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Black Sea - part cookbook, part travelogue of author Caroline Eden’s journey from Odessa in Ukraine to Istanbul and Trabzon in Turkey – is a gem

In Black Sea, award-winning author and journalist Caroline Eden travels from Odessa to Istanbul and Trabzon, searching out a variety of culinary delights

She learns how meatballs and spaghetti became the dish of Odessa, and shows how to make dishes such as citrus cured mackerel and Circassian chicken

Reading Time:2 minutes

The Tugra restaurant at Ciragan Palace in Istanbul, Turkey - a city Caroline Eden describes as the “world’s greatest kitchen” in her book Black Sea.

Published: 4:15am, 6 Dec 2021

After reviewing Caroline Eden’s wonderful Red Sands (2020), about the award-winning author and journalist’s travels through Central Asia, I immediately looked for more by her. In Black Sea (2018), Eden documents her travels from Odessa, in Ukraine, to Istanbul then Trabzon, in Turkey – three cities along the Black Sea.

You might wonder (as I did) why Eden didn’t just go all the way around the Black Sea, instead of stopping at Trabzon. Fortunately, she anticipates this. “For this book, I first thought about circumnavigating the entire coast,” she writes in the prelude. “But it felt more natural to bookend the journey with two of the Black Sea region’s most interesting and lyrical cities: Odessa in southern Ukraine and Trabzon in northeast Turkey.

“Both are mythical, multilayered places ultimately shaped by their maritime positions, one relatively new (Odessa was established in 1794) and one truly ancient (Trabzon, formerly ‘Trapezous’ and ‘Trebizond’, has Greek trading roots dating back to 7th century BC).

“The third key city in this book, forming a neat centre point, is Istanbul. Not on, but satisfyingly close to the Black Sea, connected to it by the throat of the Bosphorus, just beyond Giant’s Grave, a hallmark hill for boats coming in from the sea.

The Bosphorus and buildings in Istanbul, one of the three cities Caroline Eden visits in Black Sea. Photo: AFP

“This multilayered city, one that can feel like a conservative village one moment and a cosmopolitan megacity the next, is full of people from the Black Sea: cooks, fishermen, hamam owners, bakers, musicians and taxi drivers. It is the ultimate Black Sea diaspora.

“It is also, arguably, the world’s greatest kitchen,” Eden writes.