Many people ask me how Australians celebrate ANZAC Day in Istanbul. Do we go and visit the Gallipoli site? Do we have our own dawn service? Do we show special screenings of “Gallipoli”? What generally happens?
Personally, I choose not to join the crowds of other Aussies and New Zealanders who love to crash the place, usually dishonoring the dawn service with hangovers. As there are no more ANZAC soldiers left for us to watch parade down the street, I suppose the choice is ours. Last year, however, was different. I had just received news from an Aussie friend that our famous ANZAC biscuit, the closest thing to a national food that we have in Australia, was being packaged and sold in the US under the pseudonym “ANZAC cookie.” Not only this, but they were also being distributed to American soldiers in Iraq. Like many Australians, I was shocked and appalled that our biscuit -- the same one that gave many an Australian soldier a sense of hope during the Gallipoli campaign -- was being sold out for a cause that most Australians don’t even believe in. Furious, my friends and I decided that it was the year to “reclaim the biscuit” and set about baking loads of them ourselves for no particular reason, just because.
I suppose I should give a little bit of biscuit history. There are a couple of different versions of the origins of the biscuit. Some claim that it was the soldiers that in fact invented them, using whatever provisions they could to give them something to do and relieve the boredom of their battle rations. The other version is that they were created by wives and mothers in Australia who wanted to make a treat for their menfolk in the trenches which would survive the long journey to the Dardanelles. Either way, they started their life as a “war biscuit” and this legacy has continued until today.
Anyway, back to the baking story. It wasn’t so difficult to find the ingredients. Native Australian wattle seed is a little hard to come by, but we were prepared for that. Nevertheless, we perused the shelves of the Fenerbahçe 2M Migros and found everything except for the golden syrup, which I have been told isn’t readily available here. Never mind, we decided to experiment with a combination of honey and pekmez instead. A semi-reliable Arçelik oven and a bottle of chardonnay (for us, not for the biscuits) and two hours later the comforting smell of biscuit was wafting through the entire house. There was also a slight smell of burnt biscuit due to a batch that we forgot about because we were too engrossed in our conversation about the latest man my friend had been dating.
The result? Two hundred delicious biscuits which we could easily have eaten straight away but didn’t because (and I most probably have Doluca to thank for this) we had a much better idea. We decided that instead of giving them to soldiers as a way to help them fortify themselves against the Turks, why not give them directly to the Turks -- as a symbol of peace and friendship? And that’s what we did. Our weekend students at English First were the first ones to be inaugurated into the Peace Biscuit tradition. And the feedback? Well, it was very good. The half-honey, half-pekmez idea turned out to be a good one after all and it gave the traditional Aussie biscuit a slightly à la Turca edge. There is even a café in Suadiye that is planning to add them to their sweet menu. I have added a traditional recipe for those who would like to try a peace biscuit themselves. Remember to substitute golden syrup with a half-honey, half-pekmez mixture for a traditional ANZAC biscuit taste.
Personally, I choose not to join the crowds of other Aussies and New Zealanders who love to crash the place, usually dishonoring the dawn service with hangovers. As there are no more ANZAC soldiers left for us to watch parade down the street, I suppose the choice is ours. Last year, however, was different. I had just received news from an Aussie friend that our famous ANZAC biscuit, the closest thing to a national food that we have in Australia, was being packaged and sold in the US under the pseudonym “ANZAC cookie.” Not only this, but they were also being distributed to American soldiers in Iraq. Like many Australians, I was shocked and appalled that our biscuit -- the same one that gave many an Australian soldier a sense of hope during the Gallipoli campaign -- was being sold out for a cause that most Australians don’t even believe in. Furious, my friends and I decided that it was the year to “reclaim the biscuit” and set about baking loads of them ourselves for no particular reason, just because.
I suppose I should give a little bit of biscuit history. There are a couple of different versions of the origins of the biscuit. Some claim that it was the soldiers that in fact invented them, using whatever provisions they could to give them something to do and relieve the boredom of their battle rations. The other version is that they were created by wives and mothers in Australia who wanted to make a treat for their menfolk in the trenches which would survive the long journey to the Dardanelles. Either way, they started their life as a “war biscuit” and this legacy has continued until today.
Anyway, back to the baking story. It wasn’t so difficult to find the ingredients. Native Australian wattle seed is a little hard to come by, but we were prepared for that. Nevertheless, we perused the shelves of the Fenerbahçe 2M Migros and found everything except for the golden syrup, which I have been told isn’t readily available here. Never mind, we decided to experiment with a combination of honey and pekmez instead. A semi-reliable Arçelik oven and a bottle of chardonnay (for us, not for the biscuits) and two hours later the comforting smell of biscuit was wafting through the entire house. There was also a slight smell of burnt biscuit due to a batch that we forgot about because we were too engrossed in our conversation about the latest man my friend had been dating.
The result? Two hundred delicious biscuits which we could easily have eaten straight away but didn’t because (and I most probably have Doluca to thank for this) we had a much better idea. We decided that instead of giving them to soldiers as a way to help them fortify themselves against the Turks, why not give them directly to the Turks -- as a symbol of peace and friendship? And that’s what we did. Our weekend students at English First were the first ones to be inaugurated into the Peace Biscuit tradition. And the feedback? Well, it was very good. The half-honey, half-pekmez idea turned out to be a good one after all and it gave the traditional Aussie biscuit a slightly à la Turca edge. There is even a café in Suadiye that is planning to add them to their sweet menu. I have added a traditional recipe for those who would like to try a peace biscuit themselves. Remember to substitute golden syrup with a half-honey, half-pekmez mixture for a traditional ANZAC biscuit taste.
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