AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

DIY fine dining AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

DIY fine dining

Every country is announcing their plans on going back to normal, or as it is usually called, to the new normal. Whatever that means often remain obscure. Normally, the summer season was supposed to begin. Countries, regions and cities that are much dependent economically on tourism are desperate to start again. Will that happen, or is it wishful thinking?

May 17 2020
A helping hand AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

A helping hand

We are going through tough times, every sector is affected from the pandemic, but as always, some suffer more. It is almost sure by now that it will take time to get back to normal, and at this point there are already arguments discussing what should be the norm of the “normal.” Our world is disrupted abruptly, and the near future does not seem to be going back to what it was a few months ago.

May 10 2020
Spring spacing AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Spring spacing

Vibrant festivities of dance, music, food and beverages, verdant landscape, ice cold streams still bearing the chill of melting snow, children playing, men wrestling, women clustering to giggly gossip… This would have been the scene in May 5-6 for Hıdrellez celebrations in countryside in a wide region stretching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. Spring celebrations are all about conviviality, bringing people out to nature, getting them together after a long closure indoors during the winter months. Totally in contrast with the lockdown and social spacing corona-struck isolation days.

May 03 2020
Skeleton in the cupboard AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Skeleton in the cupboard

No joke! We food people all do have skeletons in our cupboards. Not one, but several indeed. The stark and naked truth came out from a thread of Facebook confessions, all revealed as if shriving for the last time for the mercy of God for all our sins before the apocalypse. It was a question by a food writer friend from Iceland asking about what strange things we found when sorting our pantry in these lockdown days.

April 26 2020
Spargelzeit AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Spargelzeit!

The news sounded almost surreal. When borders were closed and inter-country travels were stopped, it was about 12 airplanes packed with passengers taking off for Germany. The scene at the airport was of a packed crowd, far from social distancing.

April 19 2020
Panem et circenses AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Panem et circenses

Bread and circuses is a useful phrase to keep in mind that can easily be used for any populist policies round the globe, if not here. The coronavirus spread proved that many countries, including the richest and most powerful ones, do need to get better governance, especially in reinforcing their healthcare systems. The virus also showed that it is capable of making people go out of their minds within minutes and turn them into circus performers in the maddest circus ever.

April 12 2020
Bitter celebrations AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Bitter celebrations

This week, three religions unite in celebration (or non-celebration) under the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus succeeded in one thing definitely, uniting all under the equal threat of it. No religion is exempt, no person with or without belief can escape the fact that life will take time to get back to normal, if ever.

April 05 2020
The power of social media AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

The power of social media

As COVID-19 spreads fast, another phenomenon has come to rival the speed of its diffusion across the globe: Posting recipes, food videos, gastronomy talks and discussions to Instagram has become all the rage – as has online tastings even.

March 29 2020
Pasta mania AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Pasta mania

How food preferences of the Chinese eating bat soup made people in the U.K. or U.S. stock up on pasta is a phenomenon that can best be explained by the butterfly effect. Of course, it is already known that this entire bat soup story was fake news, but the panic buying of pasta is real.

March 22 2020