The Malaysian Insider :: Food
The Malaysian Insider :: Food |
| Turkey nargileh culture under threat Posted: 23 Feb 2013 03:36 PM PST  People smoke hookahs inside a restaurant in Limassol, Cyprus February 20, 2013. — Reuters pic Fans of the water pipe, also known as a hookah or shisha, can no longer get their fix in cafes, bars, and restaurants after a law banning smoking from closed public spaces came into force in January. This new measure is a sign that the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) means business in its crackdown on smoking in a country where almost a third of adults puff away. In 2009, authorities banned smoking in public places and slapped taxes on both alcohol and tobacco products. The tax imposed on cigarettes rose by a staggering 195 per cent between 2005 and 2011. The result: a 15-per cent drop in cigarette sales. Cunning hookah cafe managers soon found ways around the ban, taunting authorities by serving customers on outside terraces, but sheltered from the elements by bay windows. Cafes also changed their menus to offer more fruity mixes with a lower tobacco content that won over even Istanbul's more traditional smoking dens, and caught on with tourists. But this year's measure is more severe, and little appreciated by nargileh fans in the downtown Kizilay neighbourhood in the heart of the capital Ankara. "Before 2009, we sold 300 hookahs daily. Now it is only 50 and the new measure will bring down our business," laments Alican Ali, a waiter at the Tombeki cafe. On the cafe's terrace, students — both girls and boys — pull on their pipes and chat over tea or coffee, or a game of "tavla", the Turkish backgammon. A smell of cinnamon, apricot and apple tobacco fills the air. Popular in much of the Middle East and parts of Asia, the water pipe goes by a number of names including hookah in India and Pakistan and shisha in Egypt, derived from hashish, for which the pipe was originally used. Essentially a male past-time, the nargileh has enjoyed a revival among Turkish young people in recent years and is now smoked by both men and women. In 2010, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) of 14 countries, supported by the World Health Organisation, found that most of Turkey's hookah smokers were aged between 15 and 24. Keen to cash in on the trend, a crop of specialist websites now offer tobacco flavours ranging from cappuccino to watermelon, and funky coloured bases and hoses to personalise a pipe. The hookah is prepared by filling the base with water, crumbling tobacco of choice into a bowl and lighting charcoal in a ritual intrinsically linked to the Turkish culture. People can then while away the hours, inhaling at leisure. But with the new law forcing them outside into the cold or boiling sun to smoke, pipe lovers fear the experience will not be the same. "It will be difficult to stand in the cold or in the sun for two hours. With a cigarette, you can take a puff whenever you like but the hookah needs preparation, time and a space, which give it a very special character," says the bartender at Tombeki, who did not give his name. "The nargileh is about conviviality and friendship in a world where we are forced to live at 100 miles an hour." At the next table, two students are quietly sipping their tea, a hookah on the go. "I am well aware that it is bad for health but it is not like smoking," says 23-year-old Elif Karadele, who smokes every day. This is exactly the misconception that health specialists take issue with: fruity it may be, but the tobacco in the nargileh is just as damaging to health as regular smoking, if not more so, doctors warn. According to findings from the US-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, an hour-long session with a nargileh is the equivalent of inhaling 100-200 cigarettes. The bigger intake of breath needed to inhale from a water pipe means hookah users may absorb higher concentrations of toxins. "The hookah flavours are even more dangerous since smokers think they are inhaling something harmless," specialist Cengizhan Elmas warns. "Even if there is little tobacco, people inhale toxic substances such as carbon monoxide and heavy metals" present in the charcoal used to heat the pipe, he adds. Smoking a shisha can cause the same kinds of diseases as cigarettes, the US centre found, including oral and lung cancers, and decrease fertility. But for the moment the threat appears to remain fairly limited: the GATS study found that just 2.3 per cent of Turkey's smokers used water pipes. Tombeki cafe regular Nuri Aydin says he has no intention of giving up the pipe. "I come here three or four times a week. It is a passion," says the 24-year-old. "I saw my father and grandfather smoking and I am keeping up the tradition. They should let us do it!" — AFP/Relaxnews |
| Restaurant rankings not literal, chef argues Posted: 23 Feb 2013 03:32 PM PST
As part of our Relaxviews series in which we ask players at the top of their game to share their opinions on the goings-on in their industries, we ask Chiang to share his thoughts on the first ever Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards to be held on Monday. Listings that purport to rank the best restaurants in the world reflect the culinary trend of the moment — and should not be taken literally, says Taiwanese chef André Chiang (right) of Restaurant André. As Asia prepares to inaugurate their own version of Restaurant magazine's World's 50 Best Restaurants awards on Monday night, Chiang, one of Singapore's most celebrated chefs, shared his opinions on the ranking that will try to do for Asia what it has done for the world: name the best restaurant on the continent. "I think it's difficult to rank hotels or restaurants," he said in a phone interview from Singapore. "It's like any type of art form, whether it be dance or paintings. It's not like a sport where you can measure who runs the fastest." It is a criticism shared by many chefs, restaurateurs, critics and consumers themselves. How can you assign a ranking to something as subjective and arbitrary as food? On the other hand, what the awards do succeed in accomplishing is highlighting trailblazers in the industry, he said, restaurants that are setting the trends and pioneering new avenues in the world of food. Another plus? Giving Asia its own version of the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards will introduce the world to the continent's dining scene, a culinary landscape that can be impenetrable and opaque for the Western world ill-acquainted with Asia. Meanwhile, on a continent where ethnic flavours, styles and palates are strikingly diverse, Chiang also pointed that listings such as these compare apples to oranges. At the same time, the culinary world has outgrown tidy definitions, he said. "Nowadays, you can't categorize cuisine anymore." Gastronomy is becoming increasingly distilled through a fine mesh sieve. For example, Spanish cuisine is being narrowed to regional styles of cooking such as San Sebastian cuisine. That in turn, is brewed down into a style of cooking that's intensely personal, Chiang said, and more an expression of the chef themselves. In the same way, a chef may use soy sauce simply because they want to impart the flavor profile it provides: depth of flavour and umami — not to make the dish "Asian." As for Chiang's favourite dining destinations in Asia, they include a small, intimate Japanese eatery in Taiwan, Sasa, that serves top notch sushi, and Sungei Road laksa, a small food stall in Singapore that's been serving the same charcoal-fired laksa for the last 20 years. Winners of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants will be announced Monday, February 25 in Singapore. With accolades that include titles like "One of the World's Best Young Chefs" by Wallpaper magazine, inclusion in the list of "10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride" by The New York Times, and Best New Restaurant 2011 Singapore, as deemed by Tatler Asia, Chiang has quickly cemented his reputation as a culinary force to watch. — AFP/Relaxnews |
SINGAPORE, Feb 24 — Critically acclaimed Taiwanese chef André Chiang has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top since opening his Mediterranean-fusion Restaurant André in Singapore in 2010.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Food To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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