Turkish Encounters

The Turkish Home
Dinner with the Turkish family was really wonderful. The food was fabulous--I had a tiny fillet of salmon, the first in months and months! They invited another couple and their children. The four of them spoke fabulous English, all things considered, and struggled to have conversations about their children's development in English. After awhile I told them to stop for my sake and they lapsed into Turkish. But so thoughtful of them to try!

Their house was immaculate. Despite the litter that is everywhere in public spaces, the four Turkish homes in which I've visited have proven that the private space is a sphere of extreme clean. You remove your shoes at the door (or your hostess offers to clean the soles if you prefer to wear them inside), and are offered slippers to keep you toasty for your stay.

The best china and silver is laid out for their guests. Elaborate dishes are prepared and you leave more than satisfied. I experienced the same phenomena when I dined with one of my students and her husband about a month ago (he came home, took one look at the beautiful dinner table and told me that I was welcome to anytime I wanted if it meant that Filiz would cook like that).

Fasıl Fasıl
The next day was Sondra's birthday, and though we didn't do anything on Friday, we did go out as a huge bunch on Saturday night after work. We went to a restaurant where you pay 35 lira to be fed and boozed all night, and listen to fasıl music. Though the instruments are familiar--a clarinet-type thing, a lap harp, a darbooka (a small hand-held drum maybe a little like a bongo)--they're played in a distinctively Turkish way. Come to Turkey if you want to know more.

I drank rakı (an anise-flavored hard alcohol that is diluted with ice and water) which tastes absolutely amazing with practically any Turkish food--cheeses, vegetables, kebap meat, roasted red pepper spread on bread, you name it. But with fish it is especially good. Rakı, it could be said, is the Turkish national drink--or at least the drink of the Aegean region where the fish is fresh. One of my students told me that if you eat fish without rakı, the fish cries.