Turkish Forum

Tag: Ciragan Palace

  • Real sleeping like sultans in Istanbul

    HUGO CEREZO. ISTANBUL 04/08/2013

    In preparation for Tuesday’s clash with Galatasaray, the Real Madrid players are very much laying their heads in the lap of luxury. During their time in the Turkish city, they are staying at the Ciragan Palace, one of the world’s swankiest hotels, where a standard room will set you back some €600 a night, while the Sultan Suite comes in at a whopping €30,000.

    There is a reason for these high prices. The hotel is housed in a beautiful Baroque-style palace built under orders of Sultan Abdulaziz I between 1863 and 1867. Set on the European side of the city, across the Bosporus from Asia, it provides breathtaking views out over the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, which should inspire the ‘Los Blancos’ players.

    The palace is one of the top function venues in Istanbul, hosting gala events for sports like Formula 1, the WTA and Euroleague Basketball, as well as international summits and even the press launch of the most recent James Bond film.

    After landing at a private terminal at Ataturk Airport on Sunday evening, the Real Madrid camp, headed by Florentino Pérez, was given a 70-strong police escort to the palace.

    via Real sleeping like sultans in Istanbul – MARCA.com (English version).

  • Come Fly With Me: Shades of Istanbul

    Come Fly With Me: Shades of Istanbul

    Meera Ashish shuttles between her home bases in Dubai, London and Uganda, making huge detours along the way…

    Meera Ashish

    ciragan palace kempinski hotel istanbul 389360

    Standing in a jam-packed tram in Istanbul on a Saturday afternoon, let’s just say, is not fun! When you’re used to the London Underground, you’re brave enough to travel on any other Metro system … It’s a good way to explore a new city and get a glimpse of real day-to-day life. But Istanbul was not quite the mix of East and West I had expected. The streets were not reflective of the chaotic life that I imagined as part of cities in Asia — rather, they were more attuned to their relaxed European counterparts. But the rush hour on the tram revealed the less-European instincts of the locals.

    In London you get rowdiness. In Mumbai, the ladies in the ladies-only carriages literally push each other on and off, which can be entertaining and annoying. The Metro in Dubai can often get hot and sweaty. But in Istanbul, the men make the experience of travelling on a train or a tram highly undesirable, which probably explains why we spotted so few women. My friend and I moved inwards when it dawned on us that the close proximity of the men was not due only to the lack of space. It made me wonder why Istanbul had not adopted the Asian, or Indian, culture of having separate carriages for women. Even Dubai has carriages just for women and children. I’ve been on the Metro in Paris, Spain, New York and Mumbai, but I have never faced this kind of discomfort (nothing to do with odours and sweat, of course).

    I had not planned to start my tales of this city by writing about this one aspect. Let me tell you some more about this trip — a trip that is linked inextricably to one shady book that came by recommendation, and I did no research to find out what it was all about.

    First, I did manage to see in such a short time, various tones and shades of Istanbul, due mostly to the fact that I was with friends who wanted to cram in as much as possible from the Bosphorus cruise to shopping at the Bazaar to a Turkish bath to food and, of course, nightlife. But the agenda was often happily distracted by the girly chatter that had not been indulged in for much too long.

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    Rushing down ten minutes before breakfast ended always set the relaxed tone of the day, and then, of course, we would sit at breakfast at the House Hotel for an hour before heading out into the chic outdoors of Nisantasi. The few things I’ll remember about Istanbul is sitting by the Bosphorus at the Kempinski Ciragan Palace having afternoon tea; a pianist coordinating melodiously with the chorus of birds, the moving sails just visible beyond the pool and umbrellas; of course, dinner at the most picturesque Ulus29 which overlooks the river; the twinkling city on the opposite bank and two gleaming bridges on either side; and the next day at Munferit, a romantic alfresco setting with tables spilling on to the street, located in the Beyoglu. And then dancing at Reina, where we were literally looking up closely at the details of one end of the bridge, where the barman was kind enough to give me a plate of cut fruit, and eating salad at 3 in the morning just because … well, just because.

    — Follow Meera Ashish on talefourcities.com and @meeraashish

    via gulfnews : Come Fly With Me: Shades of Istanbul.

  • Turkish Delight! Kiki Kamanu & Noble Ekajeh’s Spectacular Wedding

    Turkish Delight! Kiki Kamanu & Noble Ekajeh’s Spectacular Wedding

    By BellaNaija.com

    Working on BN Weddings, we are always excited to see a couple’s most special day with all the beautiful elements (the dress, the venue etc…) and of course, the couple’s love shining through!
    That said, we are also elated when we see a couple step outside “the box” and celebrate their wedding in a truly distinctive way.

    Designer Kiki Kamanu and IT Consultant Noble Ekajeh‘s wedding was truly a magnificent occasion!
    View the photos and read all about their “Turkish Delight”!

    How Kiki & Noble Met
    Kiki was minding her own business at Bogobiri in Ikoyi Lagos having a glass of wine and working on her computer. Noble walked in and was immediately smitten. He asked Enyi Emeruah (who became best man) to make an introduction. Kiki was not interested and was already altar bound with a wonderful Parisien. Noble did not give up and later became her business partner. Kiki still was not interested but was pleased with their close genuine friendship that had formed.

    9 months later, out of the blue, she was sitting next to Noble and heard a voice which said ‘That is him, he is the one’ She was stunned and ignored the voice. It came again minutes later and said almost in exasperation ‘No, that’s him, he is the one!’ She ruminated over this for a week and realized that Noble had 90% of everything she had ever wanted and envisioned in a life partner!

    The Proposal
    Two weeks after they started dating, they had the following exchange:
    Kiki innocently said- “Oh wow, 10-10-10 seems like such a cool date to do anything’ . Noble, never skipping a beat said ‘Lets get married on 10-10-10“!

    The (First) Wedding!
    The couple eloped to Istanbul on March 24, 2010. An hour later they informed their parents and then announced it on Facebook! It was a shock to all because NO ONE knew they were dating, not even Kiki’s twin sister! Everyone thought they were just business partners.

    The Wedding – 10/10/10
    As this was a truly distinctive wedding, the BN Wedding team will be presenting it in a different way. We were not the only ones blown away by this wedding, the staff at the 7 star Ciragan Hotel were so taken by their preparations that they begged to have a Turkish TV station come to cover it. ‘Kanal D’ covered it and showed Kiki and Noble’s wedding for several days during prime time. After the wedding, the couple and several of their guests were recognized by Turks as they walked about town making them over night celebrities! Martha Stewart’s wedding magazine also asked to cover it but of course we know BN Weddings trumps that (wink!)

    We asked the beautiful (superwoman – she planned the wedding!) bride Kiki a few questions on what inspired this amazing wedding celebration.

    What inspired you to decide on a destination wedding?
    People laugh when I say this but its the truth – Smelly waiters. I have been to so many weddings in Lagos and all but one wedding have had ill-trained waiters serving my food! And I didn’t want a situation where guests trickle in at all hours because they are juggling their Saturdays. I wanted our friends and family to be there for us full time.

    Why Turkey?
    I ran the Neurosurgery Residency Programme at Harvard for 5 years which was very stressful. One of my Neurosurgeon friends was from Istanbul and would ALWAYS argue with me that Istanbul was ‘ten thousand times better than Lagos’. One day I took his challenge and found my self scuba diving in Bodrum in Southern Turkey and walking around in Istanbul where history comes alive. I was absolutely in awe of its beauty and dynamism. I took my fiance Noble to Istanbul and it did not take much to convince him, he fell in love with it as well.

    Was it easy to convince your groom and family to get on board?
    All those who know me know I do things very differently. No one was shocked. They were all excited and we actually had people who were not invited ‘invite’ themselves because of the destination! Our Pastor, Paul Adefarasin made sure we went through pre-marital counselling which was the best thing we have ever done. We have a rock, and are accountable for every action we think and make.

    The date was very symbolic, why did you choose that date?
    It was catchy and unforgettable, TEN TEN TEN!

    How did you choose your venues and themes?
    Venue – The Ciragan Palace is a Kempinski Hotel and the only standing Ottoman palace right on the Bosphorous. There is a lot of rich history which comes alive as soon as you walk through the doors.

    Theme – For the theme, that was easier – New York Fashion Week! I live between Lagos and Manhattan. I have been a runway model since my early teens and I am now a fashion designer. I insisted that everyone HAD to wear loads of colour. Black was forbidden.

    Outfits – I designed all the outfits for the entire 30 person wedding party and It was essential that everyone NOT be wearing the same fabric or same design. I feel it is important that wedding outfits should be recycled and worn again. I designed pieces based on each persons body type and lifestyle.

    The 9 groomsmen wore raw silk kaftans in vibrant hues with rich embroidery from my EKZ men’s collection. My brother, dad and 4 brothers in law also wore kaftans from EKZ. The 10 bridesmaids wore stunning lace dresses whilst my 2 maids of honour and my 3 sisters wore soft silk dresses. We also had a red carpet and velvet ropes to make it more authentic.

    You are a designer and had a stunning collection of dresses which you wore at the wedding, describe the looks and tell us the inspiration behind them.
    It took me less than a week to get my three pieces together. It was crazy but fun. My staff were busy sewing late into the night!

    The First Outfit – My first outfit for the church ceremony was a lavish red satin long skirt with multiple layers of ruffles. I paired it with a silver satin bustier with Swarovski crystals. I completed the outfit with red satin boots my wonderful assistant Martha painstakingly sprinkled with Swarovski crystals.

    The Second Outfit – My second outfit was worn into the reception and also for the interview with Turkish TV station Canal D. It was white lace with feathers my mum had given me years ago. I had never known what to do with it until then.

    The Third Outfit – For my third outfit, I wore a purple and green chiffon dress inspired by Alexander McQueen. I also had a pair of purple/lime multi strapped satin shoes I made from my shoe collection.

    How many days did you spend in Turkey and how many ceremonies/celebrations took place?

    We were in Istanbul for about ten days. We had a beautiful, emotional Christian ceremony officiated by our spiritual mentor and friend Pastor Paul Adefarasin of House on the Rock. This ceremony was held at the Ciragan Palace, Istanbul.

    Were there any additional special activities organized for guests?
    We were so blessed to have our guests in Istanbul for 5 days. We had a dinner for our near 200 guests (some who came form as far away as New Zealand and Sri Lanka) at a traditional low key Turkish restaurant in the Cek Passaji area complete with a private concert of Turkish folk music. We also organized tours and Turkish baths. It was important for us that our guests get to know the beauty that is about in Istanbul from Galata to Bebek to Ortakoy

    Advice for brides and grooms considering a destination wedding
    1) Don’t ever think its too expensive. There is a wedding for every budget.

    2) Don’t listen to family when it comes to your day. A close fried of mine wanted to get married on 06-06-2006 and because it was not ‘convenient’ for her dad, it did not happen. Another friend wanted to have a ceremony for his dad’s friends in Lagos and then the actual wedding in nearby Cotonou, and his dad objected. In the end a low key event was held in Lagos to the dismay of the couple. I was stunned in both cases! It is about you and your spouse, it is the beginning of your beginning and like Burger King you should have it your way! That’s it!

    3) Make sure you are friends first! Very very important! We talk about everything, good and bad unpleasant and otherwise.

    Married!

  • Chef recreates ‘lost recipes’ of Ottoman Empire

    Chef recreates ‘lost recipes’ of Ottoman Empire

    By A. Craig Copetas

    Bloomberg News

    tugra ciraganISTANBUL — Ottoman Empire chef Ugur Alparslan spends more time in the library than he does in the kitchen.

    “These are the lost recipes,” Alparslan says as the sun sets over the Golden Horn and the tables at his Tugra restaurant in the Ciragan Palace Kempinski hotel on Istanbul’s shore begin to fill with 21st-century merchants seeking the missing tastes and aromas of imperial Ottoman Constantinople.

    For Alparslan, 49, his ancient menu is as real today as the many portraits of Sultan Mehmed II, who in 1453 conquered Byzantium. The House of Osman, or Ottoman Dynasty, shaped the city on the Bosphorus into the first headquarters for what would become the luxury-goods industry.

    Occidental trumpery merchants assigned to the Ottoman court often compared meals at the sultan’s Topkapi palace and elsewhere in the city to those served at Belshazzar’s Babylonian feast. Back in Europe, their reports were at first digested with a pinch of salt, until the 19th-century French chef Alexis Soyer traveled to Constantinople during the Crimean War for a taste of the empire’s Balkan-Caucasus-Persian-Arab-Levant-Mediterranean fusion cooking.

    “For me, delicious and lavish food was the epicenter of the Ottoman Empire,” Alparslan says, unveiling a $27.10 grilled winter-celery appetizer decorated with beans, gingered olive oil and tarragon sauce. Yet the chef laments as another choice, a $28 saffron ravioli stuffed with flakes of sun-dried chili and thyme sauce, slides off the serving spoon.

    “The sultans did not embrace the printing press,” he says. “So I continually search old handwritten manuscripts to find promising new dishes from the past. I see my job as illuminating history through food.”

    Sifting through 493 years of Ottoman culinary chronicles isn’t for the meek. The sultans only ate off of gold, silver or green celadon plates that alchemists said either detected or defused poison.

    If the toxins failed, the killers turned to kitchen scissors, as was the case with Sultan Abdulaziz. He was assassinated in 1876 by rivals just a few yards from the Ciragan ovens, where Alparslan and his eight assistant chefs today concoct a $42 charcoal-grilled lamb “kulbasti” swaddled in smoked walnuts, eggplant, onion and sprinkled with a sauce of fresh- squeezed pomegranate juice.

    The only mystery is whether Alparslan’s mastery of the skillet would have landed him a job in any of Topkapi’s 10 kitchens, which included separate larders, stoves and recipes for the sultan, the grand vizier, the harem and the eunuchs. Sultanic scribes noted that the imperial kitchens daily served some 370 pounds of almonds washed down with 63 gallons of musk-scented rose water. And that was just for snacks.

    Ottoman business and political leaders conspired to obtain cooking titles such as “Superintendent of Sherbets,” a sort of dessert manager, whose responsibilities would have included overseeing the creation of Tugra’s $15 cinnamon halvah wrapped around fig ice cream or the restaurant’s baked quince with clotted cream laced with pomegranate syrup.

    High-ranking military officers in the sultan’s elite Janissary Corps vied for the exalted position of “corbaci,” or soup cook, an influential decoration akin to a knighthood that allowed them the privilege of wearing a ladle on their belt. Alparslan’s $19 sour lentil soup with fried eggplant and chickpeas is a triumphant reminder of the Janissary’s luxury mess hall and the need to keep an army fed.

    Tugra opened in 1991, though locals say the restaurant’s past chefs would have met the same fate as those whose dishes displeased the sultan.

    “A golden cord, tightened around the neck, the strangled body put in a sack and thrown in the Bosphorus,” is how English teacher and carpet dealer Huseyin Palioglu describes the outcome of a meal poorly served to the sultan and his guests. “There are many restaurants in Istanbul that offer palace cuisine, but Tugra is as accurate and delicious as the food can get under the circumstances.”

    Alparslan, who took command of the kitchen in 2002, has transformed Tugra from a luxury tourist trap inspired by whimsy into one of the world’s finest restaurants. It’s an historical incubator, where it’s best to avoid the overpriced French vintages in favor of a $207 2008 Doluca Alcitepe Saroz, a Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz blend from the Dardanelles.

    The wine nowadays is poured without a great dollop of the finely crushed natural Bahraini pearls once enjoyed by the empire’s commercial elite. Still, the heady 14.9 percent alcoholic content helps one imagine a time when affluent global businessmen gathered in Constantinople over clotted buffalo yogurt to discuss goat-hair futures.

    • DETAILS: Tugra, Ciragan Palace Kempinski, Istanbul; www.kempinski.com or 011-90-212-v326-v4646.

    via Chef recreates ‘lost recipes’ of Ottoman Empire – Travel – MiamiHerald.com.