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| 'Kanife': The ancient dish of Turkey, which also contains a 'ray of hope' in its seasoning. |
It was an early November evening in the inner city of Hatay, Turkey's southern province, bordering Syria. The weather was hot but there was a pleasant breeze.
After finishing my work, I met a journalist friend for lunch in the old city. After eating some kebabs, meze, and many other dishes, the best option was to stop for a sweet treat at Kanifa, a delicious and favorite dessert of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Thin strings made of Kanifa semolina flour called 'Tel Kadafi' combined with salty Hatai cheese: give an ideal taste. While the syrup made of sugar and lemon on it stayed in our mouths for a long time.
A similar dish, kunafa, is found throughout the Middle East, but kunafe is clearly a Turkish sweet and is believed to have originated in Hatay, and is therefore particularly popular. Made with cheese made in the same area, similar to fresh mozzarella cheese.
Sweets traditionally eaten during Ramadan can now be found in shops at any time of the year. The more than 30 knife shops on the streets of Hatay are a testament to its popularity.
One could say that the dessert's combination of flavors and textures is a metaphor for the province. A historical trading center and justification for people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds to come closer. And this foodie place where people ask you if you're hungry before asking your name. Here, dishes like Kanifee are their pride.
The owner of the shop leaned against the door and smiled at us and said, 'Those who taste our food once cannot forget it.'
He said, 'Remember one thing. You have tasted our food, become accustomed to it, and now you cannot give it up. Now the next time you come to Antakya, you will have to come back to my shop.'
I next visited Antioch three years later, but then the scene was completely different.
The square where I first ate the knife was a pile of rubble. The air was full of dust due to the ongoing excavation work here. And the statue of a Kanife master, the symbol of the square, stood alone amid the destruction.
Two major earthquakes occurred in Turkey and neighboring Syria in the early morning of February 6, with magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.5. More than 50,000 people lost their lives and more than 2 million people were displaced in this earthquake.
Hatay was one of the worst affected provinces in the region, with almost the entire city center and many of its villages destroyed. More than two months later, many people are in dire need of clean water, as well as food, clothing, and other necessities.
Still, in a city where almost everyone has lost family members and friends, life goes on.
A limited number of cannabis shops have managed to reopen. And those bravely facing the hardships are trying to bring their people back to life during this time of reconstruction and give them a taste once again of the traditional sweets that have been here for centuries.
These recent earthquakes were not the first to hit the region known locally as Antiochia or Antakya (for its historical name), which has been the capital of several empires since the death of Alexander the Great.
Dr. Asa Egger, associate professor at the University of North Carolina, and Andrea Udgiorgi, associate professor of classical studies at Florida State University, describe the city's resilience in a 2021 book. This book tells the history of Antioch, which has seen about 10 severe earthquakes that caused great loss of life and property.
Egger and De Giorgi wrote in their book 'Antioch A Study', 'Yet the city has survived every shock and time, full of crises and changes throughout its history, rebuilding and rebuilding the city and its citizens. Teaches a valuable lesson about the ability to overcome adversity.'
According to the book, although the disasters had profound physical and psychological effects on the population, they also provided an opportunity to somehow reshape Antioch.
Ingan is a knife master who reopened his damaged shop in a makeshift market in Hatai several weeks after the recent earthquakes. He has had this experience for the first time. "It's smaller than our old shop," he says. Still, it's good. We are lucky to have it. Perhaps this will be the place from which we rise again.
The original Gozde Kanife shop was located in the posh area of Hatai. Customers remembered that a few nights before the earthquake, they would drive around the street in their cars and wait for their orders because there were no tables to sit at or parking spaces to stop.
Now this new and temporary shop is barely 10 square meters in size and the staff has to work efficiently to prevent overcrowding in the limited space.
Mixing butter and syrup in a large round frying pan used for making a knife, he said that after years of working for others, he enjoyed the feeling of 'sitting on the grain and being the boss' before the earthquake. They used to enjoy it.
'But our master (conifer chef) died in the earthquake along with his entire family. That's why I am now preparing this knife myself.
However, this time they have a new helper Lamia Dinch, his wife. After seeing her husband struggle to handle the kitchen and customers at the same time, she rolled up her sleeves and became a new member of the shop's staff.
Lamiya says that initially her husband did not trust her but soon "he realized that we have to adapt to the new situation and that is what we are doing now."
It was a good moment for her husband to return to the kitchen and prepare the first tray of knives for the first time since the earthquake. "I tasted it and it was the first time I had a knife since the earthquake," he says. I said yes I am alive.
Lale, a cheese maker, explains how life in Antakya revolves around food, especially local dishes such as knives. "The most important question in Antioch is what we will eat," he said.
Lale was born in Istanbul and moved to Antakya in 2014 after studying in the UK. Now they make local Hata Paneer, which is made from goat's or occasionally cow's milk. At first, the city's connection to food and people sitting around the dinner table for hours surprised him.
"When I tried to learn more about the city, I realized that ancient images of Antioch were also made on food feasts," she says.
Food is the language of love for the people of Antioch. They want everyone to get together in the evening, set the table with different dishes, and spend hours talking.
Kanifay is the sweetest way to end any meal. Lale says, "You can't go sweet with raki, the famous Turkish drink, but since the knife contains cheese, it goes well with raki." It means the two go hand in hand and the night ends beautifully.'
Lale sheds light on another social aspect of Kanife. "Because the knife is mostly made by men, it's also important for their bravery because then there's a discussion about who makes the best knife," she says.
"It smells like the old days," said a local customer sitting in Gozde Kanife.