The Em­bassy of the Re­pub­lic of Türkiye in Port-of-Spain host­ed the “Turk­ish Culi­nary Jour­ney”, a vi­brant cel­e­bra­tion of Türkiye’s rich and di­verse culi­nary her­itage. The event took place on June 25 at the T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce in West­moor­ings.

Among the dis­tin­guished guests in at­ten­dance were Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie and Er­i­ca Jogues For­tune, Deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary at the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs.

Guests were treat­ed to an ar­ray of tra­di­tion­al Turk­ish dish­es, metic­u­lous­ly craft­ed by vis­it­ing Chef Mehmet Ali Atakay. The evening served as both a feast for the sens­es and a plat­form for cul­tur­al ex­change, deep­en­ing the ties of friend­ship and un­der­stand­ing be­tween Türkiye and T&T.

The culi­nary ex­pe­ri­ence un­fold­ed in cu­rat­ed stages, each show­cas­ing a dif­fer­ent as­pect of Turk­ish cui­sine:

First Stop:

Tra­di­tion­al Turk­ish Break­fast

Guests be­gan their jour­ney with a clas­sic Turk­ish break­fast spread, fea­tur­ing men­e­men (scram­bled eggs with toma­toes and pep­pers), su böreği (cheese-filled lay­ered pas­try), and an as­sort­ment of oth­er morn­ing del­i­ca­cies that high­light­ed the fresh­ness and sim­plic­i­ty of Turk­ish morn­ing fare.

Sec­ond Stop:

Lunch and Din­ner De­lights

The main buf­fet show­cased Türkiye’s rich savoury tra­di­tions. High­lights in­clud­ed man­tı (Turk­ish dumplings served with yo­gurt and spiced but­ter), yaprak sar­ma (grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs), and Pil­iç Top­kapı, a fra­grant chick­en dish stuffed with rice and nuts, re­flect­ing the op­u­lence of Ot­toman-in­spired cui­sine.

Fi­nal Stop:

Sweet Treats and Turk­ish Tea

The evening con­clud­ed with a deca­dent dessert sta­tion fea­tur­ing bakla­va, aşure (Noah’s pud­ding), and çay (tra­di­tion­al Turk­ish tea). These sweet de­lights of­fered guests a per­fect end­ing to a jour­ney through Türkiye’s culi­nary land­scape.

The Turk­ish Culi­nary Jour­ney not on­ly de­light­ed the palate but al­so re­in­forced the pow­er of food as a bridge be­tween cul­tures—bring­ing peo­ple to­geth­er through taste, tra­di­tion, and hos­pi­tal­i­ty.