Bosporus Mussel Stew

When I was eighteen I travelled with a girlfriend on the old Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul. It was the last gasp of the famous train and there was no dining car. For three days we made do with cold snacks bought hurriedly off the platforms of stations on the way, but the discovery of Turkish food awaited us. For me, two ingredients epitomise meals I have eaten in Turkey over the years since my first visit; first and above all aubergines, and second the plump, orange-fleshed mussels