October 19, 2005

• Eats

  In the days leading up to coming here, I was looking
  forward to Turkish food.  A lot of the Middle
  Eastern/Mediterranean foods are similar to each other with an
  assortment of grilled meats and appetizers of hommus-like stuff, olive
  oil sauteed veggies, fresh baked pitas, etc.  Unfortunately, from
  the moment we
  stepped off the plane, we were in Ramadan.  As most of you may
  know, Ramadan (or ramazan, as it's pronounced here) is a monthlong
  period of fasting for Muslim believers.  They don't eat from
  sun-up till sun-down.  Of course if you're not Muslim, you don't
  have to follow it, but it affects our lives in a few ways.  One is
  that most restaurants don't offer their normal menu and instead have a
  scaled down version that eliminates most of the mezze, which
  is often the best part. 
  

  CC and I went to an 'iftar' last week
  which is the evening meal and a communal breaking of the fast.  We
  walk into the restaurant and immediately notice there is all this food
  on every table and nobody is eating.  Meanwhile on one side of the
  wall they're projecting what looks to be real-time video of some holy
  place with all these people bowing and praying.  The food looked
  like it was getting cold and me wanting to assert my Christian liberty,
  I start eating, whereupon people began shouting and throwing food at
  me.  Just kidding.  No, I waited like everybody else until
  some really loud prayer was uttered on the video broadcast and on cue,
  everybody began eating.  What's also annoying about Ramadan is
  that there's some dude in my neighborhood who normally belts out the
  call to prayer around 8 PM or so every night.  That's not so
  bad.  But this same dude gets up at like 4:00 AM every morning and
  starts banging on a drum to wake people up to remind them to eat again
  before the sun comes up.  This is normal practice so I'm told, but
  I still feel like throwing a shoe at the guy.
  

  Eggplant is really popular.  These people just
  love them eggplants.  Yogurt, too.  Yogurt can be in a sauce,
  in your soup, on the side, and if you're thirsty, have some ayran, a
  fermented yogurt drink.  All the yogurt and cheese is making CC
  and me rather gaseous.  On the plus side, I'm getting addicted to
  pistachio nuts.  I don't know what they do to 'em, but these
  pistachios taste WAY better than the stuff they sell in the
  states.  Crunchier on the outside, and creamier after they're
  pulverized in your mouth, they taste like cashews with a nuttier
  twist.  Oh, and of course, baklava everywhere you go.  Here are some pics of what we ate last night:

  
  

  salad.  tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, parsley, vinegar and lemon.  very refreshing.
  

  
  

  red lentil soup.  nice on a cold night.
  

  
  

  fresh pide always available with every meal.

  
  
  

  donor kebab.  thin slices of grilled lamb.  perfunctory fries on the left.
  

  
  

  iskender kebab, which
  is essentially doner kebab with tomato sauce and traditionally, the
  waiter brings over a pot of frothing butter and dumps about a cup of
  the stuff on top.  see the mound of white stuff to the left? 
  yep.  yogurt.
  

  
  

  spinach pide.  like a pizza, except no sauce and egg instead of cheese.

  

  rice pudding for dessert.  baked until the top caramelizes then refrigerated till cold.
  

  

  finally, chay (tea).  everything always ends with chay.  you drink the stuff anytime, all the time.

  
  Turkish Phrase of the Day:  afiyet olsun! 
  Means "Hope you enjoy(ed) your food!"  Can be said before or after eating....
  

  
  

  • 5:53 am
  • 13 Comments