Eating in Turkey (so far)

Most informed people, when they heard I was moving to Turkey, assumed I was going for the food.

They weren't wrong. Whether it's fast food like Döner, a market that the Turks dominate in Germany and other western European countries, or typical fare known as "Mediterranean" back in the States, Turkish food is some of the best in the world.

Actually, a big reason I came here was to get healthier. Most importantly, I needed to get my mind far away from the stressful, drawn-out disollution of a marriage that had meant everything to me. 

But I was in bad physical shape: I spent more time sitting in a car than walking in sneakers. I ate a pretty bad diet, and I ate quite often. In winter & spring, I had done a night course, nixing a pretty regular workout schedule I'd had before.

Here in Turkey, I chose an apartment a 25-minute walk from the school, and I have walked every day (each Saturday I have taken a 7-mile hike, and each Sunday, I walk 20 minutes to the train station to go to church and explore Izmir).

The Diet

One huge surprise has been how well my school provides for teachers. We have breakfast and lunch provided for us at the school. This is a huge help to much budget, and it's really healthy food, too.

For breakfast, I have half a pice of Simit (a Turkish bagel sprinkled with sesame seeds) with honey, some tomato, cucumber and Peyir (Turkish cheese, akin to feta), and a piece of fruit. It's a bigger breakfast than I used to have at home.

For lunch, they serve a large spread: rice or noodles with a topping dish of stew or vegetables.  The first time beef was served, I asked for an alternative, so now I get a vegetarian option at lunch--something with mushrooms or eggplant serving as the "meat", mixed with tomatoes and other veggies. Yogurt is often served with lunch, and I've learned to mix it in with the topping and rice to get a zesty kick. They also serve a bowl of Ḉorba (soup), a salad and fruit. I had some mushroom soup this week that was to die for.

With such a big lunch, I really don't need much in the evening. I usually have some bread with jam or a sandwich. It's a switch from my time at my old school where lunch was a 25-minute dash to down a salad (we have 40 minutes here) and supper was the big meal of the day--usually quite late, as I had to prepare it after I had recovered somewhat from the school day.

The meal above was one of my weekend meals today: pasta and garlic bread. The pasta was a bit of work. I started with nice, huge chunks of mushroom, sauteed with onions. There is no spaghetti sauce to be bought here. There is much tomato paste, so I mixed that with water and spices.

The bread for the garlic bread is a new type I found yesterday called Bazlama. It's like an English muffin, only broader, about six inches in diameter. I put Nutella on the other half and had it for dessert.

Drinks

I drink a lot of tea here. In the morning I make a pot of chai (black tea) or green tea and have two or three of the tiny, Turkish tea glasses of it. In the evening, I'll make another pot--about half a liter--in the evening of fruit or apple tea. 

One of my big challenges the first week or so was getting to sleep at night. At first I thought it was stress, but later I realized it was all the caffeine I was consuming from the tea! I think I have a handle on it now.

So that's why my diet and eating look like two weeks into my sojourn in Turkey. I have had a lot of delicious food, and I feel healthier already. I feel like this change will be good for my body and my mind.