Purple reign
Imam bayildI (literally, "the priest fainted") is the uncrowned national dish of Turkey, though whether it was called this because the holy man was so overcome by the taste of the food, or because he was lamenting the amount of expensive virgin olive oil used in the recipe, has never been clarified.
Like all classics, there are slight variations on how it should be made, but all lead to the same result - an aubergine filled with tomato and onion. The authenticity of the dish rests on the choice of good ingredients and on patience with the cooking, so that where a French cook would sauté over a hot flame, a Turkish cook stews slowly over a low one.
The Divan Hotel, off Istanbul's Taksim Square, is known for its aubergine dishes, which are prepared by chef Erol Celik (himself a product of Turkey's seedbed for professional cooks, Mengen, in the province of Bolu) using the long Kemer variety of aubergine for imam bayildI, sasuka or stuffing, and the round Bostans for purées or deep-fried fritters. The Divan, sister of a famous restaurant overlooking the Bosphorus, has focused its restaurant and brasserie menus more than the city's other five-star hotels on Ottoman cuisine. This is partly because Semahat Arsel, the hotel owner's wife, is an authority on the history of Turkish food. Her book, Timeless Tastes, published in 1996, describes the Ottoman Empire's culinary heritage as well as its enduring recipes.
