The International Food Weekend

On the weekend I tried the best non-Turkish food I have eaten for months.

On Saturday afternoon Betül visited from Adana. With her she brought a packet of Thai green curry, dehydrated coconut milk and two pairs of chopsticks! She had obtained these items when she was in Thailand a few months ago. To the green curry and coconut we added chicken breast and vegetables, complemented by egg noodles. The curry was very hot and delicious although I took a minute or two to remember how to use the chopsticks!

For lunch Sunday I added grated cheese to leftover tomato-based pasta sauce and took it to “Salih Usta”, the local oven. Salih put the mixture on flat lahmacun style bread dough and placed them in the oven. The resulting 35 mini pizzas were ‘Greek’ – in between Italian and Turkish 🙂

I took the pizzas with me to Adana where Ali ate them all (slightly assisted by Magda and myself). Ali ate about 20 of them I believe!

That evening I visited Murat’s family’s flat, where Fabs and Isa were staying. Fabs and Isa cooked a European delight! First of all there was a leek quiche. Next came the lettuce-based salad with tomato, white cheese, walnuts and a lovely dressing. Following the salad was lasagne and finally, a strawberry custard torte. A fine French red wine complemented the dinner. Fabs and Isa are more than welcome to cook at my place anytime!

Returning to Mersin in the unlit cabin on the very last train of the night I reflected on what a gourmet’s delight of a weekend I experienced!

PS: after walking half way home from the train station a car stopped and the driver asked me “Çamlıbel?” Now Çamlıbel is the inner city suburb that I live in and I found it hard to believe the man did not know where it was. He said he came from Ankara. He was kind enough to offer me a ride home. On the way, the electric windows went up and, to cut the story shorter, he asked about purchasing ‘eroin’. You can translate into English! After saying I didn’t know anything about it, he kindly dropped me off next to home.

The moral of the story:

For a less interesting life, don’t accept rides from strangers 🙂

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