Category: Food

What’s Hot? Brownies!

There's a new recipe posted for Koray's Quick Cocoa Brownies!  Perfect every time!  And yummy and easy to boot!  Complete with both American and Turkish ingredients! Click here to see the recipe, or visit the Culinary Corner for more! Afiyet Olsun!

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Art with Rolling Pins

Shortly after I started living in sin with my future husband back in Philadelphia, his mother came to visit.  That was an "adventure" in and of itself and of course, a whole nuther story.  But I do want to tell you about my lesson in rolling pins. Yes, that's right.  I said "rolling pins."  In the... Continue Reading →

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Times Certainly are Changing

Progress.  A forward or onward movement.  Merriam-Webster. But sometimes progress can mean taking steps back. Last night, I decided I would make a simple dinner, spaghetti, a meal my husband used to make for himself quite frequently when we were apart.  Boil water.  Add pasta.  Open jar of sauce.  Dump on top.  Easy right? Not... Continue Reading →

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minkaa

I recently had the opportunity to meet two new, warm, and friendly faces here in Ankara.  They invited me to dinner at one of their favorite spots, minkaa, a restaurant located on 415.Cad., close to the United Nations building. The story is that minkaa is named after the traditional clay pots usually used to cook... Continue Reading →

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Brotherly Love, and all that Jazz!

Turks are very different from Americans in the sense that they have a completely different perspective of personal space.    Turks are always walking into you, no matter how wide the sidewalk.  They ask personal questions about the way you look, your weight, and your health.  They generally don't follow traffic rules, so your lane... Continue Reading →

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Lemontree

UPDATE 7/24/2012 - Sadly, Lemontree closed a couple of months ago.  Thanks to Steve and his crew for the great food and good times!  And good luck with your new gig! Apparently, there's another new kid in town, the crepe cafe known as "Lemontree."  To be fair, owners Steven and Filiz have been around town... Continue Reading →

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Date Night – Dinner & Macbeth

Wednesday was Date Night - dinner and a show.  I got all dolled up and had my hair done.  Unfortunately, I am still not able to communicate clearly with the hairdressers here.  I wanted the hair blown out with a bit of a soft curl towards the bottom.  I came out looking like Shirley Temple.... Continue Reading →

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Quick China – Restaurant Review

When I first visited Quick China in G.O.P. (Gaziosmanpaşa), I was unprepared to review it.  I had gone with a new friend to check out the lunch buffet and drink wine.  So that's what we did. Recently, I had the occasion to visit Quick China again, this time at its Bilkent location.  In Ankara, Quick... Continue Reading →

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Family

One of my sisters came to visit.  She had a rough flight from Philly to Munich.  Followed by a two hour delay in the Munich airport due to snow - a total of 6 hours sitting in the airport. We didn't do much Wednesday night.  We had  a quick dinner of soup and salad, and... Continue Reading →

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I Know You Are, But What Am I?

Turks are Turks.  It's a relatively new phenomena here that some Turks are identified as Kurds or from other cultures.  And in fact, most of those Kurds and others would have likely told you they were Turks, until recently.  I have read many articles where Kurds call themselves Turks first.  It's the Turks who more... Continue Reading →

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An Expat Thanksgiving

Since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I love to cook (particularly the chopping which gets out all of my stress and aggression) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to cook for friends.  On Saturday night, I will make an "American" Thanksgiving dinner for 14 adults and 7 children, mostly Turks, some of whom have... Continue Reading →

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Creatively speaking . . .

On a recent flight between Philadelphia and Ankara, I became restless.  To busy myself, I picked up the airline’s onboard magazine and began flipping through it.  As I often do, I started from the back and because I did, I read parts of stories before I read the headline.  While skimming the pages, I came across... Continue Reading →

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