Turkish delights

Over President's Day weekend, Tim and I took a trip to Istanbul, Turkey, which was a culinary delight. Let's just say we spent a lot of time eating. Everything just looked so interesting! Some things were a little odd, like the super-sticky ice cream made from goat milk that you had to bite and chew. Lunches consisted of kebaps, shaved meat wrapped in a tortilla with french fries and veggies, and we stopped frequently for pomogranite/orange juice.

The first evening I had ravioli, which was stuffed with veal and and topped with a yogurt sauce and oregano. Tim had the daily special, which wasn't worth taking a picture of.

Being February, Turkey was very cold, so we stopped frequently for hot Turkish tea. They had apple tea, lemon tea, and just regular tea, all of which were served in little glasses. It took skill to pick up your cup so you didn't burn your fingers. These teas were instant, but at the spice market, we bought dried apple-chunk tea, which is excellent.

For all you Narnia fans, we did eat Turkish delight. There were lots of different flavors, many had pistachios and they came with little plastic swords for more fun spearing. 

Our mid-afternoon snack consisted of borek, which is the general word for pastries. These particular ones had cheese in them. The one on the left was basically just rolls with cheese melted in them, while the one on the right was more like phyllo dough with cheese baked in layers.

We took a ferry trip down the Bosphorus Strait, and stopped on the Asia side for lunch and a hike up to a castle with views of the Black Sea. Lunch wasn't anything spectacular, but we stopped for the local specialty called lokum. It is little dough balls that are deep fat fried and then rolled in maple syrup.

The Turkish people have an interesting way of making coffee. They keep adding a little to the cup and then cooking it some more until it can float a horseshoe and the bottom half of what is in your cup is made up of grounds. I had it with LOTS of sugar, Tim had no sugar (because that's how the locals take it). At the particular coffee shop we went to, they served it with chocolate to cut the bitterness. They also put chocolate covered coffee beans on the table. We were a little hyper afterwards.

Finally, the last evening in Istanbul, we found a restaurant on Trip Advisor that was out of the touristy section of town and we decided to give it a try. Besides the fact that it was in a slightly creepy part of town and though I was the only female in the restaurant (weird?), the food was outstanding. Appetizers of tomato and cucumber salad and a baked rice thing with chicken and raisins. The main course was thick pita bread with lamb. After we finally finished, having struggled with cutting the bread, we happened to look at the next table and see how those men were eating them. They were tearing the bread and using it to pick up the meat. Ohhhh, that's how you do it! Sheesh, we are such tourists.