full of mistakes

The search for Kara Mehmet Kebap Salonu

On the day we were visiting Grand Bazaar, we again looked at our food book and picked Kara Mehmet Kebap Salonu, one of the restaurants recommended there as they supposedly had the best Kunefe. This choice made our trip more rewarding that we were expecting it to be.

The restaurant had an address that made the vendors stop and think for a second when we asked for directions. A couple of them sent us towards an approximate direction and told us to ask there again. As we approached the area, we missed the little sign that was going to take us to this restaurant's section a couple times. Finally, through a narrow hallway, we actually went outside from the normally indoors Grand Bazaar. In what seemed like a forgotten corner was our restaurant. It did not look like much.

It was in a courtyard that had a few copper vendors, gift shops and a public bathroom. We could hear the banging on the copper from the shop above the restaurant. The weather was so beautiful on this winter day that we could enjoy being outside. We sat down to order. They did not have the kunefe. It was a major dissappointment for me but our waiter's eagerness to serve us their tasty food got me excited.

These little restaurants always get me when they start serving little plates of appetizers on the house which usually taste great. Their tomato based spicy salad and lavash was zesty. My beyti was simple but well done. Their coffee was the best.

Turkish Coffee at Grand Bazaar

When I was a young Turkish girl living in Turkey, I did not drink Turkish coffee. As I came to the age of enjoying coffee, I was trying the cappuccinos, espressos or even the simple filter coffee varieties that was "in."

I had always observed my grandfather's Turkish coffee routine. It would be served to him after he had done some sort of work in the morning or afternoon as he was smoking his cigarette, always with a cool glass of water. It happened everyday. 

While we lived in Turkey for a year and a half, I first get excited to try the mastic coffee that Selamlique had nicely packaged and prepared. Then, I started getting a taste of well prepared Turkish coffee and the pleasure of ordering a coffee that simply defined you. You could not choose much other than the sugar amount. No sugar, little sugar, medium or sweet. My choice was little sugar. I enjoyed my moderation, being a former sweet tooth. I enjoyed having an afternoon coffee when Lula was at school, Adele was napping and I could do some me time, usually computer time - my work. I almost had it every day.

Here is the quick story of how we found the coffee illustrated here.

Tantuni Tontini

During our time in Turkey, John took Turkish classes at a language school in Beyoglu and explored all the little streets in that area. Tantuni Tontini was one of his favorites. Tantuni is a hot lavash wrap consisting of stir fried chopped lamb. It was served with delicious fresh radishes, arugula, super hot pickled peppers and cumin. Yummy!

ya da tasarim

When we arrived in Turkey, I realized that I packed everything for my little girls (including ballet shoes ands tutus as we were going to visit a friend's ballet school in Bodrum) but forgot bringing a sketchbook for myself. Luckily, Turkey's design sector is booming, including paperworks. Besides my other finds, ya da tasarim's neighborhood collection was just the perfect match for what I needed to do. The idea behind this collection is to make notebooks with paper used by various vendors in a neigborhood: butcher, grocer, florist, upholstery, etc... Mine is the grocer one.

This is the notebook in which I sketched what I ate in Turkey!

First goodbyes

Lula's school is closed for their Christmas vacation. Some of Lula's classmates' parents moms made the holiday time so special with the gift packages and tasty cookies! She especially enjoyed the one above with her name on it.

Her school will start when we are leaving Istanbul for US, so, we said goodbye to all her friends and their parents. It marked the beginning of the end of our special year in Turkey; it was emotional. Lula enjoyed all the hugs from her friends...

Tekirdag and the Festival of Sacrifice

My family is not very religious but really enjoys being together during the two important religious holidays (which usually become one week long vacations with government decision). For the Festival of Sacrifice last week, we were all in Tekirdag where one of my aunts and her husband live. I had visited Tekirdag before and enjoyed certain parts, but staying for one week, several walks in the city and day trips to the nearby towns helped me appreciate this beautiful area more.

 Some photos are here.

Tekirdag Marina.

View from the fish restaurant at Igneada by the Black Sea. Tekirdag is at the Marmara Sea. The drive from Tekirdag and Igneada, especially the part closer to the Black Sea was covered with trees that had leaves in every color of fall. Girls were screaming yellow, orange, green, red, brown. No photos of that beauty.

Late afternoon walk by the Tekirdag seashore. Many seashells and random stones were collected, as usual.

We went to Hoskoy for winetasting at Melen Winery. It was a very sweet small winery with a beautiful wine tasting room. The current winemaker, Cem Cetintas, happened to be one of our neighboors old student and we got some extra wine to taste. Small world.

Just hay, beautiful hay. My aunt and uncle are both professors at the Namik Kemal University, Faculty of Agriculture. We visited farms and barns for the girls to see all the animals they talk about all the time.

It was a great trip overall.

On the water

Even the clothespins are more beautiful there.

We finally did it. The Blue Voyage in the Mediterranean. From Gocek to Marmaris. It was wonderful for many reasons:

* It was John and my first child-less vacation in four years.We love our girls dearly, but a little break was truly restoring.

* We got to hang out with some of our closests friends for five days, almost for most of it. There was not a lot of sleeping.

* As had been told, blue voyage, a boat trip on the sea, going from one small cove to the other, enjoying what is around you without any interruption is heavenly...

I was mesmerized with what I was seeing all the time and took photos mostly of those. Here is one more below and more here.

Somewhere between Gocek and Marmaris.

High School by the water

One of our neighbors in our building is a physics teacher at Kabatas Boys School. He was always inviting us to visit his school and we did last weekend. The school was amazing. It is an old administrative building from the Ottoman era, now converted into a school but has kept the old details, high ceilings, wood works, etc... It is right by the Bosphorus. I don't know how many lucky students there are in the world that can watch ferries go by during their classes.

The corridors.

Inevitable dead animal exhibit.

Besides, we had no idea that our neighbor was a local celebrity. He has a laboratory, an exhibit area named after him. He won several awards with his projects, models he formulated and manufactured to teach physics laws and advising his students. In his lab, he showed us almost all of his models in action. It was very interesting for the girls, but his moving from one model to other reminded me of nutty professors from movies. He had lots of energy!

Professor in action. Lula is assisting with the remote and is very proud.

Lula and Adele playing with one of the models.

Buyukada

We finally made it to Buyukada, the biggest princess island near Istanbul with our girls. Even with the fast sea bus, it is a 45 min trip in a confined space, not an easy task for our team. Still, even though it is just a 45 minute ride away, it feels like a different country. It, indeed, is touristy, but the fish restaurants right by the water, the horse carriages to tour the island, the streets full of old, beautiful wooden houses remind you of an older era. As if time has stopped there. One of such buildings was the Splendid Palace, probably the most beautiful big building on the island.

It was recently renovated. I would love to stay there one night, maybe without kids. During this trip, we first had a simple but very tasty fish lunch by the pier. Happy campers below...

Then walked around the island. It was a little tricky. Lula was not sure about walking on the same streets with the horses. Not because she was scared. Because they pooped onto little sacs that were attached to their backs, carrying the poop around with them and the streets did smell a little bit like manure. Finally, she and John had some sort of an agreement and our group started the stroll. Many cats, many nice buildings.

We returned to the pier to catch our ferry back and had a quick Turkish coffee at a nearby patisserie before that. Turkish coffee is becoming John and my to go hot beverage in Turkey, something we will miss a lot back in US. It is not easy to see in this blurry photo below but the pier is an old building with very nice architectural details and a dome roof. It is the one at the end of the street.

The trip back was with the ferry, not the sea bus and was two hours long. It was a long trip.

Binoculars

John and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. John had been talking about old binoculars; he wanted to watch the ships passing by Bosphorous closer. It was a great opportunity for me to go to Cukurcuma area with a purpose! This area of windy, narrow streets, old buildings in between Cihangir and Beyoglu neighborhoods has recently been gentrified and many antique stores have been opened. Besides having a lot of gems to discover, it also provides visual beauties...

Beautiful entrance door to Vogue.

Entrance of a wood and metal shop.

Chairs waiting for new homes.

In the end, at the last store I entered, I found a binocular that I really liked. It was not made out of copper which is the traditional 7th anniversary year gift but bronze is pretty close.