Live data from Hacker News

The sticky history of baklava

smithsonianmag.com

41–50 of 63 posts

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#41
post #13

Whether baklava is Greek or Turkish or Syrian is a silly question because none of those countries are even 300 years old. But Greek restaurants were the first to arrive in Western cities so that's how the world sees it.

Syria isnt 300 years old ? Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world.....

[deleted]

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anything. Baklava is probably a silly question. Greek alphabet or most of Hagia Sophia, that was created by Greeks.

The Greek alphabet, sure, but Hagia Sophia? The one that was ordered to be built by a Roman emperor and consecrated by a Christian bishop from Antioch? I would describe it as Roman, Byzantine, or Ottoman before I would describe it as Greek.

Even so, we do have clear examples of Greek Culture, since practically the beginning of records, even if that culture has been influenced by other cultures over time (as most cultures are).

Even conquered peoples generally maintain their culture as the culture or sub-culture of whatever society they live in. The governments might fall, but the people's culture usually lives on.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anything. Baklava is probably a silly question. Greek alphabet or most of Hagia Sophia, that was created by Greeks.

The Greek alphabet, sure, but Hagia Sophia? The one that was ordered to be built by a Roman emperor and consecrated by a Christian bishop from Antioch? I would describe it as Roman, Byzantine, or Ottoman before I would describe it as Greek.

I meant how both of its designers were Greek, and it was built in a majority-Greek city as an Eastern Orthodox church (which wasn't specifically Greek but was different from western Roman). I'm not sure about the emperor or the bishop, but they were born in Tauresium and Arabissos respectively, so I guess Thrace and Armenia Minor then.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...I find it boring If a multi-layered, crunchy, sweet dessert with filings of various nuts, and dipped in clarified butter, with a little salt to the mix is "boring", I'd love to know of a dessert that you consider 'interesting'.

Every time I have tried baklava it was so overpoweringly sweet that I could not manage to finish even a tiny piece. The sugar/honey overwhelmed everything else. So count me as one that agrees with baklava being "boring".

Look up a south asian grocer for Soan Papdi, it's a similar sweet that's not too sugary (by south asian standards anyway) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soan_papdi

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#45
post #4

There’s a baklava place in SF called Baklava Story that is hands down the best baklava I have ever had and probably will ever will have. The owner, Tolgay, travels to Turkey each year to source pistachios and milk to make butter with from specific farms each year. With the residual milk from making clarified butter from the Turkish milk, he makes soap, and gives it to customers. Every single one of his reviews on Goo…

Moved to Vegas a few years ago and hadn’t met the neighbors ahead of time. Turns out they’re Turkish and their cousin brings us a full pan of homemade baklava once a quarter. Mixes the types up. Perfect neighbors! Also, Summerlin farmers market has a baklava seller that even makes Hawaiian Baklava with reduced pineapple syrup.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#46
post #4

There’s a baklava place in SF called Baklava Story that is hands down the best baklava I have ever had and probably will ever will have. The owner, Tolgay, travels to Turkey each year to source pistachios and milk to make butter with from specific farms each year. With the residual milk from making clarified butter from the Turkish milk, he makes soap, and gives it to customers. Every single one of his reviews on Goo…

This is one of my retirement dreams. Not baklava, but take a food item that I cherish (I won't divulge which one!), and execute on it as well as I can possibly imagine, vertically integrating as much of the inputs as possible. I love his minimal waste approach with the auxiliary soap output. Basically, the Unix philosophy applied to cuisine.

Please make the menu a manpage

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#47

Hot take: Packaged baklava blows bakery (fresh) baklava out of the water. Age or ingredients don't matter much. Baklava needs to be made just right to work. There's no room for error. And the machines seem to have a upper hand over us on precision.

Not in the US. I can't even bring myself to call the packaged stuff baklava. Baklava-esque?

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#48
post #10
post #3

Here in Greece (actually central Greece) houses traditionally make Baklava for the Christmas - new years eve period. It is considered a "holiday" treat. Most people use almonds to fill it and ready-made pie-sheets (from the supermarket, these are common in Greece because people use them to make pies). It's not difficult to make but, because it needs a lot of almonds it has very expensive, that's why it's not usual to…

Same situation for albanians but we use walnuts instead of almonds.

Same for us Bulgarians, at least in my region

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#49
post #16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Syria isnt 300 years old ? Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world.....

I think the parent poster meant that the specific modern countries are fairly new, and before they were all part of the same entities . Greece and Turkey were both part of the Byzantine Empire for centuries, and later part of the successor Ottoman Empire - together with Syria - again for centuries. Separate "national" identities for those areas didn't really exist until the XIX century, when Greeks started agitating…

I wouldn't really call past time Turkey a part of Byzantine Empire, Turks moved to Anatolia about a millenium ago with the Selcuks. Past time Turkey (before Anatolia) is more to the east.

Re: The sticky history of baklava

#50
post #3

Here in Greece (actually central Greece) houses traditionally make Baklava for the Christmas - new years eve period. It is considered a "holiday" treat. Most people use almonds to fill it and ready-made pie-sheets (from the supermarket, these are common in Greece because people use them to make pies). It's not difficult to make but, because it needs a lot of almonds it has very expensive, that's why it's not usual to…

True baklava is not boring. The one you describe is boring because it has no finesse. I’ve had it in Greece, and I make it at home, it’s just a sugar fix. True baklava is an experience. Most baklava in Turkey is bad too. The one mentioned in the article is pretty good but the bests are the other ones in Gaziantep. Something about the combination of worlds best pistachios and grass fed clarified butter. It is sublime. Michelin star level shit. Worth flying to Gaziantep for. Too bad it’s the butt of the world. I order from here [0] when I’m in Turkey. I think it’s the brother or cousin of the guy mentioned in the article. They fly it out the day it’s made. I think they send to some European cities too. It loses its amazing smell after a couple days, though so tough luck for other parts of the world.

0:https://www.farukgulluoglu.com.tr/fistikli-midye-baklava-1-k...

Post reply on HN