Last November, after the wedding, we went on an unusual honeymoon to explore the old city of Antioch in Turkey. From culinary to history; it is just a unique city hosting many different cultures. Turks, Arabs, Armenians with many religions live together. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, it even had a luxury to be a country on its own for a while, until they chose to be a part or Turkish Republic in 1939. If you are a bit familiar with the history, I bet you heard of its name. We tried to capture some interesting things we have seen there, into our camera and now I am finally getting around sharing them with you!

Kataifi (kadayıf in Turkish) is a very common dessert in the Middle East. Here I am using the word for the kataifi dough, which is also known as shredded dough. Long, very thin strands of dough, that is.

The setup they were using to make the dough was quite simple; a turn table heated below, and a tub above to hold the dough which releases it in tiny holes below when the handle is turned. That tub only goes back and forth, from what we gathered. I think he was also greasing the metal turn table, if my memory is not failing me. It took a minute or two for the dough to cook and he just gathered them by hand, put into a big pile that you can also see just behind him. Only if I have taken a close up shot you’d see how fluffy they were…

There, they enjoy the fresh ones, here I consider myself lucky if I can find it in my local supermarket! Surely, many Middle Eastern stores carry them frozen, too.

Just realized that I have not posted one single cookie recipe on this blog so far. Amazing, if you ask me. Especially since we go through a lot of them and most are homemade.
This one made it to the family cookie list (which has consisted not more than 10 – 15 recipes) after my late aunt brought back the recipe from her visit to the Kos island. Not using an egg or butter, and keeping for a long time made it a keeper, needless to say.

According to my husband, I should double the sugar amount next time I bake them. If you ask me, they have the right sweetness. Right after these comments, I saw him eating 4 of these ones in the upper pic, so called the “famous ones.” Go figure!

After I posted this recipe in the Turkish side of this blog, a reader tried out using coriander seeds instead of anise and she reported them to be a good fit. If you do not have anise, or do not like its smell/taste, maybe that would be another option.
Here is the anise cookies recipe, from our kitchen:

(makes about 20)

• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 1.5 – 2 Tbs anise seeds
• about 2.5 cups flour

Mix all ingredients but flour. Add flour to make a soft but not sticky dough. Roll the dough, and cut with cookie cutters. Bake in a preheated 350F degree oven until tops brown.

Bon Apetit!