"Yemek yemek" means "eating food" in Turkish. Surprisingly, I have not eaten a lot of Turkish food since I've been here. My roommate and I cook a lot because it's easy and cheap and sometimes fun. And we cook what we know, and what we know is American food. So I am by no means an expert on the local cuisine. But to satisfy my family and friends with culinary interests, I will write what I know so far.
Most of my experience thus far is with pastries. If you recall from "Life in the Village" (May 6), there's a lot of tea drinking and baked-goods-swapping that goes on with the neighbors. It hasn't ended with the initial meet and greet with some of our neighbors. Just last week the lady upstairs brought this colorful plate of pastries. The 2 slices in the front resembled what I would call a pistachio cream pie. The bottom part was cakey, full of chopped pistachios, with pistachios sprinkled on top. The middle was kinda like whipped cream. In the back was something like a mini yellow cake, though a little coarser, soaked in a simple syrup, with some chopped walnuts sprinkled on top. I gave it about a 2 out of 5. What we've had at our neighbors' homes has been much tastier.
These little cookie-biscuits were made by the mother of one of the girls across the hall. They served them to us when we stopped by for tea one evening. They tasted similar to scones. I'd give them a 4 out of 5. This week we happened to stop by our neighbor upstairs while she was having tea with her sisters. So we had more of a variety than usual. We each had a piece of simit, which is like a ring of dough covered in sesame seeds. Perhaps their version of the bagel. We also had a roll, also covered in sesame seeds, filled with spinach and feta cheese. Mmmm. My favorite was probably the cookie-biscuit filled w/ a sweet mixture of chopped walnuts. A couple of days ago I was invited to an afternoon tea one of my friends was having for her neighbors. She put on the full spread for afternoon tea. We started with Turkish coffee, which is similar to Cuban coffee. Very strong, and very sweet. They serve their coffee in something that looks more like our traditional tea cups. The Turkish "tea cup" looks like this:
Of course, the tea doesn't usually look like that. They serve a more traditional black tea. That was just a picture I had leftover from some unusual "herb tea" I had last year. After the coffee we had the food. My friend had a buffet set out that included sigara borek (something like a crepe rolled thinly with cheese inside), kisir (a bulgar dish w/ tomatoes and cucumbers), and a lemon pound cake. After this we drank tea, and more tea.
Most of my experience thus far is with pastries. If you recall from "Life in the Village" (May 6), there's a lot of tea drinking and baked-goods-swapping that goes on with the neighbors. It hasn't ended with the initial meet and greet with some of our neighbors. Just last week the lady upstairs brought this colorful plate of pastries. The 2 slices in the front resembled what I would call a pistachio cream pie. The bottom part was cakey, full of chopped pistachios, with pistachios sprinkled on top. The middle was kinda like whipped cream. In the back was something like a mini yellow cake, though a little coarser, soaked in a simple syrup, with some chopped walnuts sprinkled on top. I gave it about a 2 out of 5. What we've had at our neighbors' homes has been much tastier.
These little cookie-biscuits were made by the mother of one of the girls across the hall. They served them to us when we stopped by for tea one evening. They tasted similar to scones. I'd give them a 4 out of 5. This week we happened to stop by our neighbor upstairs while she was having tea with her sisters. So we had more of a variety than usual. We each had a piece of simit, which is like a ring of dough covered in sesame seeds. Perhaps their version of the bagel. We also had a roll, also covered in sesame seeds, filled with spinach and feta cheese. Mmmm. My favorite was probably the cookie-biscuit filled w/ a sweet mixture of chopped walnuts. A couple of days ago I was invited to an afternoon tea one of my friends was having for her neighbors. She put on the full spread for afternoon tea. We started with Turkish coffee, which is similar to Cuban coffee. Very strong, and very sweet. They serve their coffee in something that looks more like our traditional tea cups. The Turkish "tea cup" looks like this:
Of course, the tea doesn't usually look like that. They serve a more traditional black tea. That was just a picture I had leftover from some unusual "herb tea" I had last year. After the coffee we had the food. My friend had a buffet set out that included sigara borek (something like a crepe rolled thinly with cheese inside), kisir (a bulgar dish w/ tomatoes and cucumbers), and a lemon pound cake. After this we drank tea, and more tea.
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