SpiceLines

Aliza Green's foodie tour of Turkey and Chios includes a visit to the Egyptian Spice Market in Istanbul where you can stock up on Iranian saffron, urfa and maras peppers and other exotic seasonings. Photo: Aliza Green.

Centuries ago, a shadowy ancestor of mine was envoy to the Ottoman court at Constantinople. All my life I’ve dreamed of going there—Istanbul, that is—and retracing his footsteps across the magnificent city that spans the Bosphorus, one flank in Asia, the other in Europe.

That’s why “Fragrant Fields and Turkish Delights : Exploring Aegean and Ottoman Flavors” is a such a temptation. This fall cookbook author and chef Aliza Green (whom I met in India a couple of years ago) will lead an unusual 16-day foodie and cultural tour of Turkey and Chios, a Greek island just off the mainland.

The trip is unique in its focus on mastic, a fragrant resin that comes from wild pistachio trees grown on Chios. Participants will have a chance to harvest clear mastic “tears” from an ancient grove and learn how the spice is used in cooking. “As a seasoning, mastic is haunting and slightly sweet with hints of rosemary, mint and fennel, a mild cleansing bitter undertone, and earthy aroma like a pine forest,” Aliza writes. Delicacies to be tasted include figs cooked over mastic wood.

There are also wine and olive oil tastings, market visits and cooking classes with esteemed Turkish chefs, including Musa Dagdeviren of Ciya restaurant who was profiled in the April 19th issue of The New Yorker. (Go here to read an abstract of “The Memory Kitchen” or here for an audio slide show in which author Elif Batuman describes chef Dagdeviren’s resurrection of traditional Turkish cuisine.)

In Istanbul there are visits to Topkapi Palace and the dazzling Blue Mosque, as well as the Egyptian Spice Bazaar where you can stock up on “Iranian saffron, green pistachios, chiles from Urfa and Maras, Turkish apricots, Mediterranean pine nuts and rose-scented Turkish Delight,” and the Grand Bazaar, where doubtless my ancestor bargained for gold or rugs or maybe a turquoise “evil eye.” Four thousand shops and so little time—start making your list now.

The dates of the tour are October 1-16, 2010. Go here to see a complete itinerary.