Okay, maybe it’s easier to have a car than to continue to engage taxis to shuttle us around. We walk into town right after breakfast and rent a small vehicle, and then I head to the room to do all this writing and posting! Yes, it actually took me over 6 1/2 hours to catch up on the blog (particularly after the “Grand Adventure” page disappeared after over an hour of work on it) for your enjoyment (and, truth be told, for mine when I’m too old to leave the house). I have it all caught up, and now it’s time to go and redo the lost page…I didn’t have the heart when it first happened.’
Finally finished around 5 o’clock and went for a walk down into town. I tried a new way and it was much shorter and more interesting than the way we had been going. I passed a couple of recommended restaurants and the usual collection of souvenir and craft stores. I walked through the heart of things and out the other side, until I felt like I was getting into the neighborhoods where Turks actually lived and conducted the business of their daily routines. It felt good to be checking it out on foot and good to have some time on my own. I wandered back a different way than how I came, and soon was heading up the steep hill back to homebase. Enough time left to make some phone calls to a few loved ones before dinner.
We headed a few blocks toward town to have dinner at a rooftop restaurant named Ziggy (after someone’s large schnauzer, evidently, not a black widow spider), but there was no room at the inn. We had them put our names in for tomorrow night, then continued walking to another place I had read about that I passed earlier on my walk. F***ing jackpot!!!! There were two women in the small kitchen, and the older had done all the cooking (reminding me of the italian place I ate at last summer in the Bronx that had Italian grandmas as chefs) and man, it was incroyable! Just like eating in your bubbie’s kitchen. We had to walk into the restaurant while she removed lids from pans and explained to us what everything was. Luckily, we each ordered something different so we could sample from each other. We started with yoghurt and bulgur soup and more of their yummy fresh bread, then on to the main event. I had mini kofte (meatballs), white beans cooked in tomatoes and olive oil (a real staple) and fresh green beans simmered with tomato and onions. The happy girl:
On the plate on the left, you can see the complimentary plate of pickled cabbage, cukes and peppers (reminiscent of the cup of red breath I sampled by the Galata bridge in Istanbul), which were pretty good. But our Turkish “grandma” arrived with the piece de resistance, which consisted of home made manti, or Turkish ravioli, this time little dough confections, each about 1/2 inch across, and stuffed with meat, mint and smothered with yoghurt. The angel and her dish:
As you can see, the dish comes out looking rather like a big bowl of soup or stew, but the taste was light, tangy and INCREDIBLE!!!! Well, you get the idea.
We enjoy the heck out of it, but all too soon do tummies reach their limits, and I am intent on not exceeding mine. We chat for quite a while and grandma brings us each some hot tea “on me”, as she says. We head in to pay, and as we saunter back, we dip into the Pastelcia and pick up a couple of meat and cheese pies (each on their own, not mixed btw) for our hike tomorrow as well as a couple of pieces of freshly made baklava (with walnuts or pistachios and cream, lady?) for dessert. Then another stop to check out some locally dried fruit and nuts:
Back at the ranch, we indulge in use of the laundry facilities on premises and wind down.