Aegean Pearls: My Life in Izmir

When Americans and western Europeans think of Turkish food, the first word that comes to mind is Döner, that fast-food delicacy of shaved pieces of roasted lamb or chicken, stuffed into a pita with salad and hot sauce. As they say in Deutschland, " Döner ist schöner ," and the truth is that there are few snacks more beautiful or more delicious. But since I've been in Turkey, I have yet to eat Döner as I know it from England and Germany. İnstead, I have found dürüm, which looks like a chicken burrito 🌯 and tastes delicious. Like the burrito, the dürüm is wrapped in a tortilla. İ have seen tortillas for sale in the bread aisle, too. The meat for the dürüm is cut from the same, rotating spit of roasting meat that goes into a Döner.  Unlike the burrito, the meat is really yummy. As you can see from the photo, it was served with red sauce that wasn't "peppery hot" as one would find in a Mexican restaurant, but was savory hot. There were small peppers...

Harvest is coming after a long, hot summer. Everywhere I look, i see trees and vines laden with fruit. Here are some photos I've taken. Pomegranate tree, Ancient Teos. Olives growing just outside my church, St. John the Evangelist, in Alsancak, İzmir  Grape vines outside a hike in Kozbeyli'ye near Foça.

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 t...

Today in the bazaar, a local friend encouraged me to try the Kazandibi, Turkish rice pudding. She shipped around, turning up her nose at servings in plastic boxes. She found what she was looking for at Süt Cilcepi, a shop not far from the mosque. They gave is a whole pan with two servings left in it. My friend sprinkled it with cinnamon, and she, Elyas and I dove in. I love rice pudding, but I don't remember liking it enough to scrape from the bowl.  It gave me yet another chance to practice my newest Turkish word: lezzetli. Delicious!