{"id":1746,"date":"2023-03-30T20:22:24","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T17:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/my-sweetest-syra\/"},"modified":"2024-06-21T14:28:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T11:28:53","slug":"my-sweetest-syra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/my-sweetest-syra\/","title":{"rendered":"My Sweetest… Syra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is impossible to have visited Syra and not have tasted its traditional delight product, which is inextricably and interconnectedly linked with the beginning of Ermoupolis and its unique course in time, the famous and world-renowned Syrian Loukoumi.In itslong journey, it traveled through places and times to reach Syra among all those things that the refugees carried with love and care after the destruction of the Greek eastern islands in 1822, like a sweet secret, like a balm that healed the pain of uprooting.In itslong journey, it traveled through places and times to reach Syra among all those things that the refugees carried with love and care after the destruction of the Greek eastern islands in 1822, like a sweet secret, like a balm that healed the painof uprooting.Indeed, from the very first years of their settlement in their new place, they lit their cauldrons in their small yards, spreading those smells that drive away woes and sufferings and sweeten the soul, this valuable part of their memories, becaming the companion in their great joys, celebrations but also in their sorrows.Its origin is Turkish, as its name also betrays, which originally was”rahat\u00fc’l-hulkum”, where hulkum in Arabic means “larynx” (throat), and meant “indulgence of the larynx” or “good for the throat”, but in free performance we would say “a delicious morsel”, a “delicacy” and thus was referred to until the 10th century. Later by corruption of the word it became “rahat-lokum”.On the online site “Dishes Origin” we find a version of how Turkish delight as we know it today first appeared.“The credit for inventing Turkish delight goes to Bekir Efendi, who went to Istanbul in 1777, from Anatolia. Haci Bekir’s pastry shop in the Eminon district is still open today (this article was published on 01\/27\/2021) ,which is run by his descendants, is considered one of the hundred oldest businesses in the world.Before Bekir Efendi went to the Metropolis, sources claim that Turkish delight was produced in the 14th and 15th centuries, with the main difference being that honey and pekmez (a type of molasses) were used instead of sugar, and flour replaced starch. (1) There are also sources that indicate that the ancestor of Turkish delight comes from the Persian Sassanid Empire (224-651). (2)(2) With the rapid popularity of sweets in the 18th century, the recipe for Turkish delight remained a secret, leading Europeans to use gelatin which did not provide the effect they were looking for. The first foreigner to be recorded with an apt recipe was Friedrich Unger, King Otto A’s pastry chef, who published a recipe in 1883.1883. (3)”<\/p>\n\n

\"Λουκούμι<\/figure>\n

Mrs. Dina Sykoutris, one of the modern loukoumi producers of Syra with a long tradition from her father, being a refugee himself during the second wave of refugees in Syra after the destruction of Smyrna in 1922, tells us her own version in an interview of hers in the digital magazine “Greek Affair”<\/p>\n\n

“The name may be Turkish, but loukoumi is, apparently, Greek. History shows that it was also produced in Constantinople by Greeks, from Chios. The majority of confectioners in Sarai were from Chios. Using the ingredients of their place, rose sugar (Chios has wonderful hundred-leafed roses, which were fermented with sugar), almonds and mastic that is not found anywhere else, they produced rahat loukum, which took its name fromthe rest, the reclining of the Pashas. The Turks also learned from the Greeks and they also became Turkish delight makers”.<\/p>\n\n

The basic ingredients of the recipe for the preparation of the loukoumi delight are sugar, starch, aromas such as fragrant yeast rose petals and the local mastic of Chios, magically mixed in a copper cauldron with… water.This last and most common ingredient of all others is what, by all accounts, makes the difference in the taste of the loukoumi of Syra compared to others found elsewhere. Indeed, if someone considers that on an island that is barren and without water, this littleand brackish one from its few sources, gave such a successful and unique identity to this product which now took its title as the “Syra’s loukoumi”. (Syriano Loukoumi)<\/p>\n\n

With the confectionery production of the loukoums in Syra, an entire economic activity arose in parallel with the flourishing of Ermoupolis, making Syra known to the ends of the earth, from Europe to Japan where the loukoums were exported. Syra’s famous clientele are said to have includedNapoleon the Great, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Royal Palaces and embassies, and many more royal salons in Europe. His international and royal clientele deserved packaging according to the position held by the product. For this reason, the loukoum’s makers , during the first period of their exports, until a high-quality printing activity was created in Syra, were procuring the materials for packaging and were making theoriginal gold prints (gold bullocks bearing their name) of their luxurious boxes ordering them from France and Austria. How important the packaging was, it was being seen by the excellent quality caskets that sometimes resembled jewelry cases.From testimonies we know that the first “cauldron”<\/p>\n\n

( means the first try of confectionery of loukoumi) in Syra was taken place in 1832, while from the Historical Archive of the Municipality of Ermoupolis we learn that Georgios Arfanis from Ephesus is officially recorded as the first confectioner- loukoumi maker.The first official seal of a confectioner in Ermoupolis appears in 1837, that of Nikolaos Stamatelakis, from Constantinople, of Chios origin, while in the year 1870, during the census of the Municipalityof Ermoupolis, 55 professionals related to this profession are counted, i.e. loukoumi confectioners and pastry cooks.<\/p>\n\n

The years go by making loukoumi a part of the people’s lives, accompanying them at weddings, festivals, formal or unformal visits, memorials, but even as a snack put in the scarf of the factory workers or the builders .At the same time, it managed to get the first rank as a popular exportable product that gave work to a large number of evemployees after the Asia Minor Disaster in 1922, where the second wave of refugees then appeared, finding thus work in this proffession many others also who settled afterwards on the island.<\/p>\n\n

Today, Syra’s loukoumi is the pride of the island, having won its place in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Index of Greece since 2019. Therefore, if, coming to Syra by ferry boat, and seeing the white-dressed vendors comming up on board with their straw baskets full of Syros loukoumi, I recommend you, don’t resist and buy them…every bite will reward you…trust me…<\/p>\n\n

Bibliography (dishesorigins)(1) Ali Batu and Bilal K\u0131rmac\u0131, \u201cProduction of Turkish delight (lokum)\u201din \u201cFood Research International\u201d, volume 42, issue 1, 2009.(2) Deniz G\u00fcrsoy, \u201cTarihin s\u00fczgecinde mutfak k\u00fclt\u00fcr\u00fcm\u00fcz\u201d, 2013.(3) Priscilla Mary I\u015f\u0131n, \u201cSherbet and Spice: The Complete Story ofTurkish Sweets and Desserts\u201d, 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is impossible to have visited Syra and not have tasted its traditional delight product, which is inextricably and interconnectedly linked with the beginning of Ermoupolis and its unique course in time, the famous and world-renowned Syrian Loukoumi.In itslong journey, it traveled through places and times to reach Syra among all those things that the\u2026 <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,84,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-syros-en","category-84","category-uncategorized-gr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1747,"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions\/1747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polis-suite.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}