At a table near the window we drank tea with lemon, scalding through the thick cups, and ate our way through sardines on buttered white bread and even a few slices of torta.

-The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

If a book was to combine some of my favourite things, The Historian nailed it. History, travel sprinkled with food from other cultures, mystery and a little bit of gothic (Dracula!). I’ve never tired of the novel (having read it several times), which takes you through Amsterdam, Istanbul, France, Budapest, Romania, and Bulgaria. It’s incredibly descriptive and you can almost imagine being there yourself, walking along the cobbled stones next to the narrator.

I’m not sure when the next book I read will mention plenty of Ottoman cuisine, so over time I’ll be making the majority of the foods mentioned.

There’s several types of tortas out there. However in this scene the narrator (as a young girl) and her father are eating this in Slovenia, so I’ve gone with the recipe for Torta Plava Laguna from Celtnet. This is apparently ‘traditional’ and eaten for special occasions. The ‘Blue Lagoon’ part of the recipe comes from the blue coloured house the cook lived/lives in, and really it’s just a normal chocolate torta. But having that extra bit to the name makes it sound so much more exotic.

I altered the recipe to be smaller (and I’m glad I did!) It’s rich and I’ve ended up freezing half of it for later, since there’s not enough people around at the moment to eat it fast enough. If you’ve got four+ people around, by all means double it back up.