Türk Yemeği

Turkish food is fantastic. I mean seriously delicious. I will be surprised if I don't gain 20lbs while I'm here (not that I don't need to gain weight... I was just saying).

This a typical Türk Kahvaltı (Turkish Breakfast). On the plate is simmit, a type of bread, with some delicious sort of spread with maple in it (the bowl with the spoon in it). I'm not really sure what it was. Behind that is Beyaz Peynir (lit. White Cheese), which is what we call Feta. To be fair, Feta is the Greek version of Beyaz Peynir. It originated in Turkey. There was also Nutella. Good stuff. Dr. Dababat was cutting different bread when this was taken that we ate with Zeytinyağı (Turkish Olive Oil) and Oregano. That cup to the left is filled with the most common Turkish drink, Çay (tea—pronounced just like chai). I average 10 cups of this a day. If you like hot tea, you'd like this a lot. Also, they drink a lot of juice here in place of soda. It's good stuff. Vişne Suyu (cherry juice) is the drink of choice for many people, especially in restaurants. 

This was one of the restaurants along Göksu Lake. On one side of each table was a swing. On the other side was a stationary couch. Very unique.

This was my meal: Köfte. Roughly translates to meatballs. They were somewhere between sausages and meatballs in taste. Very good. The fries were... foreign. Of course, America still does fast food best. The middle is pilav (rice, of course) prepared in the traditional Turkish fashion. The rest is a salad that was dressed with vinegar, oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

This is a traditional çay pot. The top contains a dense, concentrated tea. The bottom, boiling water. You mix them to taste. The very bottom part contained some sort of fire jelly and was continuing to boil the water. We sat for about 90 minutes after I meal and finished 75% of the pot. 

Obviously, I had to sneak this picture. This chick kept staring at me (I look really foreign), so I had to snap it really quick. What she is holding is the host to a nargile. It's essentially just a hookah. All sorts of people smoked them in this restaurant. She had berry flavored tobacco of some sort. She kept blowing it at us, so we could smell it. Turks, typically, smoke often.