Caroline Eden crafts travel-evocative recipes from her basement kitchen in Edinburgh

Caroline Eden, a travel writer, shares insights into her latest book, "Cold Kitchen," which explores the interplay between travel, culinary experiences, and the comforts of home. Eden has been traveling for 25 years, spending a significant portion of each year reporting and researching for her books. She finds that travel sparks her ideas, while home provides the necessary environment to process and develop them. Her new book centers on this dynamic of leaving and returning, and the concept of finding a sense of belonging. Eden describes her Edinburgh kitchen as a unique and cozy workspace. Located in the basement of a classic Edinburgh New Town building, it features stone steps leading down to the main kitchen area, a hexagonal mahogany table, and wooden floorboards. The kitchen has three small adjoining rooms: a tiny office, a pantry, and a utility area. A single sash window in the kitchen offers a partial view of Edinburgh life, showing only the lower half of passersby, dogs, and strollers. This window also brings in the sounds and smells of the city, from summer festivals to the quiet of winter, serving as a subtle connection to the outside world from her underground retreat. For Eden, recipes are more than just cooking instructions; they are "postcards" that add an extra dimension to her travel narratives. As someone not professionally trained in cooking, she sees recipes as a means to share her journeys and experiences. They often feature dishes she has encountered during her travels, offering readers a glimpse into the agriculture, markets, and culinary traditions of the regions she explores. Food, in her view, is a versatile medium capable of conveying both light and dark aspects of a culture and illuminating diverse places. Her travels have frequently taken her to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, which she has visited multiple times since 2009. Uzbekistan, once a challenging destination for Western travelers, has now become a popular tourist spot. Eden highlights the unique winter melons of Uzbekistan, which are carefully aged in well-aired sheds, gradually accumulating sweetness. These melons, with their exotic names, reflect the pride of local traders. She notes the contrast between these unique melons and the limited varieties found in supermarkets, explaining how even a simple watermelon salad can evoke vivid memories of her travels and the "real feast is within" those memories, rather than solely on the plate. Eden's affection for Istanbul in winter is another significant theme. She describes it as a melancholic but romantic city, especially when seen through the misty fog from a bus. The winter season brings specific culinary delights, such as roasted chestnuts and anchovy-based rice dishes. She prefers Istanbul in winter for its "film noir" atmosphere, with rain reflecting off bridges and a unique visual transformation of the city. Her approach to travel writing involves a blend of pre-trip research and on-site discovery. She often identifies interesting topics while traveling and then conducts more detailed research upon returning home. Her extensive knowledge of Eastern Europe and Central Asia allows her to continually add layers to her understanding with each return visit, incorporating literature, art, history, food techniques, and language snippets. She emphasizes the value of repeated visits and overland travel to gain a deeper insight into a place. Eden also introduces readers to other writers, such as Carla Grissmann, whose book "Dinner of Herb: Village Life in Turkey in the 1960s" provides a fascinating look into rural Anatolia before modern technology. Grissmann's journalistic background allowed her to capture the domestic life, food, seasons, and social dynamics of a Turkish village. Eden concludes the article by providing a recipe for Apple, Blueberry, and Rum Strudel, an easy-to-prepare winter dessert that she considers a comforting dish for colder months. The recipe serves as a practical example of how she translates her travel experiences into culinary creations, embodying the essence of her "Cold Kitchen" concept. #CarolineEden #ColdKitchen #TravelWriting #CulinaryJourney #FoodCulture #Uzbekistan #Istanbul #EasternEurope #CentralAsia #Recipes #CarolineEden #ColdKitchen #TravelWriting #CulinaryJourney #FoodCulture #Uzbekistan #Istanbul #EasternEurope #CentralAsia #Recipes