Ayşe was raised in Mersin, a port city in southern Turkey. When Ayşe was a little girl, her mother frequently used a wood-burning ocak (old-style furnace) to cook, although they had access to a portable gas stove as well. One of her mother’s specialties was yufka, a thin, round, flatbread cooked on a saj (iron griddle) set over the open flames. Making yufka required a whole day and many helpers, with some rolling the dough while others tended the saj; by the end, there would be enough yufka to last several months. As they were working, they’d make simple sıkma and saj börek, two types of stuffed flatbreads cooked on the saj.
