Nicholas Andriani Rankin

Tag: Turkey

  • On Arabic Sweets and the Middle East: Kunafa – NICHOLAS ANDRIANI

    All of these things are true… I had been in Jordan for several weeks and my love affair with Arabian sweets had reached a lofty peak. In fact, I would begin and end each day with a platter of pastries, smothered in honeys and syrups that would flood through heaps of pistachios on my plate. Then it happened… I… […]

  • On the Revolutionary Power of Diverse Thought: Elif Shafak

    On the Revolutionary Power of Diverse Thought: Elif Shafak

    “So from populist demagogues, we will learn the indispensability of democracy. And from isolationists, we will learn the need for global solidarity. And from tribalists, we will learn the beauty of cosmopolitanism and the beauty of diversity.”

  • New York City and the Hunt for Turkish Shoes.

    New York City and the Hunt for Turkish Shoes.

    It was during my long and dusty sojourn in the Middle East, wandering collapsed,  ruined villages, haggling through ancient markets that I first encountered the yemeni, or Turkish slipper. Now, i’m not the most fashion-driven or even fashionable guy, but the effortless, dare I say, timeless cool. Travelblogger and Novelist, Nicholas Andriani takes on fashion and time honored crafts from the ancient villages of Istanbul to Manhattan New York.

  • Sketching Sights: Istanbul, City on the Edge (Art. Travel. Writing. Islam. Architecture)

    The Bosphorus splits Istanbul in two parts. A rift in the madness of Europe and Asia, drifting between bodies of fresh and salt water cooling the heated passion of a most ancient urban jungle. The hot, hot, heat of human movement generates organized chaos as this great strait, this rift, cushions the blow, keeping this […]

  • The Sabah House Rules: New York City and the Hunt for Turkish Yemenis

    It was nearly a year ago that I discovered the Sabah Dealer. A chance meeting on Twitter led me to this exotic, almost whimsical Instagram where I was transported to Anatolia. To the bazaars, the buskers and baksheesh and medieval villages. To a world still crafted by hand. I soon found that behind the Sabah Dealer’s travels were shoes–Sabah’s […]

  • Sketching Sights: Galata Tower (Istanbul, Turkey)

    Like a great minaret, the Galata Tower represents so much more than meets the eye. Built in 1348 as the re-imagining of an earlier structure the tower has gone from hosting inmates, as a prison, to holding great secrets as an observatory for the astrologer Takıyeddin Efendi. What’s more, Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi the 17th century aviator… if you […]