![\"Serhat](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/19iht-acag-lokum19-art-popup.jpg\")
Ozlem Tuna designed this set for serving coffee and Turkish delight, or lokum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
ISTANBUL \u2014 Good things often come in small packages: dark Turkish coffee or freshly brewed tea, for example, served in exquisite porcelain cups or etched tulip-shaped glasses, all accompanied by a mere bite or two of lokum, the candy also known as Turkish delight.<\/p>\n
In the designer shops of Istanbul, traditional lokum dishes, or lokumluk in Turkish, are getting a modern makeover, though one with roots stretching to the Ottoman, Seljuk and even Hittite eras.<\/p>\n
Prices can range from 390 Turkish lira, or about $192, for the designer Ozlem Tuna\u2019s individual platter, miniature lokumluk and demitasse set, to more than to 3,100 lira for a dish in solid silver from the workshops of the upscale design house Armaggan.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresentation says a lot here in Turkey,\u201d the designer Irem Bonfil of Dot Design Studio said. \u201cIt\u2019s a sort of ceremony, so you have not just the special glass teacups, but other things you need for the table. A lokumluk is part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The serving of lokum, she said, \u201cis a very old custom that is still used in most houses. You always have a box of lokum to put into a special dish in case someone just drops in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether the sweets are rose-scented lokum from the classic Haci Bekir on Istiklal Caddesi in the heart of the lively Beyoglu district, or rolls of almond paste from Meshur Bebek Badem Ezmesi along the Bosporus, they are presented in containers of silver, gold plate or fine ceramic decorated with accents like turquoise stones or a tulip-shaped finial.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got married, I received one as a wedding gift from my mother-in-law,\u201d Ms. Bonfil said. \u201cIt\u2019s an important item that you receive as a young girl, and you keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the lokumluk that she and others are creating are made by hand, from natural materials, by master craftsmen in the workshops that stretch from the Egyptian spice market up the hill to the Grand Bazaar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been an interior designer since 1986 for more commercial projects like large hotels and hospitals in the Middle East and Central Asia,\u201d said Ms. Bonfil, who studied costume and stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. \u201cBut I wanted to come closer to local people and the source. I like to work with the craftsmen. They tell me their abilities and I design new things for them to make. It\u2019s actually a dialog between them and me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her newest line will be available, starting this month, at the Beymen department store at the new Zorlu Center Mall in Istanbul. Items include substantial plates carved from blocks of white or dark gray Turkish marble, with a small hand-hammered antique or silver-plated brass, crescent-moon-topped lokumluk as a centerpiece.<\/p>\n
Perhaps her most interesting lokumluk reflects Ms. Bonfil\u2019s own multicultural background.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom is Levantine \u2014 half-Italian half-Hungarian \u2014 my dad is Turkish with some drops of Greek blood,\u201d she said, \u201cwhereas my husband is a Sephardic Jew. I find myself immersed in all of these different traditions and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That love is embodied in a 24-karat gold-plated hammered oxidized brass platter, 32 centimeters, or 12.6 inches, wide. The decorative top is a dreidel, or spinning top, crafted by Afghan Jews, she said. Some of the dreidels are engraved with Hebrew lettering. The silver and gold leaf veneer is circled with small agates and an accent bead is built from tiny pieces of turquoise. It sells for about 1,500 lira.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work with craftsmen whose work may be extinct soon,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are only a few people that work on copper and brass the way you can see on my objects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeping crafts alive is also a goal of Ms. Tuna, who has a bachelor\u2019s degree in ceramics from Marmara University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work mostly with the traditional craftsmen around the Grand Bazaar,\u201d she said. \u201cI really care about using local products. All of my things are produced in Istanbul by hand in small ateliers using methods that haven\u2019t changed since the Ottoman Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Tuna\u2019s lokumluk blend old-style manufacturing with contemporary shapes and colors, offering bright turquoise or cherry red ceramics and hammered copper or brass silver-plated saucers, and cup handles with a tiny tulip motif. A set of three gold-plated, hand-beaten copper lokum bowls, called Dun, Bugun, Yarin (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow), sells for 710 lira.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s very important to keep tradition alive,\u201d she said. And that includes the role of Turkish delight in entertaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cLokum is special,\u201d Ms. Tuna said, \u201cbecause Turkish coffee has a bitter taste, and we also like to eat sweets. Lokum is small and comes in different flavors. So it\u2019s a perfect team.\u201d<\/p>\n
A version of this article appears in print on November 19, 2013, in The International New York Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deep Roots for an Istanbul Delight By SUSANNE FOWLER ISTANBUL \u2014 Good things often come in small packages: dark Turkish coffee or freshly brewed tea, for example, served in exquisite porcelain cups or etched tulip-shaped glasses, all accompanied by a mere bite or two of lokum, the candy also known as Turkish delight. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":86403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[4867,6785,8168,3975],"class_list":["post-86401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-turkish-delight","tag-lokum","tag-turkish-coffee","tag-turkish-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}