My American feast

A normal part of extended periods away are unnatural cravings for bits of the homeland. Let it be known that for three months I have been deprived of these foods, and they make up my ideal first meal back at home. 

PB&J

Bacon

Corn on the cob (butter and salt)

Anything BBQ from Billy Boys on 95th st.

Scones and jam + cream

Strawberries and cream

Coffee with heavy cream & iced coffee

A good beer

Mint julip/ mojito

Mint chocolate chip shake

All of this outside in the yard under the trees, by the way. 

So there ya go. Psycho-analyze away!

My Turkish travels as lived by my stomach

So a big part of my Turkish experience revolved around food and travel.  So I'm going to tie the places I went to with what I ate while I was there. Sund good? Good. 

Best balık ekmek - İstanbul. A trip to Kadıköy will land you the best grilled fish one a baguette you have ever had. Best experienced seated in a chair designed for toddlers. 

Best lahmacun - Antep. My friends know that my favorite Turkish food is the Syrian pizza, and no one does it better than Antep. I'll be honest and admit that I took two trips of several hundred miles each way just for the food. Too bad I got hideously ill on one of them. 

Çiği böreği - Eski Şehir. Ok so it was only a shop, but I had the greatest Caucasian meat pastries there. Plus peppers that come disguised as tomato sauce and will KILL you. 

Honey - one of the few nice things I can say about Kars is that they have great honey. And a restaurant call Döneristan.  

Biber dolması - my other favorite Turkish food is stuffed pepper. My host mother made the best in the world, and I've looked all over Turkey and still haven't found better. 

So there ya are. All my trips described in food (Trabzon doesn't count because I only ate there twice). 

Oh! And if anyone knows of a recipe for BİBER DOLMASI, let me know

Afiyet olsun!

Last day in Turkey (my extended layover in İstanbul)

So it is my last day in Turkey, and I'm feeling a weird mixture of things. It's been wonderful having this sort of unexpected return to Turkey - I wasn't preparing last year to come back for a second year in a row - but I'm definitely ready to go back home. 

I treated today like a very extended layover in İstanbul. Basically, I had 24 hours in he city to do whatever I wanted. A friend of a friend put me up in her apartment right off Taksim.

So today I sat in a cafe in the bazaar beneath the Blue Mosque (the rental fees pay for part of the upkeep of the mosque), and drank çay and Türkçe kahvesi and wrote. It was a very relaxing way to spend my last day in Turkey for a while. Tough that's what I said last year too, hahaha! I think my friends and family would be peeved if I went to turkey for a third year in a row though hahaha!

İstanbul is the kind of city that is too large to even wrap your head around it, let alone experience. 2 continents, 16 million people in the city proper. It's insane. No one can see everything in the city. 

I went to Topkapı palace public gardens today which was pleasant, and something I've never done before, and then I went to get ottoman beef stew for dinner. Omnomnomnomnom! Now I'm at the apartment drinking my last Efes, and writing again. It's 1:45 in the morning and I need to be align out the door at 3:30. This could be a long night. Oh well. I'm coming home!!

Bt in all seriousness, my time in Turkey has been wonderful. It was a surprise to be able to come back so soon, and I'm looking forward to coming back. For all of its cultural insularity and weirdness, it's nice and the people are genuinely friendly. There is a lot left for me to learn, and I can't wait. 

See you state side!

Hugh