Pictures: Khala Hama has been selling boiled turnips for 40 years in Sulaymaniyah

Variety 10:34 AM - 2021-01-18

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When you speak of winter and the cold freezing weather, you immediately think of warm and hot plates and for Kurdish people you instantly think of boiled turnips.

 

For Kurdish people boiled turnip means winter and cold weather, where they boil it with water and add date paste with some Kurdish spices. It is an authentic Kurdish cuisine and very popular among Kurds.

 

Khala (Kurdish word for uncle) Hama is one of the famous sellers of boiled turnips in of Sulaymaniyah's old markets, the Dara Sutawaka Bazaar (Market).

 

Mohamed Hama Amin known as Khala Hama is a 60 years old man whose been making and selling boiled turnips during winters for 40 years and he has been selling boiled turnips on his old cart in Sulaymaniyah's Dara Sutawaka area (down town of the city) for 20 years.

 

He has prepared boiled turnips from 8 am to 5 pm every day and says that he has many regular customers who visit him everyday and even take boiled turnips to their families at home.

 

Khala Hama told PUKmedia: "Before I come here, I was in Shanadar (area in Erbil) and used to sell boiled turnips for 50 fils (former Iraqi currency coins) in neighborhood to neighborhood.. even then our boiled turnips were very special and many people bought boiled turnips from us."

 

On how he prepares the hot plate, Khala Hama said: " We prepare a generous amount of turnips daily, we let it set for a day to get a nice color and flavor and we bring it to the market.. now that is winter and its cold, people buy and eat loads of boiled turnips.. I even have customers who take our turnips home to eat with their wife and kids. We have more customers in rainy days."

 

He says that their boiled turnip is so famous, they wholesale it to other areas of Sulaymaniya like Saholaka and old cinemas street.

 

 

 

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