Turkish Food Rant #1 (plus other tidbits)

09.22.2011 84 °F

Before I get to the most important part of this entry (food), I thought I'd give a few updates on what I've been doing lately, though, honestly, most of it involves food. So, it'll be brief.

On Monday, I registered for my classes, rather I tried to... I thought Boston University's system was tough...but this one beats it by miles. To start, the system was "tired" and couldn't run at its full capacity (see attached image). Additionally, registration isn't tiered like at BU where different people log on at different times. Here, it's pretty much 9am and everyone begins. That being said, you can imagine the chaos. After 10 mins of trying to get through to the system, I discover that all of the classes I was interested in are full. Thus begins the long, arduous process of making and sending consent requests to all the professors, begging to be let into the course. Honestly, it sucks. I'm already limited at what classes I can take that will actually be applied to my majors at BU. So, being told that I might not make it into some of them is frustrating to hear.

Fortunately, some of my requests have been accepted. And, when it's all said and done, I think I'll enjoy the content of my semester. However, many of the classes I will take won't apply to my major, so overloading in the future will definitely need to happen. Oh well. Knowledge is knowledge, right? If anything, I hope to be taking some great classes that will benefit me immensely for future careers (i.e. consumer behavior, management of human resources, etc).

Later that night, I went to my first professional soccer match! The match was at the BJK İnönü Stadium and was between Beşiktaş (our home team) and Ankargücü. Beşiktaş won with a score of 3-1. At first, I'll be honest, the game was a little dull, but it definitely got exciting near the end. It was cool to hear all of the chants (in Turkish of course) and all of the diehard cheers and fist-pumping that went along with it. My group was about 10 people, and you can only imagine how much we stuck out there in the crowd. But, it was a great time! A weird thing that we all noticed was that they kept the opposing team's fans in their own caged section! I think this was mostly for their protection though as there was a pretty big police presence. Apparently, we learned, whistling is another form of "booing," as the Beşiktaş fans always did that when they were mad or the other team scored.

Afterward, we grabbed some sandwiches from a street vendor and went to a small bar called, La Liberta. It is above a grocery store and is pretty small. But, there were many exchange students there, so it was nice to all get together. I also discovered a good drink called, Cuba Libre. It's along the lines of a Rum and Coke, but has a strong taste of lemon. And you know me...lemonade has always been a vice!

The next day, Tuesday, I had my first Turkish Breakfast. Heather and I went to a small cafe called "Chef n'Cafe," which allowed us to pick 10 items from a list of 20, for a flat rate of 6,50 TL (+tea). However, little did we know that NO ONE in the restaurant spoke Turkish, nor could we read anything off of the menu. AND, to make things worse, the list of items was just a paragraph of Turkish words, with no commas. UGH! In the end, we just wrote down random words and hoped for the best.

Fortunately, we lucked out and, minus a few rogue olives and unboiled-boiled eggs, we left pretty satisfied. While there, I also got a freshly squeezed orange juice. Ahhh. Delicious. They're very big on their freshly squeezed juices here.

Like I said, most of my happiness here has to do with food.

Later that day, I also got a cell phone to use here in Turkey. It is old and ghetto. And (WARNING: MEN SHOULD READ WITH CAUTION) curiously enough, while inspecting my phone on the way home, I found that it has a "Menstrual" program. Yes, you read this right. My phone, in addition to a world clock, an alarm system, and a calendar, has a program simply called "Menstrual." Apparently, you can enter in your cycle and the phone will then keep track of when your next one is due.

So weird.

Finally, we arrive at Wednesday. On Wednesday, we wandered down a path from South Campus into a neighborhood called Bebek. It's right at the water's edge of the Bosphorus and is a little area full of boats, shops, and cafes. Though it was a little windy, the area was beautiful. The main mission of the day was to get some waffles. But hey, before you scoff...you must realize that these are just not any waffles. These waffles are..insane. I watched, salivating, as the shop-owner put on milk chocolate, white chocolate, cinnamon, bananas, and strawberries. Then, he rolled up the waffle into a hand held bag and I began to eat it just like an ice cream cone. Though to be honest, this delight did not compare to any other treat I've had in the past. It was AWESOME!

Continuing along (with a street dog who seemed to follow us everywhere) we walked by all of the boats, a park, some impressive homes, and some cute (but way too expensive shops). Hours later, we stopped again at another restaurant for a lunch/snack. Here, at "The House Cafe," I had the most delicious lemonade in all my life. It was lemony and minty all at the same time and was complemented with a garnish of sliced apple. Very refreshing.

We also ordered a Mezze Platter to share, which included bread and 4 different foods/dips. One was a creamed eggplant, another was some tomatoes, the third was some sort of green salad with yoghurt, and the final component was cheese and melon. Needless to say, it all went rather quickly. (SIDE NOTE: Next door to the restaurant was an Upper Crust! Imagine that...a Boston franchise in Istanbul. Too weird.)

Now here comes my general rant about Turkish Food:

It's delicious. Honestly, the way they use their spices and the way they cook their meats is out of this world! Even with foods I do not like, these Turks manage to prepare them in a way that makes everything your new favorite food to eat. I have not yet had a meal where I haven't felt satisfied and lethargic with joy. At first, I thought I would lose weight here...but now all I see is bigger belts in the future (at least for now). And you know what? I'm okay with that. This food is awesome and besides, I'm already an XL by Turkish standards...so I might as well rise to the occasion

Don't worry, I'm only being 80% serious.

But really. Turkish food. Ohhh yeah.

The morning of Registration...is this real?