Traveling to Istanbul? Pack your Sweettooth

My memories of Turkish cuisine were none too fond. Basically I had an enduring image of a steaming clay pot full of grease and lamb. Yuck. We sat down to our first meal in Sultanahmet and I ordered mousaka. We'd just come from Greece, where the mousaka was a highlight, and in my mind a non-Turkish cuisine was the safest bet. Guess what mousaka means in Turkisk? A steaming clay pot full of grease, lamb, and eggplant, that's what. Double Yuck.

But that turned out to be the worst of it. After that night we stuck to cafeteria-style venues in the less touristy neighborhoods, where we could visually inspect our options before choosing a meal. There's great rice here, cooked in chicken broth and mixed with chick peas and pinenuts. And the kebabs are a safe bet.

Better still, we quickly realized that what the local cusine lacked in savory options it more than made up for in sweets. First of all, the baklavas here are head and shoulders above anything we had in Bosnia and Greece. The selections at Güllüglou were the best.

Perhaps even better was my reintroduction to Turkish puddings. Our favorites were Muhallebici (rice pudding with chocolate sauce) and plain chocolate at Saray on Istikal Caddessi:

Other dietary discoveries that warrant mention (though not consumption): kokorec - rotisserie lamb intestines - so gross.

And these fish restaurants along the waterfront - the kitchen is on the boat and the tables are on shore. Better to watch than to eat though.



So that was the best and the worst of eating in Istanbul. Now we know the ropes, so hopefully our return trip will be more successful.

xoxo Jessie

Istanbul

After a few weeks of small, deserted Greek towns the loud, vigorous crowds of Istanbul were an exciting change of pace. In five days, Aaron took over 300 pictures (ahem, manic!!), so I'll be posting in installments. Today: the historic sites.


The Blue Mosque may be the most famous mosque in the world. The exterior is majestic. The interior is a visual maze of porcelain tile work.

Directly opposite the Blue Mosque is its less refined, though no less impressive neighbor, Aya Sofya (which I could have sworn was Hagia Sofia the last time I was in town, but apparently not).

Sofya was a Christian Cathedral in Constantinople and this history is partially preserved in the structure of the building and the uncovered ceiling mosaics.


While on the topic of mosques ... this is our first Muslim city since Sarajevo and our first Muslim country period. Thanks in large part to the secularizing reforms of Turkey's long-time leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (yes he changed his name to Father of the Turks and had his face printed on every single denomination of Turkish currency as well), Istanbul is a totally cosmopolitan city and one of the few Muslim ones that welcomes non-members into its mosques and other religous establishments. I've been wearing jeans without a problem and donning a headscarf only in the mosques themselves.

Anyway, the other main attraction in the old quarter of Sultanahmet is the Topkapi Palace, which housed the sultan - and famously his harem - for most of the Ottoman empire. Nice work if you can get it:

Of course nothing's easy, and the tradition throughout most of the empire was to produce as many potential heirs as possible (hence the harem) and then let the whole thing sort itself out via fratricide. Eunuchs were entrusted with the delicate tasks of strangling (silk cord was preferred) the less than fortunate princes and drowning (in sacks in the Bosphorus) the pregnant members of the Harem. Last man standing gets the posh digs.

All things considered I would have much preferred to land somewhere in the middle tiers of the aristocracy. Granted, no palace, no harem, but you still get a lovely spot on the Bosphorus and you don't have to be in a bag to see it:

Our last stop among the tourist attractions was to the Basilica Cistern - an eerie remnant of Roman times. Why you would want a bunch o Corinthian columns mixed up in your water supply is beyond me, but don't say the Romans didn't know how to build a well.

We'll be back in Istanbul to hit up a few remaining spots. In the meantime I need to tell you about all the stuff we ate, so stay tuned...

xoxo Jessie

Keyboards: the Turkısh edıtıon

Keys so worn they're no longer legible? I can deal. New placement of old punctuation, I got it. Heck, I'd even gotten used to those keyboards in Athens with no return keys left. But the Turkish keyboard has me beat. There are some new letters (ĞÜŞİÖÇ). But it's only one that's driving me to distraction, the dotless "ı"...


See it there skulking between the "u" and "o"? Now scan down and discern it's partner in crime, the always dotted "i"! I need the former for capitalization and the latter for lower case. Otherwıse İ end up lıke thıs.

And I have no learning curve. A number of my online accounts have now locked me out for trying to sign in as Jessıca (it doesn't help my omni-password has a couple offenders in there as well). It takes me at least two tries just to reach Gmail, the New York Times, and this blog. You are reading a post that has been scanned twice for flubbed usage.

All this is to say, posts may be getting a bit shorter these next few weeks.

That was exhausting.

xoxo Jessıe

p.s. Jor, I hope you know adding the pic was all for you babe;)

You're Welcome

I relinquish any sense of pride or shame for your amusement. I am a monkey. I mean between the neck pillow and the eye shade my face is scrunched somewhere between an allergic reaction to peanuts and that scene in A Christmas Story.

Once, while trying to teach me how to ski, Courtney told me that "there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear." Well we all know that's crap. Nevertheless, I think I may be ready to coin the phrase "there's no such thing as bad bedding, just bad humor." Of course I've never had bed bugs, so perhaps the declaration is a tad naïve.

xoxo Jessie

Santorini

I knew we should go to Santorini, but only because everyone else did. Our short stay there (little more than a day) certainly exceeded those vague expectations. We found the island practically deserted, which suited us perfectly. We probably would have thought there were even more people there had the other couple in town not chosen to wear matching plaid shirts.

We stayed in Fira, the island's largest town and the only one with year-round businesses. From there we walked north through two more smaller towns enjoying views of the ocean on either side, the cliffs below, and Fira in the distance. Really spectacular stuff.

But our stay day in Santorini was defined less by the picture-postcard scenery than by two stray muts. We've been seeing remarkable numbers of stray dogs and cats in every one of our stops since Dubrovnik, but in Santorini they reached new heights. On our first night in town we were followed for a short period by a scruffy white pup. When we finally decided on a dinner spot she went her own way. But then the next morning we met again! And this time she had a friend - a cute lab mix with a limp. These two followed us as we made our way through the town.

At some point though, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly where, they began to take the lead. The gimp would run ahead, while scruffy stayed back to make sure we didn't miss any turns. At first it was a sort of joke: " ha ha we're following them." But as we did they seemed to lead us from one stunning secluded spot to another, and at some point I really came to believe they were giving us their expert tour, which precipitated the following exchange:

Aaron: Hey, I think if we turn here it will take us to the main road.

Jessie: But they're going straight.

Aaron: Yea but I think we have a better chance of finding food - WAIT A MINUTE are you following the dogs ınstead of me?

Jessie: Well don't you think they're leading us to food anyway- I mean that must be their whole purpose.

Aaron: But I have a map. And opposable thumbs.

Jessie (to dogs): You really don't want to go that way do you? No I didn't think so. You're taking us to food right?

Aaron: You know you're talking to dogs right?!?

Well as it turns out they were not leading us to food, and after a few hours of exploring the island's better vistas we parted ways. However, I'm still convinced they're smarter than they let on because, sure enough, when Aaron and I eventually settled down to some nice juicy gyros our white scruffy friend appeared from nowhere to claim her share.

So a huge thanks to our tour guides, Gimpy:

& Scruffy:

And now, for the obligatory dessert installment, I give you strawberry shortcake:

xoxo Jessie

Rethymno

We couldn't very well spend all our extra time in Heraklion eating, so for a day we went to the neighboring town of Rethymno. It turned out to be a really lovely spot, made more so by the utter lack of any other tourists. Like Hania, Rethymno had been under the control of both the Venetians and the Turks, and so the old town consısted of the same architectural hodgepodge. An impressive fortress wall, reminscent of Dubrovnik, surrounds the city and made for a nice afternoon stroll.

On top of the old fortress, nestled among the old Venetians ruins was a small Greek Orthodox church. We found it emptying out after it'd evening services, the congregants all carrying bread home with them.

xoxo Jessie

Heraklion - or how we ate two extra days

Heraklion probably deserves more credit than we gave it. It's home the one of the world's foremost collections of Minoan art, it has a lovely harbor, and some an over-the-top church to lend it cultural charm.

But truth be told, we were not that impressed. At least not until we went looking for dinner.

After a day exploring the nearby sites we went to book our ferry passage out of town only to discover the next ferry had been delayed by bad weather and wouldn't be leaving for a few days. So the search for something to keep us occupied began. Two days later we were sorry to leave...

Our first night we never made it to dinner because on our way to "real" food we found an entire restaurant devoted to chocolate fondue. We ordered a single serving (dark with ganache and hazelnuts) and discovered it came with a table's worth of fruit, waffles, cream puffs, and cookies for dipping. My cup runneth over. Literally.

The delights weren't limited to sweets. Among other things we enjoyed Manouri cheese, grilled and then bruleed with balsamic and honey, beet salad with fresh yogurt, and meatballs in raki sauce. And then there was the baklavas. Let me just leave you wıth these:

Yea. Amazing. And now I don't fit in my pants.

xoxo Jessie