“A Recipe A Story”: Smyrnaean cuisine and smells of Pontus through computers

The camera opens and Antonia Vereketi appears on the screen. On the table in front of her are meat, flour, onion and some fruits, most of which are quinces. The same materials are seen in some of the “windows” of the participants, who will simultaneously execute the recipe for the “quince”.

Before Mrs. Vereketi even starts cooking and the smells that will evoke memories of her childhood emerge, every material she holds in her hands reminds her of a story, which she begins to tell. This recipe from Central Asia, she learned from her grandmother Smyrna and every stage of cooking, brings her images that lived sixty years ago.

In another online encounter, the leading role is played by Georgia Sarigiannidou, who will show the participants how to make a recipe from Pontos, the “stretched sorbet” and at the same time will tell them how she grew up among the refugee population.

“A Recipe A Story” along with photos and stories on a digital map

Ms. Vereketi and Ms. Sarigiannidou participate in the event entitled “A Recipe A Story”, the idea of ​​which belongs to Fotini Papachatzi, who is responsible for the project “postcard from home”, which is implemented under the auspices and with the support of the Ministry of Culture. This project involves descendants of Asia Minor, Pontians and Constantinople, who teach online a homemade food recipe, which is related to their knowledge and experience and is accompanied by a story about their ancestors.

“Each story goes up on a digital map we have created (https://bit.ly/31jpCBt),” Ms. Papachatzi told the Athenian / Macedonian News Agency. For example, if the narrator tells the story of his ancestors from Trabzon, by clicking on that point on the map, one can read his story and see a relevant photo from his family album. “In this context, because gastronomy is an intangible cultural heritage, we want to connect oral narration and photography with taste, as it is often the one that evokes memories and brings to mind the stories we have heard from our ancestors,” he adds. .

The “quince” of grandmother Irene with “accompanying” the story of the uprooting from Smyrna

Irini Vereketi, grandmother of 67-year-old Antonia, used to do the quince, always during the holidays, because she considered it a Christmas meal. The same story often unfolded around large tables with relatives: Grandma Irene in ’22, the night of the disaster, hiding under her mother’s clothes, struggling to find a boat to board. When this finally happened, the boat left them in Piraeus, where at first they lived in camps and later they were given plots in Eritrea, to build stilts. “There she lived her first years in Greece with her six brothers, until my grandfather came with the exchange – who until then was a prisoner in a concentration camp – married her and they lived in Kavala”, says in APE-MPE Mrs. Vereketi.

When Antonia Vereketi was born, her parents lived in the house with her grandparents, who had the general command in the household and especially in the kitchen. “In fact, knowing from an early age the art of sewing, he opened a studio in Kavala, in the then aristocratic district of tobacco merchants, in Ag. John. “Her clients were ladies who sewed the most special toilets of the time, decorated with sequins and beads, while she was also a subscriber to Singer”, she points out.

Antonia Vereketi also remembers her grandmother’s great talent in the kitchen, where the smells of Smyrna soutzoukaki, pies, and even the raw materials – such as e.g. mayonnaise- was made there.

As he tells this story, he will prepare the meat in one pan and the quince in another, to combine them later and cook them together, so that the quince emerges, which is an excellent choice for those who love sweet and sour flavors.

The “stretched sorbet” of the Pontian grandmother and the Thracian sister-in-law

In another cooking, starring pasquitan (a type of savory yogurt), crushed wheat, fresh butter and mint. Georgia Sarigiannidou remembers eating strained sourva next to her Pontian grandmother, which she still cooks. She will cook this dish on her own online encounter, while the story that will be told is not only related to refugees from Pontus, but also from Thrace and Smyrna.
She was born in Thessaloniki, where her parents arrived after the war from the Kozani Valley. “My father was from a Pontian family and my mother from a Thracian family. “Until then, members of different communities did not marry each other and this was one of the first such marriages”, he states in APE-MPE.

“When my parents came here, they only had their clothes on. They took refuge in an area inhabited by refugees from the coasts of Asia Minor, the Islahane school, which today survives only its laboratory at the beginning of Olympiados Street. The two three-storey buildings, perpendicular to Agios Dimitrios where the dormitories of the students of the school were, do not exist today “, says Mrs. Sarigiannidou. These buildings were given to refugees, who divided the large, one-piece and high-ceilinged rooms into makeshift rooms, in each of which lived a family.
“I lived there until I was ten years old and I went to school until the 5th grade in the primary school that still exists today at the junction of Agiou Dimitriou and Ioulianou streets. “I remember that the Smyrnians we lived with told many stories and showed my mom many recipes from their area, which she also made in our house, when we got it in 1957 on Papafi Street”, the 75-year-old remembers. The rest of the refugees were rehabilitated in the early 1960s, when they were given land in Finikas and loans, with which they built houses.

But her memories are just as vivid from her village, the Valley. He spent the summers there, where he enjoyed life with his grandparents, sometimes the Pontians and sometimes the Thracians. “I lived all their daily activities from farming to cooking. I wanted to go to the field with my grandfather, climb the donkey, go to the barn and enter the stable … I lived these very closely and I consider them a treasure, because I saw how life is “built”, because “then in the villages there was neither electricity nor water in the houses and they were all original, authentic and handmade”, he says characteristically.
Speaking of food, she singles out the kitchen of her Thracian grandmother, which she describes as more refined. “Grandma made a sweet rose, she made macaroons that are still found today in Lesvos and Chios with the name” full “, while outside the kitchen she did small miracles, as she weaved, embroidered, knitted …”, he emphasizes.

And while the grandmother from Thrace loved flowers and trees, the Pontian grandmother had a wonderful garden with cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, with her kitchen preparing daily classic Pontian dishes, based on flour, milk, yogurt and butter. The easy recipe for her favorite soup, will soon be learned by all those interested who will be connected to online cooking.

Genealogical trauma that is passed down from generation to generation

“We are addressing the second and third generation of refugees, who – as experts say – have the genealogical trauma. We want to pull out this wound and heal it, because the narration, that is, the sharing of a story, has a therapeutic effect on both the narrator and the participants “, says Fotini Papachatzi.

The recipe for “quince” will be presented tomorrow, Sunday, December 5, at 11:30 am, and those interested can register at [email protected]. It remains to set the day of presentation of the “stretched sourva” as well as to choose an Istanbul recipe.

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