Turkey (the country) and Choucroute Garni...

The weather in southern Turkey was beautiful, incredibly clear skies, with clouds appearing only one or two days.

Our work was done on Thursday, so that night we went into the nearby town of Adana for dinner. We had an incredible meal there. The waiters just kept bringing out starter dishes. The table was so full of food that they were balancing plates on the edges of the plates because there was no more room at the table. There were six of us, and we had enough food to serve 10 people easy. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera to get a picture of the feast.

Everything was delicious. There were plates of hummus, baba ghanoush, tomato salad, a tzaziki-like cucumber-yoghurt sauce, a garlic and red papper paste, various breads, some type of tahini paste, and much more. As it turned out, one of the girls with us was ordering everything. We had thought this was standard fare, nobody at our table had even been handed a menu by this point. There were four or five waiters constantly bringing and taking plates away from our table.

Friday we flew to Istanbul where a couple of us were spending the weekend. One of the guys with us is from Istanbul, and is going to show us around a bit. He still has family there and wants to spend some time with them, so we end up hanging out with him Friday and will be on our own until our plane leaves Sunday afternoon. It is cloudy on Friday and I am hoping that the weather gets a little better so I can get some good pictures. Friday night it starts to rain, and it is constantly drizzling until we leave on Sunday.

We still got to see plenty of stuff, and have more great meals, but the weather really prevents us from doing everything we would like to. It also prevented a lot of my pictures from turning out.

We visited the Hagia Sophia which was the main church of the Eastern Orthodox religion. That is, until it became the Ayasofya Mosque under the Ottoman Empire. When the Republic of Turkey was formed, Atatürk had the early Christian icons uncovered, and turned the whole place into a museum. It is really quite an impressive structure, and has an amazing history for a single building.

We saw the Blue Mosque on Friday, although we did not go in until Sunday.

Over the weekend we went to the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Market, the local fish market, and we saw the outside of the Topkapi Palace but did not have time to go inside.

Early Friday evening we found ourselves inside a mosque at the time of the evening prayer. I was assured by my Turkish friend that it would be OK to look around as long as we stayed quiet and remained near the back. There were a couple of rows of men praying, kneeling, standing up… kneeling… bowing… etc. It was probably a better aerobic workout than a catholic mass.

We were walking along in the back when Eric whispers my name and points toward the wall. I look over at the wall and see an electric box with a big shut-off handle and immediately I am trying to stifle my laughter. It looks like one of the switches that Marty Feldman throws in Young Frankenstein. If it was labeled “DO NOT throw this switch during prayer time” it couldn’t have been funnier. I think I may have even snorted a bit. Needless to say we got the hell out of there as soon as we could. I figured that an international/interfaith incident was not really the type of thing I was interested in at this point in time.

Istanbul is a wild town, and I would like to go back when the weather is better. It is this incredible melting pot of eastern and western culture and religion. Everyone is trying to get their hand into your pocket, but they would rather sell you something overpriced than steal from you. Everyone was very nice to us, and there was not a time when I felt unsafe there. I will definitely go back.

On new years day I made a big pot of Choucroute Garni for some friends of mine. Choucroute is the French word for sauerkraut, and the Garni part means pork (I think). What I do know is that a plate of Choucroute Garni is a plate of sauerkraut, potatoes, and a splendid assortment of pork and pork products cooked in riesling. Mine had a pork shoulder roast, kielbasa, two kinds of bratwurst and two kinds of blutwurst. I did not get the pork belly or liver dumplings, but I think I was forgiven.

It is a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition is to eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year ’s Day to bring good luck. It really was wonderful, and if eating all this pork on January 1st doesn’t bring us all good luck … then I'm afraid nothing will.

(more pics on my flickr page HERE)