Abstract
On the Gagauz Culinary Culture
Kitchen is an important place of social life and the heart of homes. It is also a symbol of nutrition, lifestyle and social relations and one of the best ways to understand societies. While the kitchen brings the society together, from daily meals to special day meals such as birth-wedding-death, from celebration and banquet meals to religious meals, it also creates the cultural identity of that society. This cultural identity, passing from generation to generation, is the legacy of the future.
Today, there are many theories about the ethnic roots of the Orthodox Christian Gagauz people, who mostly live in the North West Black Sea region and have a very strong oral tradition. However, the generally accepted and strong theory is that they are of Turkish origin such as Seljuk, Kipchak, Pechenek and Uz, and that their language is included in the Oghuz-Turk (southwestern branch) subgroup within the Oghuz group and have similar genetic and typological characteristics with the "Anatolian Turkish" and "Azeri" languages. Nowadays, the Gagauz language is recognized by UNESCO as one of the disappearing languages.
The research aims to reveal the Gagauz culinary culture elements. It includes expressions about foods and drinks in Gagauz oral culture, folklore, traditions and customs related to food, special days, celebrations and banquets, kitchen layout, kitchen tools and utensils, cooking and storage methods, food and beverage examples.
Keywords
Gagauz, Gagauz Culture, Culinary Culture, Gagauz Culinary Culture.