Latest news with #Sahin
The Age
31-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Age
A food truck in an op-shop car park serves some of the best Turkish snacks in town
Find crusty kavurma rolls and meaty snack packs at Latif's Street Foods in Melbourne's northern suburbs. As featured in the June 2025 hitlist. See all stories. Previous SlideNext Slide Turkish$ A Vinnies car park is the site for a Turkish food truck turning out some of the best rolls and snack packs in town. But it's not just the food: it's the fact that owner Latif Sahin is there cooking, caring and checking in, putting his whole heart and heritage into the project. My friends and I are sitting in the blue gleam of the Vinnies sign, at a flimsy metal table on chilly chairs. We're holding paper-wrapped rolls and getting messy picking chips from cardboard containers. But there's no overlooking the hospitality as Sahin leans from the van window. 'Do you want tea?' he asks, as trucks plough by. We do. Minutes later, a sturdy brew is handed over in tulip-shaped glasses, a key gesture of Turkish hospitality everywhere from Istanbul to Gaziantep and, apparently, Campbellfield. Latif's specialty is braised lamb liver, served in a crusty roll. The way Sahin cooks it can turn offal naysayers into liver lovers, too. In fact, his special dish prompted the whole truck caper. Sahin's nephew wouldn't stop telling his uncle that his braised liver was too good to be restricted to family gatherings. Eventually, Sahin was convinced to pause a career as a builder and launch himself as a food entrepreneur. He hand-chops liver with a special blade then cooks it for hours with lamb tail fat, onions, peppers and spices. It's soft, almost creamy, meaty but not minerally, piled juicily into a long roll with red onion, tomato and chilli flakes. I could feel my cells soaking up the goodness with every bite. This is kavurma, a style of Turkish cooking that relies on the simple sauteeing of chopped meats. There's a beef mix made with topside, cubed and slow-cooked with Sahin's own bone broth. Chicken is spiced and grilled: it's the food truck version of the chicken the family makes when they're camping. Sucuk (spiced beef sausage) is layered with house chilli sauce and grilled halloumi. Lamb koftes are deftly seasoned and satisfying. The genius with all Latif's rolls is the way the fillings soak into the bread but leave the crust shatter-crisp. You can also have kavurma meats over buttered rice: the liver and beef are best because they're wetter and it's hard to overstate the pleasure of salty meat juices soaking into golden rice. Chip snack packs come with either beef or chicken, striped with sauces. Sahin makes a great garlic yoghurt sauce, letting it sit for 24 hours so allium sharpness softens to sweetness. His tomato-forward chilli sauce is great too. Barbecue sauce isn't on the menu, and you'll make Sahin a bit sad if you ask for it, but he still keeps some in the back of the fridge if you can't come at a snack pack without it. When Sahin started thinking he might go pro with his cooking, he shopped around for a food truck. Nothing was quite right. They're set up for kebabs not kavurma. What does a builder do when he can't find what he wants? Naturally, he gets on the tools himself. Sahin's truck is taller, longer and better ventilated than many. There's a spot for teacups and he can brew Turkish coffee. There's also a place for a daily soup, maybe chicken or pacha (hoof originally, but shank these days) or a gentle yellow lentil number. The truck first launched down the road a year ago, then Sahin was booted from the site, and the lights have been on at this location for just a few weeks. A warm welcome and good, honest cooking can come at you anywhere: fancy restaurants, cosy cafes and – as Sahin proves – op-shop car parks. Three other food trucks to try Dhamaka This Indian street food park is great for snacking, browsing and casual hangs. Dhamaka covers the Indo-Chinese part of the picture, serving all-veg spicy, cheesy comfort food. Try grilled sandwiches, Amritsar-style chole kulcha (chickpea curry) and frankies (curried potato wraps). If you're feeling brave, go for the extra-hot triple Schezwan fried rice. 1924 Princes Highway, Clayton, Sellami French Tacos Keep an eye out for this Algerian food truck. The specialty is French tacos, a loaded wrap that probably sprang from north African communities in Lyon, France. Are they tacos? Not exactly. Are they over-filled wraps with everything from crumbed chicken to falafel to garlic mayo and Doritos? Yep. Various locations, Sushi Brazilia Brazil has a huge Japanese diaspora and its own styles of sushi, which are represented at this food truck, now permanently stationed in Chelsea but also available for catering. Deep-fried sushi rolls are a specialty: try panko-crumbed salmon or kingfish with cream cheese and the jho rolls where sliced fish is used as a wrapper.
Sydney Morning Herald
31-05-2025
- Automotive
- Sydney Morning Herald
A food truck in an op-shop car park serves some of the best Turkish snacks in town
Find crusty kavurma rolls and meaty snack packs at Latif's Street Foods in Melbourne's northern suburbs. As featured in the June 2025 hitlist. See all stories. Previous SlideNext Slide Turkish$ A Vinnies car park is the site for a Turkish food truck turning out some of the best rolls and snack packs in town. But it's not just the food: it's the fact that owner Latif Sahin is there cooking, caring and checking in, putting his whole heart and heritage into the project. My friends and I are sitting in the blue gleam of the Vinnies sign, at a flimsy metal table on chilly chairs. We're holding paper-wrapped rolls and getting messy picking chips from cardboard containers. But there's no overlooking the hospitality as Sahin leans from the van window. 'Do you want tea?' he asks, as trucks plough by. We do. Minutes later, a sturdy brew is handed over in tulip-shaped glasses, a key gesture of Turkish hospitality everywhere from Istanbul to Gaziantep and, apparently, Campbellfield. Latif's specialty is braised lamb liver, served in a crusty roll. The way Sahin cooks it can turn offal naysayers into liver lovers, too. In fact, his special dish prompted the whole truck caper. Sahin's nephew wouldn't stop telling his uncle that his braised liver was too good to be restricted to family gatherings. Eventually, Sahin was convinced to pause a career as a builder and launch himself as a food entrepreneur. He hand-chops liver with a special blade then cooks it for hours with lamb tail fat, onions, peppers and spices. It's soft, almost creamy, meaty but not minerally, piled juicily into a long roll with red onion, tomato and chilli flakes. I could feel my cells soaking up the goodness with every bite. This is kavurma, a style of Turkish cooking that relies on the simple sauteeing of chopped meats. There's a beef mix made with topside, cubed and slow-cooked with Sahin's own bone broth. Chicken is spiced and grilled: it's the food truck version of the chicken the family makes when they're camping. Sucuk (spiced beef sausage) is layered with house chilli sauce and grilled halloumi. Lamb koftes are deftly seasoned and satisfying. The genius with all Latif's rolls is the way the fillings soak into the bread but leave the crust shatter-crisp. You can also have kavurma meats over buttered rice: the liver and beef are best because they're wetter and it's hard to overstate the pleasure of salty meat juices soaking into golden rice. Chip snack packs come with either beef or chicken, striped with sauces. Sahin makes a great garlic yoghurt sauce, letting it sit for 24 hours so allium sharpness softens to sweetness. His tomato-forward chilli sauce is great too. Barbecue sauce isn't on the menu, and you'll make Sahin a bit sad if you ask for it, but he still keeps some in the back of the fridge if you can't come at a snack pack without it. When Sahin started thinking he might go pro with his cooking, he shopped around for a food truck. Nothing was quite right. They're set up for kebabs not kavurma. What does a builder do when he can't find what he wants? Naturally, he gets on the tools himself. Sahin's truck is taller, longer and better ventilated than many. There's a spot for teacups and he can brew Turkish coffee. There's also a place for a daily soup, maybe chicken or pacha (hoof originally, but shank these days) or a gentle yellow lentil number. The truck first launched down the road a year ago, then Sahin was booted from the site, and the lights have been on at this location for just a few weeks. A warm welcome and good, honest cooking can come at you anywhere: fancy restaurants, cosy cafes and – as Sahin proves – op-shop car parks. Three other food trucks to try Dhamaka This Indian street food park is great for snacking, browsing and casual hangs. Dhamaka covers the Indo-Chinese part of the picture, serving all-veg spicy, cheesy comfort food. Try grilled sandwiches, Amritsar-style chole kulcha (chickpea curry) and frankies (curried potato wraps). If you're feeling brave, go for the extra-hot triple Schezwan fried rice. 1924 Princes Highway, Clayton, Sellami French Tacos Keep an eye out for this Algerian food truck. The specialty is French tacos, a loaded wrap that probably sprang from north African communities in Lyon, France. Are they tacos? Not exactly. Are they over-filled wraps with everything from crumbed chicken to falafel to garlic mayo and Doritos? Yep. Various locations, Sushi Brazilia Brazil has a huge Japanese diaspora and its own styles of sushi, which are represented at this food truck, now permanently stationed in Chelsea but also available for catering. Deep-fried sushi rolls are a specialty: try panko-crumbed salmon or kingfish with cream cheese and the jho rolls where sliced fish is used as a wrapper.
Miami Herald
20-04-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
Young colon cancer patient finds success in treatment borrowed from other cancer
In 2023, Bret Hulick was in his second year of medical school at LECOM in Erie, analyzing the case of a 24-year-old colon cancer patient. The patient had to choose between an established therapy with a high likelihood of unwanted side effects or a newer experimental treatment. For Hulick, though, it wasn't an academic exercise. He was the patient - part of a dramatic rise in young people diagnosed with colon cancer - and his treatment decision was a difficult one. "It's very challenging when you have a 24-year-old patient, a medical school student, right in the middle of school," said Ibrahim Sahin, a medical oncologist at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, who treated Hulick. "You need to continue school, you have dreams to be a doctor, and there's a lot of emotions, stress and anxiety." Hulick began experiencing symptoms in the summer of 2023, eventually visiting the emergency room for what he thought might be a stomach bug. He got a basic CT scan, a diagnosis of unspecified Crohn's disease or colitis, and a recommendation to see a specialist. When he saw the specialist about three months later, they agreed with that diagnosis but recommended a colonoscopy. That colonoscopy showed a tumor, and Hulick was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes. He decided to proceed quickly with surgery performed by Jennifer Holder-Murray, a colorectal surgeon at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, squeezing the procedure in during the two weeks that he got off from medical school around Christmas. On Dec. 8, he went into surgery, which became more involved than expected when Holder-Murray discovered that the tumor had started to invade his stomach. As Hulick recovered from surgery, he began discussing next steps with Sahin. The standard treatment was chemotherapy, which he needed even after surgery because the cancer had spread beyond the colon. But the recommended type of chemotherapy has a common side effect of peripheral neuropathy - weakness, numbness and pain in his hands and feet. For Hulick, who hopes to work with his hands as an emergency room physician, that side effect could be life-changing. Sahin thought there might be another option. Hulick's tumor markers indicated the presence of mismatch repair deficiency (MMR), a genetic abnormality which makes it more difficult for cells to repair damage to DNA. In 2022, researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City published the results of a small study that achieved a 100% cure rate in 12 patients using the immunotherapy drug dostarlimab to treat rectal cancer that also had MMR status. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, immediately changed the practice of treatment for rectal cancer. Hulick didn't have rectal cancer, though, and there wasn't an equivalent study for colon cancer. But Sahin thought that the study was dramatic enough - and Hulick's cancer was similar enough - to try immunotherapy instead of chemotherapy, thus avoiding the risk of damage to his hands. A doctor in Erie also consulting with Hulick disagreed, urging him to stick with the proven treatment of chemotherapy. "I was really kind of up in the air," said Hulick. "I knew what the potential downsides of the chemotherapy were, but there was a lot more chance to take with the immunotherapy." In the end, Hulick, an adventure junkie who snowboards and rides motorcycles and dirt bikes, decided to go with the less proven, higher potential immunotherapy option. "If there's a chance of something that's a little risky but with a better outcome, I'm likely to do it," he said. "It was worth taking the shot." Thus far, his treatment has gone as well as possible. He was able to do about six months of immunotherapy with no interruption to medical school. And his scans are now completely clear, with no evidence of cancer. "Luckily, it played out the way we were hoping," said Sahin, on the decision to use immunotherapy. "It wasn't the standard of care, it wasn't tested, but sometimes science proceeds itself - the studies were not perfect so we had to make the decision, what is more in the interest of the patient." Just as Hulick was completing his treatment in the summer of 2024, Memorial Sloan Kettering released more data, with 42 patients now treated with immunotherapy for rectal cancer and every one of them cured. The first 24 patients all showed no evidence of cancer two years after their initial treatment. In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted dostarlimab "breakthrough therapy designation" to treat mismatch repair deficient rectal cancer. Studies are now recruiting to test the immunotherapy treatment on colon cancer similar to Hulick's. While Sahin and Hulick didn't have the luxury of waiting for official studies, they are grateful the science that did exist came along just in time, along with other advances in cancer treatment. "What was available to him now wouldn't have been even five years back," said Sahin. Hulick also received genetic testing and counseling that resulted in a diagnosis of Lynch syndrome, common among those with MMR tumors. Lynch syndrome, which was previously called hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer, is a condition passed from parents to children associated with a higher risk of colon cancers and other cancers, especially at a young age. Once Hulick received the diagnosis, his younger brother, younger sister and father were screened for cancer as well. And while his siblings were clear, his father found out in May 2024 that he had an active tumor that was thus far asymptomatic. The tumor was removed surgically, which was considered curative because it was caught so early. "That was the best thing to come of it was finding all this out and getting my siblings ahead of the ball," said Hulick. "We were able to figure that out for my dad before it became a much bigger problem." Hulick's doctors are also hoping that his story can raise awareness of the rise in colon cancer in younger patients. The percentage of colorectal cancer cases in adults younger than 55 increased from 11% in 1995 to 20% in 2019, according to the American Cancer Society. Symptoms of colon cancer are easy to dismiss as being from other causes, such as hemorrhoids or irritable bowel syndrome, said Holder-Murray, so getting them checked out is essential. And while Hulick did have a hereditary component to his colon cancer, the vast majority of cases are sporadic, without a known history. "We're seeing it happen for younger and younger patients," said Holder-Murray. "It's one of the most heart-wrenching conversations you can have when you are talking to someone so young, with their whole future ahead of them." _____ Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shopify Workers Are Expected to Use Gen AI at Work. Is Your Job Next?
Most of us get the same basic questions in our employee performance reviews, even if we work totally different jobs: What did you accomplish in the last year? What are your opportunities for improvement? But here's one you might not have seen before: How did you use generative AI at work? Something like that question might be on the next performance reviews for at least one employer. In a memo posted online after it leaked and was reported on by CNBC and others, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said using AI in the workplace is no longer optional at the e-commerce software firm, which employed about 8,100 people at the end of 2024. "Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify," Lutke wrote in the memo. Gen AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini are increasingly being touted as game-changers at the office, with business leaders saying they can make employees more efficient. At the same time, that transformation has raised concerns that these tools will replace humans, leading to fewer jobs. A recent Pew Research Center survey found 64% of American adults expected AI growth would lead to fewer jobs. Shopify is one company emphasizing gen AI in the workplace, but it isn't the only one. What happens when your boss adds "use AI" to your job responsibilities? Lutke's memo emphasized the importance of Shopify's employees tinkering with AI and spelled out certain requirements, including sharing what they've learned about using AI tools. He also said teams would need to demonstrate why AI can't meet needs before asking for more resources or to hire new employees. The memo clearly shows one potential impact of gen AI on the availability of jobs: Companies will be less willing to hire if that work can be done by AI instead. That fear is widely shared, with more Americans worried than hopeful about AI's impact on jobs, according to a separate Pew survey released in February that focused on Americans' thoughts on AI at work. Despite the widespread fears, Nicole Sahin, CEO and founder of G-P, a global employment and human relations firm, told me she still sees companies hiring workers in line with what would be expected in a growing labor market. "Companies are definitely hiring people and they can't find enough talent," she said. "I don't feel that hiring is slowing down." What is changing, perhaps, is that the people who are being hired for the kinds of jobs that can be done alongside gen AI tools are being hired based on their ability to be creative and versatile with that technology, Sahin said. The Shopify memo and its expectation around AI use is "the beginning of the new normal," Sahin said. G-P released a survey this week of more than 3,000 global executives and HR professionals, with 91% of executives reporting they're scaling up AI efforts at their companies. Sahin said she sees the issue as one where companies expect workers to be willing to experiment and be creative with technology. "The willingness to be nimble is extremely important," she said. Experts say the expanding use of gen AI in the workplace is changing the skills employees need to thrive. Many workers, including those in entry-level positions, will need to rely more on subject matter expertise and judgment rather than the skills to do tasks that can be done by an AI tool instead. Most workers in the February Pew survey said they don't use AI chatbots at all or use them rarely, and only 16% reported using AI in their jobs. Even younger workers generally aren't using AI in their jobs. A Gallup survey released this week asked Gen Z adults about their use of gen AI in the workplace. Only 30% said they used it for work, and more than half said their workplace didn't have a formal AI policy. The survey found 29% said AI doesn't exist for their work and 36% said the risks outweighed the benefits in their jobs. Just because you can or do use AI at work doesn't mean it's worth it. A report this month by the consultancy firm Coastal found half of the business leaders it surveyed said they've seen no measurable return on investment from AI, and only 21% reported proven outcomes. Coastal attributed this gap between hype and results to the disconnect between experimentation and strategy. "Without clear business alignment or defined outcomes, AI risks staying stuck in the 'interesting but isolated' category," the Coastal report said. Gen AI systems like ChatGPT may be able to generate answers to a wide variety of queries, but they aren't answering those things the same way a human would. For one, they're prone to errors known as hallucinations -- essentially making stuff up instead of acknowledging they don't know the answer. That makes it essential to use AI wisely and not trust its answers as always being correct. Especially large, general language models like ChatGPT, which are trained on a vast amount of data, not all of it good or relevant to your job. Those kinds of models "really should not be used for work," Sahin said. "When you're thinking about using AI in business, it can't hallucinate, it can't get things wrong." In the workplace, you want specialized tools that are less likely to hallucinate and are easier to verify and correct, she said. Workers need to be able to detect those issues and fix them in order to use AI well. At Shopify, learning those skills is just part of the job now, Lutke wrote. "Frankly, I don't think it's feasible to opt out of learning the skill of applying AI in your craft; you are welcome to try, but I want to be honest I cannot see this working out today, and definitely not tomorrow."
Muscat Daily
16-02-2025
- Business
- Muscat Daily
Turkey is making fake honey on an alarming scale
Istanbul, Turkey – Turkey is one of the key players in the global honey market. With annual production of 115,000 tonnes of honey, the country is the world's second-largest supplier after China, followed by Ethiopia, Iran and India. The Turkish honey sector has an annual volume of about €270mn (US$283.4mn), according to estimates, with Germany and the United States being the biggest importers of honey from Turkey. Adulterated honey But the sector faces a crisis because of counterfeit Turkish honey, although the actual extent of counterfeit honey production in the country remains unclear. Police have confiscated several tonnes of the adulterated product in recent months for a total value of about €25mn. One raid in the capital Ankara in September 2024 found 8,150 tonnes of glucose, fructose and sugar, along with 100,000 labels for different brands of honey. Honey is often adulterated with sugar syrup. But if a product contains artificial flavours, colours, sweeteners, glucose, corn syrup or artificial honeycomb, it can't legally be sold as honey. If it is, it's referred to as counterfeit or adulterated honey – which is a violation of labelling laws. In the last quarter of 2024, the Turkish ministry of agriculture released lists indicating that 43 producers in Turkey had adulterated honey. Ankara is seen as the centre of this industry; the majority of production facilities are located there. The ministry says two of the manufacturers distribute their products through big supermarket chains. Damage to Turkey's image The industry is alarmed. Producers fear that Turkey's reputation on the international market will suffer significant damage or has already been harmed. They are calling for state intervention, stricter regulations and deterrent penalties for producers of counterfeit honey. Ziya Sahin, the president of the Turkish Beekeepers' Association, holds the Ministry of Agriculture responsible. He wants to see more inspections and higher penalties. 'The problem is the lack of regulation. Our beekeepers are angry, and they ask why we're not doing something to stop it. But we have no authority to inspect,' Sahin told DW. 'I'm not even allowed to ask street sellers whether their honey is real or not.' A meeting of the International Federation of Beekeepers' Associations is due to be held in Turkey this year. Sahin says they are in close contact with their international partners. 'As in other parts of the world, there is counterfeit honey in Turkey. We can't deny that. But we don't want Turkey to be known as a paradise for fake honey. We won't accept that,' Sahin insisted. Fake honey in China, Europe Counterfeit honey isn't just a Turkish problem, though, those involved in the industry emphasise. 'There's fake honey in China and Europe, too,' said Can Sezen, the managing director of Anavarza Bal, one of the country's leading honey producers. 'It would be unfair to claim that it only affects Turkey. That said, Turks are particularly inventive about such matters.' Manufacturers of counterfeit honey closely monitor when the state authorities are ordering inspections, Sezen said, and then they scale back production in a targeted way. 'You can find these products in every supermarket. The revelations must continue – like the lists released by the ministry. Our population needs to be aware of these fake products,' Sezen said. One significant reason for the increase in counterfeit honey is Turkey's economic situation. Fake honey costs only a fifth as much as the real thing, selling in Turkey for about €1.60 per kilogram. The price for real honey can be as high as €8 a kilogram. The adulterated product is more affordable for many consumers – an important consideration in times of high inflation. And as for exports, experts say customs checks aren't sufficient for detecting counterfeit honey meaning that fake Turkish honey could already be in supermarkets abroad. 'It may be that counterfeit honey is first exported illegally to Arab countries then shipped on to other parts of the world,' Ziya Sahin said. There are already indications that counterfeit honey has found its way to Europe. In January 2024, French authorities confiscated 13 tonnes of honey laced with Viagra, also known as 'erectile honey'. According to official reports, it originated with illegal supply chains in Turkey, Tunisia and Thailand. The severity of the problem is illustrated by figures from the European Anti-Fraud Office. In 2023, the agency uncovered huge violations involving honey imported to the European Union. Almost half, or 46%, of the samples it examined were adulterated. Out of 15 samples of honey from Turkey, 14 of them were counterfeit. DW
