Aris Shukuroglou

aris(tidis) shukuroglou, from cyprus.

in my family food has always been used to illustrate where we come from. the way one cooks a certain dish may bring strangers together and drive families apart. the choice of seasoning that goes into a dish defines your heritage.

my paternal grandfather comes from adana turkey where he arrived in cyprus as a refugee in the 1920s. at the time refugees arriving were taunted as ‘tourkospori’ (turkish seeds). the fact that these orthodox christians lived under the turkish state made their loyalty to orthodoxy suspect. after so many years you can still track these 'exchanged' people either by their surnames or food. after marrying my danish grandmother, his ottoman tales accompanied by my grans schnitzel at the dinner table made the stories behind migration, and subsequently food, even more intriguing.

during the holidays i would join my maternal grandmother in making different cypriot dishes like flaounes and kourapiedes, while my grandfather, himself a refugee from lapithos, would gossip and rate our politicians depending on what food they ate behind the cameras. he would also carry around with him salt and grew chili peppers right next to the diy shower he had built next to the kitchen sink. in other words, we spent most of our time in the kitchen.

all measurements are weighed by the eye. add or remove anything according to your preferences.

aris(tidis) lapithis, my maternal grandfather of who i am named after

1. a kiofte: who is a kiofte?

ingredients:

eggs

potatoes

mince pork

mince beef

olive oil

salt-Pepper

fresh parsley

dried mint

chilli flakes

paprika

onions

garlic

cumin

cinnamon

special thanks to themis georgiou for helping me cook, and philippos chrysostomou for the music

flavours tell stories of previous worlds and map the interconnectivity of empires, culture, people and trade.

2. makaronia tou fournou: reloaded

special thanks to themis georgiou for helping me cook. thanks to lia lapithi (mum) yiannis shukuroglou (dad), eva and niki lapithi (sisters) and nikos kouroussis for the stories. music produced by philoppos chrysostomou (cousin)

ingredients:

for the makaroni:

phat macaroni like bucatini or something

hallumi

salt-pepper

olive oil

mint

cinnamon

for the bechamel:

milk

coconut flour

butter

eggs

hallumi

nutmeg

salt-pepper

for the mice-meat:

onions

parsley

tomatoes

mince meat pork/beef

olive oil

salt-pepper

reproducing recipes as a dogma isolates. the fight over the creation and mastering of a dish is a nationalist myth.

3. souvlakia: empire to now

ingredients:

pork/beef/chicken/lamb cubes

cinnamon

lemon

yoghurt

olive oil

mastiha

onion

mint

tursi peppers

tomatoes

special thanks to philoppos chrysostomou for producing the music and for helping me cook

the ingestion of food tells a story of who your friends are/were and who exchanged cuisine according to the particularities and modalities of a given time. it is a biological narration beyond the current nation-state’s hegemony.

yasser arafat (left) and archbishop makarios (right)

4. koupep(k)ia: embrace tradition reject modernity

special thanks to petrol lapithis for the lecture. music production philippos chrysostomou

ingredients:

vine leaves

peppers

tomatoes

onion

walnuts

raisins

rice

thyme

mint

cumin

cinnamon

sumac

salt-pepper

lemon

olive oil

i see the kitchen as a focal point for the creation of a new future based upon taste, history and climate. food is the tangible fuel of all of civilisations, of all history.

nicosia old town/city centre

5. falafex*: tension in the east-med

special thanks to lia lapithi, greg economidis, nefeli kentoni, philippos chrysostomou and yannis komodromos for the conversation. and philippos chrysostomou for the music production

*in cyprus the addition of the 'x' at the end of a word means an approximation of the word/object at hand

ingredients:

chickpeas

lentils

bulgur

beatroot

lemon

cashews

walnuts

seeds

godji beri

onion

mushroom

sumac

paprika

cayen chili

garlic powder

thyme

mint

cumin

salt-pepper

cinnamon

flour

olive oil

everything is cake, even lenin

the kitchen is where you collectively produce and reproduce your body’s history and identity; the bathroom its private filtration. shit, an abstract mass, the outcome of all foods, understood only through its history (i.e. what you last ate) is the systematic filtration of all history and ideology.

6. ayrani sour: the kemalist hangover

ingredients:

erdogan's ayrani:

yogurt

water

salt

ataturk's sour:

bourbon

syrup

lemon

special thanks to lia lapithi. this video was part of her video performance 'sailing to my nearest neighbours'

recipes are used as points of references and for historical understanding. in other words yes, recipes are empirical data, the dish a case study and the kitchen an arena of praxis.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan flexing his pasta