Turkish dinner

It's been a busy week! I started teaching 2 English classes, we had a lot of paperwork due, we had guests visiting from out of town, and we went to the beach all day for the 4th of July! I'll try to hit the highlights in short bits to catch you up.
I finally got to have dinner at a local's house. Our neighbors (college students) had us over for a simple classic Turkish meal. We had lentil soup, a classic "shepherd's salad" (corban salata) of tomatoes and cucumbers, and a type of borek. In my last food entry I mentioned sigara borek, which is rolled. This type takes the same crepe-like pastry sheet but is laid out horizontally and filled with cheese and some vegetables (usually potatoes and green onions) like a casserole. To serve, you cut it into squares. They also made a simple dessert that we have since made ourselves because it was so great! They have these cookies here that are long, flat, and rectangular and have a mild taste like animal crackers or Nilla wafers. Well, all you do is make instant chocolate pudding and put it in between the cookies and around the outside. Let it sit, and the moisture from the pudding gives the cookies a cakey texture. Similar concept to the refrigerator roll my mom used to make with chocolate wafer cookies. Since those neighbors also speak a little English, I also enjoyed the conversation. They are very nice girls, and very interesting. One is studying to be an English teacher. She said in Turkish "you eat like a bird," so we taught her "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." So, for the rest of the evening she kept saying "I could eat a horse." Very amusing with a Turkish accent.
More stories to come!