Ms. Maria Bautista prepares puto, and assisted by Ms. Nuriye Ataseven

Food brings people together. The Philippine Embassy in Ankara believes that despite differences in culture and heritage, people find commonality of interests when it comes to food. 

As a thematic project to promote Filipino gastronomy awareness in Turkey and to empower overseas Filipinos to pursue and participate in alternative economic opportunities, the Embassy's Sentro Rizal will regularly be featuring a new Filipino dish in collaboration with the Filipino Community and guests from relevant Turkish institutions.

To kickstart the program, a cooking demonstration at the Embassy’s Sentro Rizal held on 30 July 2021 featured the Filipino puto or steamed rice cake, an all-time favorite snack food in the Philippines, and popularly eaten alongside other savory meals. As ekmek, or bread, is the main staple food in Turkey, puto could be enticing and interesting to the Turkish community and may be considered a good alternate for Turkish ekmek paired with Turkish çay (tea) or kahve (coffee).

Ms. Maria Bautista, a member of the Filipino community in Ankara, demonstrated before three (3) Turkish culinary teachers and a student from the Zübeyde Hanım Sosyal Tesisi from the municipality/district of Çankaya, which is considered as the cosmopolitan and cultural center of Ankara. The guests found the puto, prepared plain as well as with dulce de leche as a topping, delicious and easy to make.  

Ambassador-designate Maria Elena Algabre, Ms. Maria Bautista, together with Turkish guests, Ms, Serap Ceylan Erdal, Ms. Nuriye Ataseven, and Ms. Sibel Simsek from Cankaya Municipality

The cooking demonstration can be viewed at the Embassy's Facebook and Youtube pages @PHinTurkey.

The Embassy's gastronomy awareness program will be a collaborative and participatory endeavor. The Embassy will invite and feature other Filipino community members, and Embassy staff and dependents, who may wish to share their unique homegrown recipes of a Filipino traditional food to friends in Turkey. END