And now for something from the lighter, flakier side of the news: A Turkish pastry chef in Istanbul has made a portrait of President Obama in the style of the iconic “Hope” poster entirely out of backlava despite the fact that he is seriously disappointed with the president.
The story is from the international news site PRI’s The World:
The idea was cooked up in the Gulloglu baklava shop in Istanbul. In the shop’s six decades in business, only three other historical figures, all Turks, have been so honored. Owner Nadir Gullu says the portraits require enormous craftsmanship.
“Under the command of one chef with five assistants, it takes 10 days to make one,” Gullu says. “In each piece of baklava there are 55 layers of pastry. It’s all handmade and is very hard. Obama’s big ears made it very difficult, but we managed.”
Gullu doesn’t like politics. But he says he and other Turks had high expectations of Obama and they were dashed.
As a master Turkish chef, I made this baklava to show the newly elected leader of the world that if you eat sweet you will talk sweet. I was hoping for peace because when someone eats baklava, their level of serotonin increases and that increases happiness. But he misunderstood. And he brought war instead of peace,” Gullu says.
The story quotes some of Mr. Nadir’s customers expressing similar disappointment regarding the president. One had a particularly interesting take on the American election:
Another customer Aykut Calikusu says he supports Romney. But for a different reason: Obama is too close to Israel.
“Even though they say that Obama is a Muslim, I think Romney will have closer relations with Turkey than with the Jews,” Calikusu says.
