Yenişafak – Cuban Rhythm
Travel the world, see Cuba
Mechanical engineer Erdem Genç, who has left no country unvisited and whose biggest dream was to cross the oceans and go to Cuba, takes us on a delightful journey through this small island nation with his book Cuban Rhythm.
"London is wonderful, but the rain wears you down; Istanbul's weather is lovely. Paris smells of history, and it doesn't have the same intensity as New York… But Havana is something else entirely. You can't compare it to anywhere. Of course, the years are passing and Cuba is changing. Still, that ancient spirit wraps around you and never lets go again. Cuban rhythm, Cuban music, Cuban films, Cuban art, Cuba's Che, Cuba's Fidel Castro… And so much more!" Erdem Genç describes his trip to Cuba with excitement. Erdem Genç is an engineer who never gave up his childhood love of music and plays percussion, a Cuban instrument. This modern traveler, who has left no country unvisited and founded his own company at just 20, always looked for traces of music and percussion on all his travels, and finally managed to go to the Cuba he had long dreamed of. This time, we talked with Genç not about the book chronicling his success in the business world, but about Cuba, the subject of the book he wrote.
NO STATIONERY!
Continental Europe, England, Dubai, China, Japan, Thailand, Russia… These are just a few of the countries Genç has traveled to. Cuba is now among them too. A place he had long wanted to see and fell in love with at first sight, Cuba affected him so deeply that the notebook where he recorded his memories filled up completely. Setting off through the streets of Havana in search of a stationery shop to buy a new one, he made an unexpected discovery: there is no such thing as a stationery store in Cuba! That's because every New Year, the state distributes free books, notebooks, pens and other school and office supplies to all schools and workplaces, enough to meet their needs.
FRIED BANANA, BLACK BEANS
In his book, which he titled "Cuban Rhythm," our author also shares Cuba's famous dishes with us. He himself wasn't particularly fond of Cuban food, but thinking someone else might enjoy it — who knows? — he included recipes for these dishes in the pages of his book. For instance, the dish he found most curious was fried banana. Black beans, Cuba's distinctive style of fried potatoes, and dark rice pilaf are just a few of the country's dishes. Take, for example, Congri, regarded as Cuba's national dish. Imagine our own rice and beans mixed together: Congri is made by combining the small black beans known in Turkey as "Mexican beans" with white rice. What makes this dish special, though, is the use of local ingredients.
MUSIC: THEIR INDISPENSABLE ART
When you go to Cuba, vintage cars await you alongside beautiful architecture. Nothing in Cuba is about luxury, so naturally there's no rivalry over who has which brand of bag or the latest phone. Erdem Genç says that art is present almost everywhere in this country, and that music sits at the heart of that art.
EVERY CITY HAS A STORY
