Love Letter: Old Turkish Men

For last six-ish months, since we moved here in October, I've been following a fairly regular yoga schedule. (Side note: Cihangir Yoga could get a love letter all its own, but there is just too much to love in Istanbul so it can only get a side note.) Which means I walk the same route at the same time every other day to get to my yoga studio. Which means I encounter the same people on this walk.

Right when I moved here, I noticed that at one of the corner mosques on my route there were three old men (70+) who sat on a corner with their dogs, rain or shine. They would often say things to me in Turkish, and I would just smile and say "Merhaba" (hello) and move right on along to yoga.

This continued for a couple months, and my vocabulary increased to such advanced phrases such as "Gunaydin" (good morning) and "Iyi Gunler" (good day). The men would always talk to me in full Turkish sentences, I never really understood what was going on, but I always enjoyed our encounters.

Over the last couple months, whenever I would see any of them around the neighborhood we would stop and do our chatting (which wasn't chatting at all since my Turkish is still pretty abysmal and their English is nonexistent.) It mostly just included a lot of smiling and nodding. Once I was sitting at a cafe drinking tea with Matt when one of them came up to us and gave me a bouquet of flowers out of a garbage bag. Matt was kind of weirded out by this but I explained he was just my old Turkish man friend, so no worries.

Then we were sitting drinking beer outside of a bar a couple weeks ago and one walked by us. He came back and gave me another bouquet of flowers that had clearly just come out of a garbage bag. He explained to Matt in Turkish that I was his friend from the Cihangir neighborhood so he wanted to give me flowers.

Finally, yesterday, on my last day of yoga in Istanbul, I said my goodbyes and was given another bouquet of flowers that had just come out of a garbage bag.

It's weird having friends who are fifty years older than you, don't speak your language, and like to give you gifts out of trash bags. Weird but good.

(Note: First two pictures are not mine, but from google image searching. I've never gotten up the guts to ask my friends for pictures.)

Love Letter: Turkish Street Food

Street food is kind of amazing wherever you travel, but we've particularly loved it here in the 'Bul. Istanbul is known for its Donor Kebab stands, but there is a lot more than that. The food stands are out 24 hrs a day, and you can get anything from french fries to meat pastries to Kokorec (sheep intestine) burritos.

Some of our favorites:

1) Simit. It's like a pretzel covered in sesame. 50 cents, soft and chewy. Perfect.

2) Fruit covered with chocolate from a chocolate fountain. On the street! If any of you have ever met Carrie Neill, you know this is her definition of pure bliss.

3) Matt's favorite, the wet hamburger. Matt describes it as a hamburger doused in a tangy sloppy joe sauce and then left in a steamy chamber so the sauce infuses everything. Steamy burger chamber below.

And Matt enjoying a wet hamburger below.

He can't really resist if we are ever walking past the wet hamburger stand post 11pm (apparently they are only acceptable to be eaten after that time). Luckily we are moving back to Chicago where there is some passable late night street food (Weiner Circle! Burritos as Big as your Head!), but we'll definitely be missing the diverse and plentiful street food scene here.

Love Letter: Istanbul Sunsets

Growing up in a Corvallis, we would occasionally get beautiful sunset colors. Due to the fact that we were situated within a valley, however, the sunsets themselves were usually nothing to write home about. In Chicago, if you happened to be in a west-facing office you could watch the sunset over the west urban sprawl, but again- nothing spectacular. LA Sunsets definitely can be epic, but you have to get pretty close to (if not actualy on) the beach to really appreciate them.

One of my favorite things about our time here in Istanbul has been the sunsets. They are spectacular, and they color the sidewalks where ever you happen to be in the city.

The sunset looks amazing from our apartment, which always makes me want to be home in the evening so I can properly take them in.

If you happen to be on a ferry around sunset time it is particularly stunning, but even just walking around in our neighborhood everything looks golden.

Throughout this post have been some of my favorite Istanbul sunset pictures, but I don't think the pictures really do the sunsets justice.

Love Letter: Kaymak

Our time left in Istanbul is dwindling quickly. We have nine days left in Istanbul, then eight days on a Southeastern Turkey trip, then we head back to the States. The time has gone by WAY too fast and we are both starting to get really sad about leaving this amazing city.

So, as we end our time here, I thought I'd try and look on the positive side, and write every day about my favorite things about this city. (I realize I haven't finished blogging about my Japan trip, but that seems so far away now... I promise I'll bore you with pictures from Japan when I return if you ask nicely).

Without further ado, my first installment of love letters to Istanbul: KAYMAK.

Kaymak is, according to Wikipedia, "a creamy dairy product, similar to clotted cream, made in the Balkans, Turkey, Middle East, Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and India." It's made by boiling buffalo milk until a thick foam appears on top, then it is allowed to cool and is rolled into tiny logs. Turks usually serve it at breakfast w/ the traditional turkish breakfast ingredients (olives, tomatoes, cucumber, bread and white cheese).

According to the author of the excellent food blog Istanbul Eats, Kaymak is the "only food served in Heaven" and the "crack cocaine of Dairy Products."

That is in NO WAY an exaggeration. Seriously, it is the most glorious thing I have ever eaten. It is slighty sweet and unbelievably creamy and light at the same time. Like butter mixed with whipped cream mixed with british clotted cream mixed with cream cheese mixed with the foam at the top of a latte. But actually just having a totally unique taste that nothing else has. It is usually served with Honeycomb, which adds an amazing texture to the already incredible taste.

Our favorite places to get Kaymak in Istanbul are Van Kahvalti Evi (our favorite Kurdish breakfast place) and Kaymak Pando in Besiktas (which is where these pictures were taken). I've heard that there is a "Kaymak man" who walks around our neighborhood selling Kaymak from his wheelbarrow, but I have never run into this glorious man of legend. Probably good for him, because I'd try and run away with his wheelbarrow filled with creamy delicious dairy heaven.

Unfortunately, I can't bring any back for you all to try- Kaymak isn't refrigerated and usually only lasts a day or two before spoiling. But if you are ever in this part of the world, you need to seek it out. Please. Seriously. It's that good. I might even advocate a trip somewhere around here solely for the Kaymak.