FOOD

Can't go away from Turkey with out thinking of all the great food we enjoyed.  They serve tons of veggies ALL the time, but also lots of lamb, and chicken, and fish, especially along the coast.  We had a great calamari meal on the Gulet...with the most succulent calamari I have ever had.  Some lamb and Chicken were actually cooked in coals for hours.  The clay pot tops were covered in bread dough lids, which baked along with the meat and provided just the right amount of cover. Pomegranate stands are all over the streets, with fresh squeezed pomegranate juice a delight to drink.  Not sweetened, either.

Uncovering clay roasted chicken

Calamari feast on the Gulet

Ready for squeezing

Another big thing in Turkey are squash seeds!  They actually grow the squash only for the seeds.  They don't even feed the squash to the animals because they think it makes the meat taste bad.  They just return the whole squash to the ground and plow it under.  The seed gathering is labor intensive and you see many women sitting with big piles of squash, picking the seeds out of the meat.  Nuts are abundant, and even pine nuts (which I  dearly love) are grown on huge plantations, but are also VERY labor intensive and dearly priced! Dried fruits, especially figs and raisins are staples...and of course olives are sold and served everywhere.

PINE NUTS and Honey

Nuts and raisins

Squash seeds

I am putting alot of pictures on this entry because words just do not do all the food justice. We had a flat bread with mixed lanb and beef spread called "Pide" and pronounced "peeda"...whic is the Turkish version of pizza.  To die for!  of course kabobs everywhere and the hardest working waiter in Turkey!

Hardest working waiter in Turkey

PIDE

Roasting chestnuts.

K-bobs ready for the grill, almost always served with cooked bulger.