Food in Turkey

Zack and I keep saying that we have to include food from all the great places we have seen so far, yet we always forget. Not this time! We remembered to take pictures, so enjoy.

We ate at this sandwich place twice in two days while we were in Turkey. It is located right behind  the Aya Sophia, so there is no alcohol allowed within 100 meters of the Mosque. Which wasn't a bad thing. The waiters were nice. While waiting for our food I noticed that they had paper placemats, so I asked the waiter if I could take it. He looked at me like I was crazy, but I wanted it to bring home for our friend Wilkins. She collects paper placemats and asked us to pick them up on our travels. Sorry Wilkins this is the only one we have remembered to bring and it could even be the first paper placemat we have seen. You will get it this summer!!! Something to look forward to.

What a great site to see when you enter a resturant. These lanterns were found all over Turkey and one even found it's way in our suitcase, but it is one that sits on a table. We thought we would have better use for a table lamp instead of one that hangs, but thinking of getting one or two in the future. Zack is returning to Turkey in the Spring with the highschool students for their school trip. Maybe he will bring another one home.

The bread and humus was delicious, but our friend Nick makes an even better humus. I need to remember to get his recipe. I think I enjoyed the presentation of the food maybe more than eating the food. That is probably a lie, it was delicious. The bread and humus was the starter and between the four of us we ate a chicken salad, a casserole, and crepes with spinach.





All of the food was fantastic at this resturant and all the others that we ate at during our stay in Turkey. When we first made it to Turkey we found a resturant that our friend Maxine believed to be the same resturant her family ate at when they were in Turkey ten years ago. We ate there and it was great! Initially we were going to go to this resturant every night. It was close to our hotel and it was good. By the next night we were walking around looking for a new place just because the food was good and we wanted to try other places. So after walking around for awhile we came across a resturant. We really liked the puffy bread that some resturants served, so we were looking for a place that had the bread and a fireplace because it was cold. So we stopped at a resturant and were reading the menu when a man came out to talk to us. It is the culture that they try to persuade you into their resturant. So we asked him do you have bread? He said yes, and we saw the fireplace inside. So we went in to eat. Unfortunately, the bread that he gave us was not the puffy bread, but we were sitting right in front of the fireplace. I was sitting so close if I strectched out my arm it would have been in the fireplace baking. Then he proceeded to show us some magic tricks. He told us that he used to do magic in London and was even on BBC with his own program.

The bread was just french bread, but we enjoyed it with our meals of chicken, beef, and lamb kabobs. The man started to show us his magic trick, which really was a trick of concentration and if you can control your fingers. He placed a box of stick matches on the table and took out five matches. Laying the matchbox on it's side lengthwise, and then placing the matches on top of the matchbox. Then you are to place a match between your pinky fingers and hold it between your fingers while picking up another match and hold it between your ring fingers. While still holding onto the match between your pinkies. Now you are holding two matches at once. Then you continue picking up matches and holding them between all of your fingers. After you have all the matches between your fingers and your hands are shaking a little and the matches don't stay still. You are supposed to lift your hands above your head. Then bring the matches down and place them back on the matchbox where they were laying at the beginning of the challenge.



So after the man showed us what to do, he asked if we wanted to try, so I said, "sure I will try it," thinking that it really can't be that hard. It is harder then you think, because your fingers don't want to hold the matches well, but we all had fun trying to get the matches between our fingers and above our heads. I do have to say that I was able to do it the best that night.

They started to fall and I didn't make it.



Not only was the food good, but the apple tea was like drinking apple cider. Our co-workers found a tea place that had men walking around serving tea. You would take the tea if you wanted it or not and then when you were ready to leave another man would come and ask you how many you drank. Then you would pay for the amount you drank. It was weird to drank the tea and someone would even come to take the empty glass away and then pay for what you drank. I guess it was the honest system, which seems to work well for them.

It was our last night and we had one last dinner to eat. We were still craving the puffy bread, so we decided to go back to the original resturant we ate dinner at the first night. What a coincidence to eat there for the first dinner and then again for the last dinner. Maxine decided that we should ask them if we could watch them make  the puffy bread. We thought it was a great idea. So we got to the resturant and before going in we stopped at a store across the street and spoke with a really nice worker about rugs. Then the guy outside the resturant asked us how our day went and we told him it was great. He was really friendly and we found this to be a common idea among everyone we met in Turkey. Maxine asked if we could watch them make the bread. The guy said yes, but he needed to check with the chef. He ran inside and quickly returned to us saying yes. We were so excited! So we went in and ordered drinks and then it was time to go watch the puffy bread being made in the back.

Maxine even tried rolling the bread out for us.







Here comes our bread!!!

Cheer's to a great trip and delicious food!! After we got our bread, Maxine told us that she knew they would let us make the bread. We asked her how she knew and she said that they were able to when her family was in Turkey ten years ago. We all had a good laugh thinking her idea was great and she knew we would be able to make the bread all along. She is so sneaky!!