Can You Ship Turkish Delight to the United States
The hole-and-corner story behind Turkish delight
(Image credit:
Demetrios Ioannou
)
Istanbul'south Haci Bekir sweet shop has been selling Turkish please for two centuries, largely thanks to the business savvy of generations of women.
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On a cloudy summer afternoon in Istanbul, my ferry was slowly approaching the port of Eminonu. The view from the deck is something I can never get used to, no matter how many times I do the aforementioned trip over the Bosporus. As the sun started to set up, the old city was showered in a golden-crimson colour and the silhouettes of the grand mosques took me back to the Ottoman era.
Among the many remnants of the Ottoman times scattered around this huge city, perhaps the smallest – only for certain the tastiest – sits but a brusque walk from the port, on a small street behind the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) in Istanbul's Bahçekapı district. It is the Haci Bekir shop, which has sold Turkish delights to sweet-toothed residents and visitors for more than 2 centuries.
The Haci Bekir store in Istanbul has been selling Turkish delights and other sweet treats for more than 200 years (Credit: Demetrios Ioannou)
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Haci Bekir's storefront is elegant withal unimposing. Inside Hande Celalyan was waiting for me. She, along with her sister, Nazlı İmre, are the ones in accuse today. "Now we are ii girls who run this place. We are the 5th generation in the family business," Celalyan proudly told me, gesturing to a glorious buffet stocked with dozens of flavours of Turkish delight, amongst other sweets.
Running the country'south oldest company – and one of the 100 oldest companies in the world – is non an easy task, especially as a woman in a country where men are even so the predominant breadwinners. According to recent inquiry past the Globe Business Culture, but 24% of Turkish women are actively employed, despite the fact that the Turkish constitution offers equal rights for men and women in the workplace. This, however, has never been a problem in the Haci Bekir company. "Women were always appreciated [in our family]. A prejudice against women in accuse was never an effect," Celalyan told me.
Along with her sister, Hande Celalyan is the fifth generation of her family unit to run Haci Bekir (Credit: Demetrios Ioannou)
Opened in 1777 by Celalyan's neat-bang-up-grandfather, confectioner Haci Bekir Effendi, the store is responsible for creating the Turkish delight we know today. Known in Turkey equally lokum, these small, jellied cubes are Turkey'south most love sweet.
Born and raised in Araç, a town in northern Turkey'southward Kastamonu province, Bekir Effendi decided to relocate to present-day Istanbul, the capital and business middle of the Ottoman Empire, to open his lokum business. When cornstarch was starting time created in the mid-19th Century, Bekir Effendi altered his original recipe, replacing flour with cornstarch equally a binding ingredient, which gave the sweetness the distinct chewiness for which information technology is at present known. His unique creation – which is the same recipe the family uses today, and one they have kept hush-hush for generations – gained notoriety throughout the city, with word of the delicious sweet eventually reaching the Ottoman Palace. Sultan Mahmud 2, who was ruling at the time, appointed him master confectioner to the palace, a great accolade that his family held until the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1920.
Despite the fact that a homo began the business organisation, women have been at the wheel of the company for the past century. "There is no deviation between existence a man or a woman as long as you're good at what you're doing," Celalyan said.
Haci Bekir Effendi's signature recipe for Turkish delight earned him the role of primary confectioner to the Ottoman Palace (Credit: Demetrios Ioannou)
Celalyan was only 25 years old when she took on a leadership office in the Haci Bekir company in 1986. Although she had graduated with a Principal'southward degree in business from the University of Zürich, she was still new and inexperienced in the business organization world. But she had a strong female person role model: her great-grandmother Reşide. Celalyan'southward grandad Ali Muhiddin was very immature when he was entrusted with running the Haci Bekir shop after his father passed away. He depended heavily on his mother Reşide, who supported him every bit his most trusted and beloved advisor.
Under Reşide's watchful eye, Haci Bekir grew into an internationally known business organisation. Like his ancestor, Muhiddin held the position of chief confectioner to the Ottoman Palace in the concluding years of the empire, and in 1911, he was granted the title of primary confectioner past the palace of Arab republic of egypt as well. Over the side by side few decades, Haci Bekir's confections were praised by food critics in New York City and Paris. "During their time information technology was the golden era of the company," Celalyan explained.
While Muhiddin was the face of Haci Bekir, Reşide stood with her son equally an equal business organization partner, while at the aforementioned time raising her three other children. She also helped her son conduct business internationally, which was uncommon for women to exercise at the time (she was one of the beginning women to concord a passport from the newly established Commonwealth of Turkey). Additionally, Reşide took part in clemency work for which she was awarded a medal from the Ottoman Ruddy Crescent Association, which has evolved into the Turkish Red Crescent Lodge, the largest humanitarian organisation in the country. "She was a real avant-garde woman ahead of her time," Celalyan said.
(Credit: Demetrios Ioannou)
(Credit: Demetrios Ioannou)
(Credit: Demetrios Ioannou)
(Credit: Demetrios Ioannou)
Similar to the Ottoman sultanate, the Haci Bekir lokum shop has been passed from one generation to the other. As Muhiddin'south only child, Aliye Şahin (Celalyan'due south mother), became the first woman to officially run the business in 1974. She then passed the shop on to Celalyan and her sis.
"We were all born in this business organization and we accept it in our claret. Nobody forced united states of america," Celalyan told me. "We experience information technology as a cultural heritage more than than a business." Celalyan's 29-year-old girl, Leyla, is already working in the shop and will likely accept on a leadership role alongside her blood brother Sahan.
Many of the shop'southward employees can likewise claim generational ties to Haci Bekir. Most of them are the descendants of the very commencement employees. "We are a big family," Celalyan said with a smile. "Not only the possessor's family, but our employers and customers, also. We have a lot of customers who know the production from their grandparents. Everything is irresolute so quickly in the earth, so if you come across something familiar from your babyhood it makes you feel comfortable."
Although Haci Bekir too sells hard candies, halva, pastries and other sweets, Turkish delight is still the store's almost popular product (Credit: Demetrios Ioannou)
Today, the Haci Bekir business includes five stores within Istanbul, and they send their famous Turkish delight to customers all over the world. While Turkish delight is Haci Bekir's most popular product, the shops also sell hard candies, nut pastes and halva, also as biscuits, cakes and pastries.
The hugger-mugger of their success is innovation. "We accept to keep up with the trends and not stay only with the traditional tastes. Otherwise both y'all and the customers volition become bored," Celalyan told me as I chewed on a ginger-flavoured Turkish delight, savouring its warm, slightly sharp sense of taste. Although the pistachio and rose flavours are the bestsellers, the store also sells mint, cinnamon, orangish, lemon, pomegranate, jam and even chocolate Turkish delight.
"Nosotros have hundreds of different tastes," Celalyan beamed.
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Source: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20181003-the-secret-story-behind-turkish-delight
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