Eating Out

People say, "Why did you choose to come to Turkey?" and they don't usually accept "why not?" as an answer.

Well, the food alone is a good enough reason.

Absolutely nothing yucky here. And everything beautiful prepared, delightfully presented, and respectfully served.

But its the month of Ramadam, so the faithful at least are fasting during daylight hours.

Our upstairs neighbour is obviously one of the faithful - I've never seen her (and them), as far as I am aware, but I sure hear her. I hear her bed creak as she climbs out in the gloom around 4 am to have breakfast before prayer time at 5.30. In the evening, its time to eat and the whole family gathers, thundering up the spiral stairs past our door, talking, yelling and slamming an unbelievable number of doors. After the rumble of voices over a shared meal, its time for TV, or a DVD maybe. But first the furniture has to be moved - all of it, a long way. They have a wide-screen TV and/or surround-sound speakers, and the movie sounds tremble down through our walls and ceiling. Finally the movie is over, and some little darling needs to have a bit of a runaround. There are fast thundering footsteps up and down the apartment, the sound that can only be made by short legs in a hurry. Then of course everything is returned to its place, the family heads back out the door and down the stairs, and with a creak (and a sigh - from me) grandma slides into bed for a few hours.

Its considered disrespectful to eat in the open on the streets during the daytime. But why would you, with so many wonderful little restaurants to go into. As evening approaches the restaurant scene starts getting into gear for the rush. The restauranteurs are standing in their doorways, calling, and people are rushing hither and thither.

We were on the street around this time, just exploring the locale, and thinking we should soon settle on an eating place before everything was overcrowded. The sky was angry looking - it would rain very soon - and a pre-rain breeze was blowing.

We came across this delightful cafe area, and only a few people seated there. A whiteboard announced that at one of the cafes we could get a bowl of soup (with bread), and a doner, and something else (not sure what it meant) all for 8 YTL - about AU$7. So we got the attention of the crazy-eyed waiter, and pointed to the board. In no time at all our food arrived. A bowl of delicious lentil soup, with some other elusive flavours, and a basketful of fresh bread. We were full after that, but then the doner arrived. There was a plate of rice - a mixture of long grain white and some brown wild rice - covered with shavings of almost crisp lamb, and a few potato chips and salad as well. It was a huge plateful - and then the waiter brought the basket with the bed-sheet-size (well almost) flat bread we were supposed to wrap it all in. And finally a little plate with three balls of the amazing honey-soaked cake they sell in all the bakeries.

There were a couple of patient little cats hanging around - there are cats everywhere - and I was happy to share a few titbits from my meal with them too. After all, they asked very nicely. The rain began, and we waddled home feeling thoroughly satisfied.