Etiket expats

Good quality pork chops, bacon, sausages and other pork products are probably the most sought after delicatessen by the expats living in Istanbul. These are the products that are hard to come by in a Moslem country where consumption of pork is proscribed by religious rules. But still, there is a small and spotlessly clean shop not far from Istanbul Bilgi University’s Dolapdere campus where the customers are offered a wide variety of charcuterie products. Lazaros Kozmaoglu, 63, is the last pork butcher of Istanbul. He comes from a very old Greek family that has its roots in the central Anatolian town of Karaman. He says his family moved to Istanbul 200 years ago. “Actually I started this profession by accident. In 1967 I was a partner of a salami factory. The boss left the country after his business failed. I took it over,” explains Kozmaoglu. He opened the shop in Dolapdere in 1977 and for more than 30 years he has probably been the only pork product supplier in the city. “We are the only institution that has a license to sell pork,” he observes smilingly. “Some others sell pork without a proper license.” Kozmaoglu buys his pork from the pig farms in Mersin and Antalya and processes it himself. “When I started the business there were some 70 pig farms in Istanbul only and at least five or six shops selling pork. Now the amount has decreased. In the old days I had almost 45 different products in the shop. Now I only offer six, seven varieties,” he explains. Kozmaoglu also complains about the quality of mass produced processed meat like salami sold at supermarkets and other shops. “If you compare the price of meat with the prices put on these products you will get an idea of […]