Traditional recipes from Mustafapaşa, Cappadocia
The recipes below were collected in Mustafapaşa, a charming and historical village of Cappadocia. Like many towns in Cappadocia, Mustafapaşa had a largely Greek Orthodox population in Ottoman times. Muslim Turks and Orthodox Greeks lived side by side, and the sound of church bells mingled with the call to prayer from the mosque. Called Sinasos by its Ottoman Greek residents, it is still called that today by many local people.
After the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations in 1924 (in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne), the refugees came to Mustafapaşa. They were mostly Macedonian people from Thessaloniki (modern-day Greece), and they brought with them these recipes which are handed down from generation to generation and still cooked today in Mustafapaşa. These recipes are known as muhacir or "refugees" recipes and are part of Mustafapasa's rich cultural heritage.
A special thank you to Birol Malçok from Mustafapaşa Town Hall for letting us use his superb photos.
