The place and sustainability of Cretan cuisine in Turkish cuisine culture

Culture is shaped by the habits, preferences and experiences of the society over the years. Culinary culture is also important among these cultural values because the eating habits and preferences of the society actually depend on many factors. Culinary culture is affected by the geography and climate structure, religious beliefs, traditions, technology, wars and migrations in its history. Migrations allow the synthesis of two different societies. Thus, the cultures of both societies are affected by each other. Most of the time, the culinary culture that comes with immigration causes the place to be enriched by being included in the cuisine. The aim of the research is to determine to what extent the immigrants who came from Crete in the late 1800s, with the 1923 population exchange, carried the culinary culture to the places where they settled. For this reason, first of all, the areas where settlements were made were determined by scanning the literature. Since it is thought that it is important to choose people who have ideas and knowledge about the research problem, participants of Cretan origin were asked, and therefore participants were determined with the purposeful sampling method. The Cretan federation and Cretan associations were contacted with the request to prefer those who are Cretans and who are old enough to make comparisons with the past. It was possible to reach Cretans in different places through interviews with the first names taken from them and through the people they led. In addition, people who are especially interested in culinary culture and food have been reached. In the research, Snowball and Chain Sampling are used in order to explain different phenomena by reaching from person to person and from person to situation, one of the sampling methods used in qualitative research methods. With these sample selections, interviews were held with 14 participants between December 2020 and April 2022. Attention was paid to the fact that the participants forming the sample were from the areas where placement was made before and during the exchange. A semi-structured question form was used in the research. A total of 13 main questions were prepared in the questionnaire prepared to be used in video or audio interviews. After establishing the basis by conducting a literature study on the research subject, data were collected by interview and document scanning. In order to ensure the consistency of the findings obtained from the research and therefore the validity of the research, source diversification (triangulation) was made. In order to support and verify the data obtained from the interviews, the sample was chosen with the purposeful sampling method, as in the other data collection tool interview method, since it was aimed to collect research data through Crete-themed websites. The universe in this section are Cretan-themed websites. The sample consists of web pages of 2 federations and 10 regional Cretan exchange groups, websites that publish Cretan culinary culture and dishes with photographs and recipes. Permission has been obtained from the website administrators to use the information and photos in order to extract data on the selected websites. The raw data obtained from the interviews were first converted into descriptive data and then subjected to content analysis. After the descriptive and content analysis, it was concluded that the people who came from Crete with the population exchange were directed to the living spaces created by the people who settled in Anatolia and came from Crete, and concentrated in the same regions. While people who know how to live in villages and rural areas prefer the inner parts, those who live by the sea and know the life and blessings offered by the sea have preferred the seaside to continue their habits and the life they know. It has been determined that 75% of the people coming from Crete maintain their kitchens. After the analysis, the general characteristics of the Cretan cuisine were determined, the changes it provided to the settlement or the changes in the cuisines were also determined. Identifications were made about the situations that caused the changes. 139 food names were obtained from the interviews. From Crete-themed Web sites, 115 dishes, 30 herbs and dishes made with them were found. Cretan, also called Cretan Greek, was used less and less after the second generation. Within the framework of the results obtained, suggestions were made to prevent it from being forgotten and to be actively used in cultural tourism today.