ROADTRIPS

Passport & Plate - Serupê (Sar-u-pe)

Turkey | Wednesday, February 4, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients:
Goat intestines, brain and foot
Rice
Almonds
Basil
Black pepper
Salt


How to prepare this recipe:
Take the fresh intestines of a goat, nicely fill them with the mixture of rice, almonds, basil, black pepper and salt and chop the tripe into pieces in order to make little pockets filled with the same rice mixture, sew the pockets carefully and serve on a plate with fried parts of the brain and foot of the goat.


The story behind this recipe:
Mardin is a city in southeast Turkey, near the border with Syria that belongs to Kurdistan, a stateless nation divided between Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Turkish Kurdistan suffered massacres perpetrated by Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish state at the beginning of the last century; currently its population is discriminated around the country and is a victim of government policies used to dissolve its language, flag and customs.

In early 2014 I travelled to the city of Mardin in Turkish Kurdistan and stayed with the Cirik family to observe the ethnic violence against the Kurds. My photographs aim to portray how the family, which preserves Kurdish traditions and identity, serves as a form of resistance against assimilation and extinction.

My welcome dinner consisted of Serupê (Sar-u-pe), a traditional dish made of fresh goat intestines stuffed with rice and accompanied with fried parts of the animal, high in cholesterol unlike many of the other Kurdish foods. In Kurdish, 'Ser' means 'head', û means 'and', 'pê' means foot.

As soon as I walked into the room, the greasy smell was so strong that I felt nauseous at the thought of eating it, but I did it anyway out of courtesy as the Cirik family told me that this dish was a delicacy in their culture, used to show the utmost hospitality and it is usually cooked in the holiest days.