Reflections Enroute » Culture

Ode to Balik(s)!

corinne — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:00:40 +0000

For a true Istanbul’lu snack, head down to the ferry port in Eminonu. All year long, there are four or five boats docked there with huge grills on them, and on those grills are the tastiest fish to be found in Turkey. For 4 Tl. you can get a balik (fish) sandwich from the merrily costumed men that are moving too quickly to get a good photo of them. It’s a little discombobulating to order your fish, because they are moving at lightning speed in order to keep up with the demand, but they will help you…albeit quickly.

All types of people are seated at the short table and stools, and all of them are interested in watching the yabanci (foreigner) try this delicacy. They will make sure that you put on the right amount of lemon juice and salt, and look on fondly as you enjoy it.

You can just sit there and have the other vendors round out your meal. There is the great lemonade, or the pickled turnip juice, or the honeyed warm donuts. You are welcome to try them all, but I can personally vouch for everything except the turnips. I still will have to work up some nerve for that one. At any rate, you can have more than a decent lunch for a mere 6 Tl. per person, and it’s well worth it.

Time-lapse The Netherlands

corinne — Sun, 02 May 2010 08:59:01 +0000

We lived in the Netherlands for a little over two years, where we tried all the things we were supposed to try. After traveling
the country from one end to the other, which isn’t that difficult since it is so small, I think there’s a few things you should try
to do when you go. Needless to say, get out of Amsterdam. Yes, there is plenty of great things to do there, but there is also so
much more to the country than special coffee shops and canals.

It is extremely easy to travel anywhere in Holland. Everyone, and I do mean everyone speaks English. Even if they tell you they
don’t, they do. The TV. is has many English shows and the kids start learning at the beginning of their schooling. They speak
English.

One thing you need to know about Dutch, the language is that since Holland is such a small country, they need lots of small things
to fit into their small houses. Because of this, when they talk about something, they use a “je” ending to denote smallness. So a
huisje (small house), hondje (little dog), so a bierje is a small beer. And boy is it small. It is only .25 liters. A large bier
would be .33 liters, so watch out when ordering beers. With the Euro, especially, you can pay for lot for just a little beer.

The Dutch have a fantastic public transportation system that is relatively inexpensive. You can travel by train and bus all over
the nation, and it’s also easy to drive. I would definitely recommend renting a car and visiting some of the smaller villages that
aren’t in any tourist guide.

One of the best ways to get around is to rent a bike; the Dutch love bikes! According to the International Bicycle Fund, and I as a
witness can attest, Holland is the country that leads the world in using bikes as transportation. It is also the “first country to
establish an official national bicycle policy; currently almost 19,000 kilometers of paths and lanes exclusively for bicycles.”
Maybe it’s because there are only a few hills and the bike paths make it very safe, I don’t know. No matter what you’ve got to love
biking in the Netherlands.

One of my favorite places I visited while I was there was the Hoge Veluwe National Park. When you enter, you park your car and pick
up one of the many white bikes available. These you take from one location to another or just on the various paths. There are a
couple of museums in the park. One is a nature museum with displays of the local flora and fauna. It’s perfect for the kids.
Another is the Kroller Muller Museum, an art gallery which houses a number of painters as well a sizeable Van Gogh exhibit. You can
easily bring a picnic and spend the entire day exploring the park.

Something else the Dutch love is cheese! I would look forward to every Tuesday, when the local parking lot was filled with food
vendors, and the usually frequented was the cheese man. I would have garlic or herb cheese, soft or hard cheese, stinky or aromatic
cheese, but no matter what each Tuesday my lunch was cheese. Some towns to visit for cheese is Edam and Gouda (the “g” in Dutch is
a guttural “h” sound, so you might want to practice it before you ask for “gooda” cheese).

The rest of the food is somewhat bland. On practically every street corner, there is a snack bar that serves lots of deep-fried
foods, from French fries to meats, like frikandel. Frikandel is a minced meat hot dog, with ingredients coming from all sorts of
farm animals, to include horse. Whatever the mix is, it’s worth a try. It is practically the Dutch national dish.

The one food you should try is the Dutch pancakes! There are pancake restaurants everywhere and you can either buy savory or fruit
pancakes. One pancake is for one person, but they usually are about 12 inches in diameter and what we like to do is buy two
pancakes to share, one savory one to start with then eat a fruit one for dessert. I am writing a review on one of my favorite
pancake chain restaurants which you can see here.

You certainly cannot go to Holland and not see tulips. The two are synonymous, however, the tulip didn’t originate in Holland.
It actually came as a gift from the ambassador to Turkey in 1565 (go here for a more in-depth history). Either way, the Dutch have
certainly commercialized the flower and Keukenhof gardens is a must-see attraction if you happen to be in the country around the
month of April.

Other places that you should check out while you are in the Netherlands:

Kinderdijk (a Unesco World Heritage Site) is well worth the jaunt out there. It is very picturesque and you can see the mills at
work.

Muiderslot, not far from Amsterdam in the city of Muider, is a great castle and museum to visit. There are plenty of other castles,
palaces, and museums to visit as well, but this is one of my favorites.

Another destination would be the Open Air Museum in Arnhem. It has all kinds of displays highlighting typical Dutch culture.

Of course, a must for every Amsterdam visitor is the Anne Frank house. It is by far one of the most interesting things to do. It is
small, as you can imagine, so if you plan a visit here, make it your first stop and hopefully the line won’t be too long.

Veel plezier en Nederland!

A Forest Retreat for Lunch

corinne — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:00:12 +0000

Making gozleme for us.

As we drove north out of Silifke, we stopped at every tomb on the way. It took us much longer than we expected, and before we knew it, it was time for lunch. Last time we didn’t eat and we were forced (through hunger and desperation) to buy some gozleme from the local ladies out in the middle of nowhere–not the best in Turkey. So, I really wanted to find something. Jim was driving at a respectable speed through the winding mountain roads as we saw a banner for a restaurant, “Uzuncaburc. Perfect. We’re expecting it to be in one of the tiny villages, on a cement platform, so we were pleasantly surprised to find it was in the middle of a gorgeous pine forest, where they also had a campground.

The restaurant was in a beautiful round wooden building with a porch all around it. It had a mangal (grill) on one side and the kitchen was around back. There were plenty of tables inside, but it was such perfect “harvest” summer weather, that we ate outside. Not long after we sat down, the wife came out and gave me a hug and kiss, then proceeded to kiss everyone around the table. It seemed like she knew me. I didn’t think that I knew her. We’d just stopped because of their advertising. Of course, we pulled up and the place looked rather deserted. Out came a man, though, and I asked if the restaurant was open; it was. There was no menu so we asked what was available. The menu was quite extensive. We ordered esme, haydari (the best yogurt spread I”ve had anywhere), Sac Kavurma (lamb stew), tavuk sis (chicken shish), and some gozleme.

Right away a man comes out with the chicken and proceeds to chop it up and pound it flat on a tree trunk right by the grill. Then the woman who kissed us came out with a gas pan set up to make the gozleme. Next, she brought out the dough and then shaped it into small balls. The balls were then rolled out with a yufka rolling pin (a long thin wooden cylinder) and filled with cheese. At this point she put one on the pan (it looks like an inverted wok almost), folded it in half, let it cook a few minutes, and turned it over to do the same on the other side. Apparently, an order of gozleme is about four pieces because she kept on making them. I’m not a big gozleme fan, but almost everyone thought these ones were better than most. The rest of our food came out and it was a feast!

Every inch of the table was covered and the sac kavurma, as always, looked splendid in the pan it was cooked in, and tasted even better. It had tiny slices of green pepper cooked in with it that gave it just the right taste. The chicken was also delectable. We’ve got to figure out what the grilling spices are that they put on it.

Another man arrived and came right up to me. In Turkish he asked me if I had been to Uzuncaburc before. I said I had and he said he remembered me. Then I realized I’d remembered him as well. Last year I had met he and his wife, and she was sick. So, now I understood why she was so happy to see me. I took quite a few pics of her making the gozleme, the butcher (his brother), and their daughter. I asked them if they had an email so I could send them copies, but instead he said, no problem he could wait until next year when I came again…Inshallallah! That, that right there, is why I love it here. Yes, I will go back next year, if for no other reason than just to visit them and take them their photos and have lunch at their fabulous restaurant. I suggest that if you happen to be visiting Uzuncaburc, look for the sign and eat there; it was wonderful!

Chopping chicken for the grill.

A New Bed for Baba

corinne — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:00:08 +0000

Restuffing mattresses before the hard, cold winter sets in.

As we walked through one of our favorite towns we heard a rhythmic beating along with a murmur of voices. We turned the corner, and on this tiny alleyway sat an entire family. Most of the family members were women, but there was one man who was most certainly in charge. All of the women were dressed in traditional shalvar (the pants that baloon at the bottom) and headscarves. It was obvious that there was plenty of extended family in the alley, and it was difficult to see who really belonged to whom.

The man and one of the women were beating sheep’s wool as an older lady, probably his mother, swept the wool into neat piles. He constantly talked at us in Turkish as the wool leaped into the air with every downswing of the wooden tool. He held the wool up for us to feel. This, he insisted, was how it was supposed to feel. Even though we couldn’t understand his words, we understood the gyst of the meaning. His bed was getting hard. He had to take all the batting out of it, and refill it with fresh filling. The filling was the raw sheep’s wool.

I definitely could feel the softness of the wool when we touched it, and the whole family seemed to be enjoying themselves. We lingered for only about 10 minutes before we let them get on with their work.

Marveling at the Whirling Dervishes in Istanbul

corinne — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:00:02 +0000

Whirling Dervish at the Hoja Pasa Hamam.

One of the icons that foreigners associate with Turkey is that of the whirling Dervish.

Wearing a white robe and tall felt hat, a Suni Muslim from the Mevlani order enters into a trance and with all the solemnity and devoutness of the faithful, whirls and whirls and whirls.

As a tourist, we always want to experience, or at least view, important ceremonies or traditions of the country we are visiting, and this is one of those ceremonies. In December of each year, there are many shows in Konya, the city of origin, but you can see a shortened and somewhat informational version any day at the Hoja Pasha Art and Culture Center in Istanbul. The show is held in a 550 year restored haman (public bath) and costs about 40 Tl. for a one hour show. It is a small venue so you can see and hear everything well no matter where you are seated.

The show begins with some traditional music, and then slowly the Dervishes come out, reveal their white robes, pray, and begin to whirl. It is a touching ceremony, and just long enough for you to really appreciate their devoutness.

If you would like to make reservations phone: +90-212-211-4626 or 4636 or email: info@hodjapasha.com.

Being Pampered at the Hamam

corinne — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:00:15 +0000

With the girls in Turkey, I had to take them to the hamam (Turkish bath). Devon actually went twice; but they both loved it. After having been indoctrinated into the world of public bathing in Japan, both of them thought this was much easier and much more comfortable. That might have something to do with the fact that everyone thinks we are Turkish until they try to talk to us…so less staring.

The changing room at the hamam.

What to bring:

1. Money. It’s not as cheap as it used to be…just to enter is around 15 Tl., then they charge you for each additional service ie. waxing, hair dye, getting pealed, and massage.

2. Your toiletries which must include soap, shampoo, a kese (scrub pad – but you can buy this at the hamam if you need to), and a washcloth (Turkish washcloths are knitted.). Of course, you can bring any other toiletries you would like, but the attendent will want to use these items on you.

3. A hairbrush and an extra pair of underwear. Why? Because you wear your panties in the bath and they are soaking wet when you are finished.

Other optional items would be a bathrobe, your own towel (for the final drying), and flip flops or shower shoes (so you don’t have to borrow theirs).

How to hamam:

1. After arriving, usually someone will claim us and tell us where to find an empty changing room. There we are provided with a hamam towel and shower shoes. We undress and make our way to the bath or to get waxed. (Remember to leave your panties on, if you are a woman.)

Note: You must not get wet before you are waxed. If a waxing is on your agenda, make sure you find out where to go and be prepared. If the attendant gets a little too rough, just say “Yavash”, which means “slow”.

Preparing to splash, splash, splash before the pealing, wash, and massage.

2. Go straight to a marble basin where there is piping hot water as well as a cold tap running. Take the plastic bowl and splash it on all of your body parts for at least 10 minutes. At this point, do not use any soap or shampoo, just lots and lots of water. It is to soften you up.

3. The attendant will come and get you. Follow her to a marble slab and lie on your stomach. The first part of the routine is the “pilic” or scrub or peal, whatever. The attendant will scrub off your old skin.

4. After she is finished with the pealing, she will either order you to go rinse, or she will splash you with buckets of water, both hot and cold.

5. Now it’s time for the wash and massage. The attendant will wash you like you haven’t been washed since you were an infant. Don’t worry about those pesky panties, she will pull them, roll them, make them into a thong…whatever is needed to get to those grimy spots. While washing, she will give you a somewhat mild massage. Just go with the flow and turn over when she slaps you.

6. The attendant is all finished with you, now it’s your turn to wash again. You go back to your basin and scrub, scrub, scrub. This should take a minimum of 30 minutes.

Please remember that at all times, you should never put any of your body parts into the basin. Only dip the plastic bowl in there and do everything with the bowl. It is especially important to keep your hair away from it.

7. When you are all finished, tidy up your area by splashing it down, grab your stuff and head to your room. Here you can take a nap or just change back into your regular clothes.

There are many great old hamams in all the cities. Understand that if they have the word “spa” associated with it, it will cost at least triple for the same services!

Hope you enjoy!

Hamam towels hang to dry.

8. Have a cup of cay downstairs with the other ladies, pay, give a decent tip, and away you go, feeling better than you can imagine.