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Carmen Miranda Goes to Bali
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I'm puttin' on my tophat
The Fallacy of Prohibition
Sleeping at the Job
Gummy Squares
Toy Boats
One Photo, Please!
The National Sound
Same same, but different
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Lasting
Impressions of...
Turkey
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Turks like their sweets,
and one of their favorites is something called Turkish Delight.
In taste and texture it resembles a gummy bear, but it's in cube format,
leading Wiley to re-christen them "gummy squares".
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One of the best cheap meals
you can find in Turkey is something called "doner kebap".
It's chicken or lamb pieces skewered onto a long metal spike, which
is then mounted vertically and cooked from a heating element while
it turns. When you order a sandwich, the doner man carefully
slices off the "done" pieces from the outside. We've
seen this called "shawarma" in Egypt and "gyro"
in Greece. One can only speculate that this dish was created
by some guy off in the wilderness, with no cooking implements other
than his sword.
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The produce is beautiful
in Turkey. Every piece of fruit and every vegetable looks like
it could be used for a ad layout.
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Cherries came from Turkey,
and you've never have them any sweeter, juicier, or cheaper.
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Vendors on the streets use
the intangible phrase "Yes, please", to get you to look
at their wares. Do you think that somebody figured out that
it was the opposite to "No, thank you"?
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The national drink in Turkey
is "raki", a liquor made of anise seeds. It reminds
us of ouzo and sambucca, and it's drunk before, during, and after
dinner with water and/or ice.
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At every meal, it's considered
good form by the host to fill the table with so many plates of food
that there's no room. The result: you eat too much!
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Favorite street vendor food:
a pretzel/bagel cross called a "simet", complete with toasted
sesame seeds on top. At $0.25, it's a carbohydrate addict's
dream.
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