I have just come back from a week of non-stop eating in Turkey. I spent the first few days in Safranbolu, a gorgeous old town in the Black Sea region, where the local government had organised a food festival to showcase regional specialities to which they invited food writers, journalists and chefs from England, America and of course Turkey.

The most memorable meal was a breakfast, in a charming outdoor café just outside the town. Turkish breakfasts are very festive, with lots of different dishes on the table; and this one was no different. In fact, it was a veritable feast with different boreks and breads, all baked in a wood-fired oven, various cheeses, olives, sliced cucumber and tomatoes, a selection of jams, honeycomb, fruit, and so on. We spent the whole morning nibbling on all these delicious specialities, moving from salty to sweet and back to salty. Pure bliss.

Then I went to Istanbul where I stayed with my great friend Nevin Halici, the foremost Turkish food writer, in the heart of Beyoglu where she had her flat. Great fun. Jill Norman, who edited Nevin’s fabulous Turkish Cookbook was also with us and our first meal in Istanbul was at Nevin’s brother, Feyzi Bey, who had been minister of Tourism. Bahar, Feyzi Bey’s wife, had prepared another feast. Some dishes such as a slow baked caramelized beef were cooked by her while others such as stuffed vine leaves, various boreks, and an amazing köfte (what we know as kibbeh) soup were sent over by various friends of hers.

However, it wasn’t until we got to the last blow-out lunch at Konyali in Besiktas that I realised how much the food scene had progressed in Turkey. Aydan, the very talented chef there, is not interested in playing with changing the flavour of traditional dishes. On the contrary he really researches them (with help from Nevin) to keep them authentic. But what he does is improve the presentation to refine the dishes and make them totally irresistible. For instance, instead of presenting artichoke stuffed with peas, potatoes and carrots the regular way with the heart filled with the vegetable mix, he cuts the artichoke heart in half, leaving quite a long stem on it and stands it inverted on the plate, surrounding it with one each of the vegetables that make up the stuffing. This was part of a mezze platter. On the other side of the artichoke was one long, thin stuffed vine leaf where the stuffing was flavoured with the juice of sour cherries. And they were both framed by a beautiful pale green artichoke dip on one side and an aubergine filled with tomatoes and onion (imam bayaldi) on the other side. The aubergine was peeled in the middle, leaving a strip of skin on both ends to create a kind of hem, inside which was the filling. Both gorgeous to look at and totally delicious.

Anissa’s culinary tour to Turkey is planned for Spring 2009 – www.anissas.com