istanbul: part 3

More often than not, my favorite part of any trip is the food. I love to try new foods, I eat a lot (maybe I ate 11.5 tacos for dinner as a 10 year old...) and I'll eat anything in the world except scallops. I don't like them, I've tried, sorry. Since food is so unique to each culture I like to taste the traditional foods and understand what they mean to each community.

I didn't know what to expect before we went to Turkey. Since it's a middle-eastern country Islamic country I grouped it with other Mediterranean cuisines and guessed there would be lots of hummus, olives, grape leaves and pita. On the one hand I was right, but Turkey is also known for kebabs, köfte (grilled meatballs), and baklava, which quickly became one of my favorite desserts. The diet is a lot simpler than in Spain, consisting mainly of bread, meat and potatoes with many Greek influences. Or maybe the Turkish influenced the Greeks, I'm not sure, but their food is similar. Turkey is also known for its tea and coffee, which are served strong in short glasses. The tea was lovely, but the coffee has a grainy texture that takes a bit of getting used to. However, Istanbul (unlike Malaga) has Starbucks, so we made a few stops there for a taste of home.

I give you a week of eating in Istanbul...

Turkish desserts

Kadaif: phyllo pastry nests filled with nuts

Baklava, I love you.

Turkish coffee

A cloud of bread

Spicy red pepper dip

Red lentil soup

Turkish pizza, winner.

Street corn

Cappuccino

Lunch in Asia

Meatballs

Irmek, a Turkish dessert and our new friend!

Apple tea

Street cart pretzels

Hummus

istanbul: part 2

Aside from the cultural attractions, Istanbul is known for its two large bazaars – the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar is a large covered market that spans 58 streets and houses thousands of shops. Wikipedia says over 4,000 but a man who worked there told us 3,500…either way it’s pretty intense. We visited the Grand Bazaar a few times, mainly because the first time we went was so overwhelming we couldn’t buy anything, just wander around hoping not to get lost. The best part of the Grand Bazaar was the things that shopkeepers would say to try to make sales. Some favorites: “It’s my turn now” (more creepy than anything), “I know what you want” (how presumptuous), “I am here!”, in response to our saying we were just looking “I’m just selling”, “I will sell you something you don’t need”, and finally “We have everything except customers!”. The Grand Bazaar has stores with scarves, clothes, carpets, leather, food, fake handbags, jewelry, antiques and more tchotchke than I’ve ever seen. I loved all the stores with worthless junk and restricted myself to one elephant souvenir. I’m maturing. Haggling is also one of the most entertaining parts of the bazaar. Here’s an example of haggling:

Shopkeeper: That scarf is 35 lira.

Us: Oh, no thanks, that's too much. [Start to walk away...]

Shopkeeper: Okay, 20 lira!

Us: No it's okay, we're just looking.

Shopkeeper: Fine, 15!

Us: [Still walking away]

Shopkeeper: Name your price!

Not very successful. We did discover that the best way to get a deal is to show them the money. We think that once they saw the money the thought of you putting it away was worse than making a smaller profit.

Outside the Grand Bazaar

Grand Bazaar

I know what you want!

Scarves

Grand Bazaar

Halloween 2K11

Behind the Blue Mosque, we discovered another bazaar, this time smaller and mainly uncovered. A local man directed us there because it was quieter and had some nicer goods. He was right - we could have done damage there but restrained ourselves and only bought a couple of goodies.

Small bazaar

Oh look, something shiny!

Small bazaar

Down by the Bosphorus River is the famous Spice Bazaar. Also a large covered market, the Spice Bazaar is dedicated to spices, teas, coffees, candy (Turkish Delight!), nuts and other foods, as well as the occasional scarf and leather shop. The spices smell so good and are so cheap it’s insane. I got myself some rose flavored Turkish Delight and loose-leaf apple tea, which I need to find a way to get some shipped to me once I finish this bag because it is so. damn. good.

Spice Bazaar

So much Turkish Delight, yum yum yum

Spice bazaar

Spices!

Tea

More spices and tea

Turkish Delight, I love you

When we went to Asia for lunch (I love saying that) on Friday we stumbled upon an outdoor market. The Asian side is much less touristy, when we were over there it felt like we were in a completely different city. There are no real tourist attractions and more people seem to live there as opposed to the European side, which seems more commercial. It was nice to get to explore a different side of Istanbul and get a feel for daily life as opposed to the touristic center.

Fruit & veg

Market in Asia!

Asian food

Asian olives

Asian fish

paella on the playa

Sundays in Andalucia are extremely boring. Everything (save for a handful of restaurants) is closed. The European equivalent of Target (Carrefour) is closed, the gym closes at 2. The Spanish take the idea of Sunday being a "day of rest" very seriously. Therefore Sundays are usually spent in a cafe preparing lessons for the week or lying on my couch catching up on American TV. Spanish TV is terrible, even the Spaniards think so. But last Sunday my friends and I took the day into our own hands and walked to a neighborhood of Malaga called Pedregalejo. It's residential and quieter than the center of town, so it was a nice break from the constant noise around my apartment. The beach is lined with restaurants, mostly specializing in seafood (shocking) and paella, a Spanish specialty. Paella is a rice based dish with saffron, vegetables and a selection of meats. Typically paella includes a lot of seafood, but the cook can throw in anything they like to a paella pan. The six of us happily spent most of our Sunday afternoon sitting on the beach indulging in paella, adobo (lemon fish) and cerveza con limon (beer with lemon). Those of you currently experiencing the snowpocalypse may want to avoid the pictures below.

Mixed seafood paella

Gina, Becky and Lucy

En route in Pedregalejo

Also, for any who has been wondering what my beloved croquetas look like, here is a picture. These are delicious mushroom croquetas. Recently I've sampled chicken croquetas and spinach croquetas in addition to the traditional ham ones. Life's tough.

Croquetas!

gobble gobble

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year, namely because it centers around one of my favorite activities: eating. Also my favorite food in the entire world, mashed potatoes, is featured prominently, so you can't go wrong. Normally at home I spend my Thanksgiving lounging on the couch watching hours of football (not soccer) and stretching my stomach muscles for the impending feast. This year, some adjustments were made. Rather than casually doing nothing all day, I went to school where I taught the reproductive system to a giggly class of 4th graders (just as awkward as you would imagine...) and tried (and failed) to avoid the germs floating around my concrete palace. It's difficult to avoid 300 sniffly children screaming "Enseño!" (Teacher!) and reaching their little hands out to grab you. However, my fellow countrymen and I were not about to let a little thing called the Atlantic Ocean keep us from indulging in our favorite gluttonous holiday. So, 8 Americans, 3 Brits, 2 Italians, 2 Scots and a Swede gathered around the table to share in a delicious traditional feast. It was really lovely to have some nice people to share the meal with. Along with the 5 kilos of mashed potatoes that I made we had turkey, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, gravy, corn, garlic mashed potatoes, amazing brie dumplings that I will dream about forever, dates and bacon (sounds weird but is actually delicious), apple pie and pumpkin pie. It really felt like Thanksgiving after we all finally finished eating and realized the intense physical pain caused by the ridiculous amount of food we consumed. My friend summarized the day perfectly, "If Americans know how to do one thing, it's eat."

Pumpkin pie, the one on the right is organic

Thanksgiving veterans and some newbies

Tommy the Turkey

The table

Carving

The spread...before we devoured everything

Me and Sandra

Yum.