Popped over to Asia for a snack and a peek, woah my life sucks. Not.
Urdakoy! A quick ferry ride to a jumble of mosques, strange stores, markets, and stretch of Bosphorus-side walkways.
So, back to that snack...
Lahmacun: a round of dough, rolled construction-paper thin, topped with a tomato-based-spice-paste and quickly baked in a flaming oven. I've had my eyes on these babies for weeks.
Step 1. Watch her be rolled and patted while being stared at.
Step 2. Investigate soon to be spread paste.
Step 3. Wait anxiously for her to be retrieved from the over. She will be served steaming hot.
Step 4. Leap above and beyond language barriers and pantomime with grace and agility; order an ayran, and a spicy tomato salad. Sneak to counter to steal lemon and sumak. Return to table to enjoy.
mmmhmmm. Ayran, you had my heart from day 2. Over-sized radishes, you cool me with crispness. Spicy warm bread, e-nough said. Parsley, I love you now. (I made a quick soft cheese/spicy (canned) eggplant/lettuce/parsley/sumak sandwich for pre-lunch, and thought about how to describe my new love of parsley. I always thought it was a kind of tacky, a 'just throw it on' herb, always popping up without being invited in tuna salad and what not... but ... well, more on that later).
After extensive strolling and checking out two mosques, I require a pick me up.
Beautiful candies. They feel good in your mouth (it's the weird pointed shape and the fact that they are not too sweet, and one is big enough that you don't need 3 more (but I bought 6 beyond the one I got for free)). Think of amber and fossilized insects; instead we got colored sugar and fossilized hazelnuts, sesame seeds or nougat. Take that, Jurassic park.
But another mosque later, watching a cat dismember and enjoy a freshly caught fish, a seagull get speared by a local's hook, a game of backgammon, and such oriental activities...
A seafood snack.
Let me tell you that I am NOT afraid of a guy with mussels. Served chilled, this riced-and-spiced beauty packs a punch in one bite. With a big squeeze of lemon, 40 cents.
Then the classic fill-her-up-her.
With all the lettuce, onion, lemon and parsley a gal could need.
(Honestly, after all this, I am quite a bit hungry)
No comments:
Post a Comment