experts will discuss issues concerning the handling and distribution of staple food products in the Eastern Mediterranean through market systems controlled by state mechanisms. They will present professions and traditional technologies, industrial heritage and look at the dietary and culinary habits of the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean.

The program for the lectures, which will be free of charge, is available at mfa.gr/Turkey.