Richard Collett Located near the Armenian and Georgian borders, Turkey’s cheese capital is home to culinary traditions inherited from an exiled Russian sect. Take the Dogu Ekspresi (The Eastern Express) from Ankara, cross the Euphrates River and 1,300km (808 miles) later, Turkey’s eastbound train line terminates in the little-visited frontier city of Kars. Kars is just an hour’s drive from Georgia and Armenia, and in centuries past, the city has been fought over by countless empires and kingdoms.
A towering 12th-Century castle dominates a skyline punctuated by minarets, Orthodox church domes and Russian blockhouses alike. The legacies of Romans, Byzantines, Armenians, Seljuk Turks, Ottomans and Czarist Russia all merge under mist-shrouded mountains. But here, the remnants of past empires have not only survived in the architecture but curiously, in the local cheese.
Home to cheesemaking traditions inherited from Russian exiles, distant Kars is Turkey’s cheese capital. Now, a new museum celebrates this cheesy heritage as local cheesemakers strive to introduce eastern Turkey’s culinary gifts to the wider world “Kars cheese is famous in Turkey,” said Seyma Çay, who creates itineraries for eastern Turkey travel specialists Silk Road Moments. “Kars’ Kashar is one of the most delicious cheeses in the country.
The local cheeses are so famous because of the hundreds of different plant varieties in the region that are eaten by animals. The especially fatty milk they.
