Food Tour of Turkey

Ahhhh Turkey. Hard to believe I came home only 10 days ago, because it already feels like a lifetime ago. What an amazing experience. I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to go to this wonderful country, and even more thankful for the bucketful o' memories that I came home with.

Now then, on to the most important item on the agenda: the food. Did it stack up against the hype? Would I recommend it? Was it palatable? In short: yes, yes and yes!! The food was amazing, delicious and healthy to boot. Here then, lets begin with the tour (please excuse any in-the-moment shoddy food photography).

Beverages

Grape juice: Delicious!

Beer: Our primary beverage of choice was Efes, the local beer in Turkey (dare I say the Budweiser of Turkey??). I didn't really like it too much, but you can't beat a nice cold beer on a warm/hot day.

Drinking with friends is a treat that is matched by few other things.

Raki: nuff said. I didn't partake (not a big anise/licorice fan), but Tom did with gusto!

This Cappy juice is delicious, and we now have two huge boxes sitting in our fridge, thanks to our score at finding it at a grocery store in Istanbul before we came back to the States.

Coffee in the Antalya, Turkey airport: pretty darned strong

Real Turkish coffee. I honestly don't recommend (but you HAVE to try it if you go).

Snacks

One of my regrets of this trip is that I didn't take a bite of this delicious-looking peach.

I cannot do justice to this melon stuffed with various types of ice cream (pistachio, cherry, etc.) by describing it with words.

A lovely amazing quince dessert that we split between about 20 people. It was delightful, even in tiny bites.

A man who overcharged us a lot for a tiny ice cream cone.

Waffles to order....

Makes quite a lovely waffle (strawberries, kiwi, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, etc.)

Main Course

If I could remember the name of this dish I would have already dug up a recipe for it and made it 10 times over. It was fantastic. The white stuff is eggplant, not mashed potatoes. Yum, yum, yum.

How much did I enjoy it? This much.

This wedding food knocked my socks off.

As did my bottomless glass of wine.

Etc.

Airplane food: Not too bad when you're flying Turkish Air (or Atlas Jet). We were fed a free meal on a one-hour flight, and I'm not lying! Delta doesn't even rate compared to the service we got in lovely Turkey.

Spice market.

I'm not sure what kind of nuts this guy was selling, but he didn't sell many of them.

Bonus: Paris

Homemade waffle with cream and raspberries: little else could have satisfied on such a cold and rainy Paris evening.

But this cup of coffee sure helped.

Paris, je t'aime