'A Dish Has a History'--Eating with Turkish Culinary Expert Engin Akin

Istanbul

I’m eating with my friend Engin Akin, a food writer—more like a food guru—whose new book Essential Turkish Cuisine was published a few months ago in the United States and is already getting terrific notices. She’s regularly quoted in top food sections like that of the New York Times, and I wrote about her, too, ten years ago, when I was last in Istanbul to do an article for Bon Appetit on Turkish food. Apparently, it took her a decade to figure me out: “You don’t really know much about food, do you, Lee?” she says in response to my question about tomatoes and onions balancing each other out. “You can learn a lot on the internet,” she explains.