A taste of Turkish taste

I had decided that for my birthday, I was going to buy myself a small electric oven so that I can bake from time to time. With this goal in mind, I dragged my roommate to AnkaMall to cruise a few shops and find the best deal on an oven. My roommate had the additional thought of buying a lamp for our living room to brighten the corner of darkness where we all tend to sit during the day but have to evacuate in the evenings.

This sounds easy enough, but the problem is that Turkish people have a very different sense of taste than do Americans or Spaniards. The lighting section of Koctas, the Turkish equivalent of Home Depot, has a full stock of lights that range from tacky to gaudy to blindingly sparkly.

Purple and sparkly is the most common combination of elements

Dangly is also a trend

I wish I could say these pictures are exaggerations of what I saw at the store today, but unfortunately this is pretty close to what you'll find in the lighting aisle

I actually picked one of these purple rhinestone-y ones today and considered buying it, as it was one of the less ugly things in the store

Iced out, if possible with hints of purple

Bright colors and dangly pieces of crystal are also the way to go for your dining room.

It is impossible to find something normal, understated, or tasteful in this store. Based on the few excursions I've had through furniture stores here, I've concluded that the free furniture we got from my Turkish teacher here is probably the best looking furniture in the entire country, and I am even more thankful that we got it.

But we did manage to find a lamp we liked, and then headed back to ElectroWorld to pick up my oven. I found one that I liked for a reasonable price and asked the saleswoman if there were any left. She looked around, a bit bewildered, then hollered to a guy in a different aisle, who responded that they were fresh out of this model. The woman apologized and directed me to another pile of ovens that were significantly more expensive, which I wasn't interested in. At this point we'd been comparing prices at different stores for nearly two hours and were not excited about the prospect of going back to Migros to pick up a smaller oven for the same price as this one when we would much rather be heading home to eat lunch. But I wasn't willing to spend the extra money when I could get the same oven at Migros for much less, so we started walking out. But then my roommate spotted a display of ovens at the exact price as the one I'd just asked about, so we stopped to look and discovered that -- it was the oven I'd asked about, the one we'd been told was out of stock. The saleswoman heard us burst into laughter and came to investigate the matter. "Oh, I guess we did have those," she said nonchalantly.

I hope she doesn't work on commission.

Of course, this is Turkey, so this kind of thing happens all the time. One of these days I'll get used to it.

Hamamonu nights

Growing up, I only knew of Ramazan from social studies classes, and associated it with religious ritual. That ritual being fasting, the goal of which is intensified devotion to God and rigorous self-discipline, I kind of assumed that the month of Ramadan is a pretty somber event.

Not in Turkey! The days are long and people do tend to get a bit cranky in the mid- to late afternoon when their stomach bells start ringing, but there's a lot of anticipation in the air too.


And there is an ongoing festival for Ramazan in my favorite area of Ankara, Hamamonu. This is a fairly small district, only a few blocks, but with the refurbished historical Ottoman mansions and narrow streets preventing motorized traffic, you easily forget that you're smack in the middle of a city of five million. Every afternoon during Ramazan, the streets fill with tables and vendors selling everything from rose water to t-shirts. On "Art Street" you can peruse the displays of paintings and photography or watch artists making ebru, a traditional style of paper marbling. In the evening drummers in traditional costumes wander the streets, and a stage is set up for concerts every night.

So this is where a few of the teachers from work decided to come in the evening for iftar one night last week. And the fact that everyone in Ankara seemed to have the same idea as us only served to heighten the atmosphere of a full community celebration. Every outdoor table of every cafe had a "reserved" sign at about 7:30, with dishes of bread and salad. Around 8:00 the tables filled up and bread and salad appeared. Finally at 8:10 the ezan called and everyone dug into the delicious Turkish food.

Nothing like al fresco dining in the midst of history. As an added bonus, Ankara's dry climate means that as the sun descends, the temperature drops too, and the evenings here are lovely and cool, usually with a fresh breeze to revitalize you after a long, hot August day.

We were all pretty stuffed after our meal, but that didn't stop us from leaving room for delicious baklava and a few relaxing cups of tea! Meanwhile my coworker's 1 1/2 year old son was enthralled by all the passers-by on the street and wouldn't pose for a single picture.




We found this door very photogenic. These houses are all over three hundred years old, and people still live in them!


This is one of several mosques in this tiny district. You run into one every two blocks or so, which seems like saturation but this one was pretty full when it came time for evening prayer.



This building is a library dedicated to Mehmet Akif Ersoy, the poet who wrote the the Turkish national anthem.


My coworker's boyfriend insisted on taking several pictures of me with these old buildings so that I could share the beautiful Turkish architecture with family and friends at home. Consider his wish granted.

One of the greatest things I've seen in Turkey so far

For many Turks, one highlight of Ramazan is the anticipation of the breaking of the fast in the evening after a long day with no food or water. This is celebrated with a large meal known as iftar.


Feasting follows fasting, and most restaurants, eager to make up for the revenue lost during lunch and dinner hours, advertise special iftar menus for the evenings. These are typically extravagant five to seven course meals, ranging in price from $10 to over $100. If you walk outside around 8:00 you can see restaurants filled with people sitting at empty tables, waiting for the voice of the muezzin to come resounding from the mosques, signaling that the fast is over and iftar can begin. I have yet to participate in this ritual, but out of curiosity this evening I was cruising the internet to see what some of these restaurants are offering in the way of iftar meals.

And I shouldn't be surprised by this, but McDonalds has jumped on the bandwagon.


A McTurco sandwich, instant soup, fries, a Coke, a chocolate sundae, and a special Ramazan sherbet: the perfect gift for your digestive system after a day of fasting. And this being Turkey, you can order this nutritious meal by phone or internet and have it delivered to your door 24 hours a day. Who's lovin' it?

Summer foods in Ankara, Vol. 2: Hummus

We're now in day three of Ramazan, which means I feel slightly guilty doing so many kitchen experiments that I can't take in to share with coworkers. A good number of people here aren't fasting, but for those who are, groups of drummers take it upon themselves to drive the streets at about 2:30 am every day, kindly waking up all those who wish to breakfast before the fast actually begins at approximately 4:00 am. Fortunately, they come no nearer than two blocks from my house, which means that I can hear the drums if I'm already awake, but the sound definitely doesn't wake me up.

But anyway, in this obstreperous heat I was in search of more delicious cold foods on which to snack. Looking around again in my kitchen, I saw a bag of chickpeas and immediately thought yes, hummus.

Hummus is one of the few Middle Eastern foods I was exposed to before coming to Turkey, and I probably saw it more often in the USA than I have here. It's more of an Arabic food than Turkish, but it's surprisingly easy to make. It requires the following ingredients

• Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• Sesame tahini (which you can find at normal supermarkets in Columbia, MO--but not in Seward, NE)
• garlic
• lemon juice
• salt
• other spices (I like to add cumin and a bit of red pepper for a nice kick)

You can find lots of variants for hummus all over the internet, and the great thing about this spread is that it's very individualistic. You can add ingredients, adjust ratios, and mix it to various creaminess levels depending on your taste, but it's nearly impossible to ruin.

My ratio is 16 ounces of chickpeas with 2 tablespoons of tahini and one clove of garlic, and everything else to taste. Mix it all in a blender, add lemon juice and salt to taste, and if it's too thick or lumpy additional liquid will make it creamier.

I like to eat hummus with everything- bread, pita chips, carrots, cucumbers, olives... if it looks like it belongs on a Mediterranean plate it probably tastes good with hummus. I even like to make hummus sandwiches, with hummus, lettuce, and olives.

A Spanish friend swung by the apartment a couple of hours after I'd finished making this, and I asked him to sample the hummus. Ten minutes later half the bowl was gone. This signifies success in my book. A perfectly refreshing and healthy snack for these unbearably hot days when even thinking about turning on the stove makes me sweat. If you haven't tried hummus before, I highly recommend it. If you are stuck on store-bought hummus, I highly recommend making it yourself because you can adjust it to make your own perfect hummus and it's super easy.

As the Turkish like to say anytime food is on the table: Afiyet olsun. (Bon appetit!)