FOOD

“War is not only about patriotic hymns and pennants, or cursing at Mahmud Sultan, the salep seller and his whore the vizier, or about twisted moustaches and silver swords. Nor is it a matter of the heart only. War is about corn and rusks. Flour and raisins. Olives and cheese. Some tobacco. And raki. Mules and flint. Shovels and hoes; it’s about making breastwork, so you don’t walk unprepared among the thorns. And it’s about livestock, goats and sheep. To have enough of them to slaughter, to satiate your appetite feeding on lamb chops, spleen, liver and intestines, or kokoretsi. All that compliments of the revered Command. Whether they found them – or not, dispatched them – or not.”