Fethiye and Turkey Street Food - Kokoreç

We can only speak for the UK here, but you can't beat pulling over at the side for the road for a good meaty snack when the opportunity arises. Usually in Britain, it's someone doing a really good burger from a burger van and you always feel really satisfied after you've eaten it.

The second time we came to Fethiye on holiday, we met a Turkish girl in Deep Blue Bar and went to Hisarönü later on for the night. You know how it is; few too many beers, leave the bar, look for a taxi...smell the food van! It was the smell of fillet steak. We said, 'I want some of that,' and the Turkish girl replied, 'Oh you can't. You don't eat it.' That didn't concern us and we marched off towards the van. She explained while we were in the queue that it was kokoreç (lamb's intestine) and the European Union would prefer it if Turkey didn't sell it...that's a discussion for another time.

The chimney is the giveaway

We asked for our kokoreç in confident fashion. It came on a half bread (still does), very finely chopped up and of course both of us asked for extra chillies. After a few drinks, a kokoreç half-bread is amazing and almost resembles the taste of a fillet stake sandwich (beer tastebuds?). We thoroughly enjoyed it that night...and then woke up the next morning thinking, 'What were we thinking?'

Needless to say, we've since had a good few kokoreç sandwiches on our route back from Deep Blue Bar of an evening. You can smell it from a good distance away - fillet steak smell at night, 'too much beer reminder' in the day times. I can't eat it in the day time - my problem - because it's almost become the 'walking home from the bar butty,' and then if the van is still there in the daytime, somehow, the smell doesn't quite do it for me. Barry's still a fan. You've got to try it though. It's great. A bit like having a döner kebab in Blighty (which is actually NOT a real döner kebab) on your way home at night. Lovely but you wish you hadn't done it the day after.

So, should you feel the need for a snack on a journey - on foot or by car - and you see the traditional white van with the chimney a'smokin, get yourself a kokoreç half bread. It's chopped up super small and mixed with chillies and salad and put on your bread and squashed down. If you can't face it, these vans usually do a mean köfte ekmek (little beef burger) as well. Oh, and take note of the big tubs of pickles on the tables too. Good service! You can't eat a decent half bread without a plate of pickles.

Update 2012: Fethiye now has a fastfood outlet, specialising in kokoreç. Click here to read about Şamyon Kokoreç.

Fethiye Harbour Wanderings: An Update On Developments

It's a while since we did an update on the new harbour in Fethiye so we thought we'd go out and about with the camera to take a few photos.

We mentioned the other day that we'd heard a Fethiye rumour that the buildings along the new harbour were going to be cigarette kiosks and gift shops and the like. Well, this is the building that we think must be the kiosks because the little areas are so small. There are eight of them and they've all been tiled in the last couple of days. It's right next to the new bridge, quite a way down the harbour from the centre of Fethiye.

Are these the new kiosks

And then there are these interesting concrete raised areas that have now been covered in wooden decking and this week, the areas around the edges have been tiled in these blue and white mosaic tiles. All very pretty and we assume the area will eventually be filled with water. You might have noticed the steps leading from the pathway to the decking...What's going on there then? Will we get seating we wonder. We did actually stop wondering a while back about what was going on along here. We're mere observers now.

Fountains for Fethiye

And we just had to share our current pathway from home into Fethiye centre. You can actually do a big u-shaped detour but a little route has been created by the kind workmen. This is not the same bridge we wrote about the other day by the way in the Fethiye Obstacles post, although it is bridging the same gap. This a new (allegedly) sturdier, but narrower one. And so the idea is to walk along the soil mound (this is damming the canal off while the workmen build a pretty hefty looking bridge to the right of this photo) and then walk across the little bridge to the other side. 

A new 'canal' for us to cross

All sorts of potential for falling in the canal...and we could do the detour, thus adding a good two minutes to our journey time...but where's the fun in that? Think high summer wedges are going to have to be taken to Deep Blue Bar in a bag whilst this bridge is negotiated in some more sensible footwear.

2012 Update: The kiosks are now one long building and are a cafe serving coffees. The wooden decking is now seating for Nayla Restaurant and Veranda Restaurant

Turkish Food - Patlıcan Biber Kızartması

Patlıcan Biber Kızartması (Fried aubergine and pepper in olive oil and tomatoes) was one of the first home-cooked Turkish recipes we tried when we moved to Fethiye. We were round at a Turkish friend's house and his mum had made some for us. It's not the most appetising looking of dishes and it's highly unphotogenic (no such word) so you're just going to have to trust us that it tastes fabulous. We've discovered that it's great the day after with a boiled egg for lunch. The flavours just work together.

Prepare your aubergines

We have a tiny kitchen so we both have our own dishes that we cook and whoever is cooking, the other doesn't interfere - most of the time. It's better that way. So this kızartma is Barry's version. I've never made it so I asked him to tell me how he does it. He didn't know without actually making it so he dictated it to me as he went along. I amused my self by writing it as he said it so we've decided to post the transcript of what he said here. It's a train of thought...(The additions in brackets are me clarifying what was going on at the time.)

Barry’s Turkey's Recipe For Kızartma

• Put oil in heavy based pan until you think you’ve put too much in - and then put a little bit more in.
• Slice aubergines into long thin rectangles like that (the aubergine was held up - it looked about 1.5cm wide and 0.5cm thick). Oh, about 4 medium-sized aubergines. We should be listening to Deep n Chill now. (That's the music we usually play when we have people round to our house for a barbecue.)
• Roughly chopped cloves garlic. We like 3 biggish. Flat-blade about half of it. (I think he means squash some of it with the wide end of the blade of your knife.)
• Try not to let your aubergines stick to pan (I bet they were sticking because he was playing with the garlic).
• Garlic’s in.
• Bit o' cumin – certainly not traditional. Acı biber if you want. We want. (Acı biber is chilli powder.)
• We can just say it’s our version because I’m gonna put some chillies in. Slice 'em down middle like when you have jalfrezi at an Indian restaurant. Three in but just leave em as optional.
• Big long peppers. You can leave tops on but I like just doing that. (Demo of pepper cut in half horizontally). Till you think you’ve got enough. I don’t know, about ten or something.
• By now some of yer aubergines should be looking a bit mushy (a few mins). But others still firm.
  
• Then bang a lid on but leave it slightly open and keep checking that it’s not stickin. You wanna do this till your peppers start wiltin a bit. 10-15 mins, dependin on your peppers.
• When everything starts looking a bit glossy, season…well…season well. Salt n pepper.
• Roughly chop yer tomatoes. About 8 I suppose. Depending on what size they are.
• Put toms in pan and then about this much vinegar (around a tbsp).
• Slowly tip yer sugar jar and sprinkle (about 2 teaspoons)
• Then mix a teaspoon of salça in (salça is tomato puree)
• Lid back on. Probably about another 10 mins or so till your toms are cooked down but be careful; you don’t want a soupy consistency.
• Oh…bit of oregano or whatever other greenery you have to hand. (Ours is thyme)
• This’ll be rubbish in England cos of aubergines. (We tried to make this back in sunny Wigan once and the aubergines cost us a small fortune and were just full of water. No matter how much tomato puree we squirted in from those awful tubes, the dish stayed a silvery grey colour. Tasted great, looked awful! If you've got a decent market near you, use that.)
• After that, pour it into your favourite wide dish so it cools quickly. If you’ve got time, stick it into fridge for an hour or so.
• When it’s cooled down, add more seasoning as necessary – as in, add more salt.

The potato looks more appetising than the kızartma

For more Turkish food and photos take a look on our Turkish Recipes tag - and don't forget to subscribe to the Turkey's For Life blog for new posts.

More Fethiye Summer Season Clues and a Rumour or Two

A few more signs of the Fethiye summer season arriving: We got up a couple of mornings ago and opened the curtains to the usual scene,  and ten minutes later, a great big cruise ship had appeared. There's much debate about Fethiye harbour not being equipped for the size of cruise ships and whether it should be redesigned so it can accommodate them. As non-lovers of cruise-ships (we're sure it would be our holiday from hell - personal choice) we actually think it's the way forward for getting tourists into Fethiye itself. 

The really big cruise ships can't come all the way into the bay

Another sign of the arrival of the Fethiye summer season - arrival of our first visitors. Barry's 80-year-old Great Auntie Jessie arrived last night. She should have arrived yesterday afternoon but was delayed for three hours so only got here in the evening. She couldn't work out which queues she should have been in at Dalaman for her visa sticker/visa stamp and got sent to the back of each one a couple of times in the confusion. In the end, she went to the security man and said, 'I need to get through there,' and pointed through to where everyone was going. He promptly took her passport from her, took it to each of the windows, got the sticker and the stamp and took her through. That's what you can do, you see, when you're 80. Common sense!

Fethiye Rumour Updates:
A couple of Fethiye rumour updates as well. Please only take all of this with a pinch of salt. They might turn out to be very true and they might turn out to be horrendously false but it's all good fun. A friend has told us today that the big new building next to Martı Cafe (really posh one that's been being built for the last 18 months or so) is actually going to be McDonald's. McDonald's on the harbour? Hmm, we're not having that one.

The other Fethiye rumour is to do with all the constructions on the new bit of the harbour. We were thinking offices, but we've been watching developments and the interiors are going to be just too small. Word on the street (as in our English neighbour who's always pottering about in the area and talks to all the workmen - which language they use, we don't know!) is that they're going to be gift shops and cigarette kiosks etc. This was all part of the original plan for further up the harbour so let's wait and see what happens. We'll go out to get some pics then you can decide for yourselves. It seems as a good an explanation as any to us, but then it's all just rumour...

Fethiye Rumours - Were They Just Rumours Then?

Here are two prime examples of why we just take Fethiye - and maybe the rest of Turkey - as it is, right in the moment. Logic tells you something is going to happen soon. You might read a story in the local press, you might see a poster, you might assume something is going to happen because you can see the preparations for it with your own eyes. Ama, Burası Türkiye. We've adapted this to Burası Fethiye (This is Fethiye).

Rumour 1
The first rumour we heard a while back was that Flying Poseidon was going to be retired and by January (the January of 2010 that's been and gone), Fethiye would have a new SeaCat type sailing vessel in the harbour that would carry many more people to Rhodes in a quicker time. 'Let's see. That'd be fantastic. Let's see,' we thought. (We've got used to not assuming now. It's the only way forward and more fun.) We even had the rumour confirmed when we went into a travel agency in winter to check on summer sailing dates. A new catamaran would 'hopefully' be in harbour soon.

How much longer will we have Flying Poseidon?

And so, a couple of weeks ago, we wandered along the marina and noticed Flying Poseidon was gone. A gaping gap where once she was moored. Was this going to be the arrival of the new, upgraded, bigger beast?...No! Not yet anyway because the good old Flying Poseidon has returned to the marina. We didn't see her leave or return and how permanent it is, who knows? We've got a bit of a soft spot for Flying Poseidon though, so we're not too bothered...or too surprised that the SeaCat is yet to appear. But, we're not saying she's not going to appear, either.

Rumour 2
And then there's the new McDonald's in Fethiye. We wrote about this a while ago as a Fethiye rumour. And a rumour it was. It was just a shell that a few people had said was going to be McDonald's. Then you might remember that we promoted the Fethiye McDonald's to 'definite' status because we saw the banner stating McDonald's would be at our service very soon (see photo in link - there was evidence for our assumptions). Imagine our surprise - well, not surprise. More, 'Would you credit it?' The McDonald's banner has disappeared without trace and on the other half of the building is a new sign reading 'pizzas and hotdogs!' We think the company is called something like Pizzaroni but they sell hotdogs too.

A new pizza place

What's going on there then? Is the building being divided into two (Wow, healthy food galore. Maccy Ds with a pizza and hotdog shop next door) and the McDonald's banner has blown down in the wind, or have McDonald's pulled out altogether? We've now demoted the Fethiye McDonald's back down to rumour status pending further observations of events. We are assuming nothing till either of the fine food emporiums opens its doors to the discerning public!

Fethiye McDonald's Update 21/05/10 

Update 2012: The pizza and hotdog place is now an insurance brokers and the Aegean Queen catamaran eventually arrived into the harbour. 

Anzac Day, Turkey Commemorations

Today is the 95th anniversary of the landings of the Australian and New Zealand (Anzacs) soldiers at Gallipoli (Gelibolu), Turkey on 25th April 1915. It is a national day of remembrance in both countries and many tourists choose to go to the commemorative site in Northwest Turkey to pay their respects and remember the (too) many Australian, New Zealand, Turkish, French and British soldiers who lost their lives.

Although we've driven through the area, we've never visited the actual site - something that we really want to do and must do soon. We haven't got any photos of this part of Turkey so this photo is taken from the public use files of Wikipedia. The information on the photographer is that his user name is Aussie Turk and he is a citizen of both Turkey and Australia so it seems quite apt to use his photo of Anzac Cove.

There's lots of information about what happened on the Gallipoli battlefields on Wikipedia if you click on this Anzac Day link.

Turkish Food - Fethiye Pickles; My Recipe

Pickles are just a fact of life in Turkey. You eat pickles with your food. That's it. It's very rare you won't see pickles (turşu) of some variety on the table when you're served a meal. And this suits us just fine!

If you buy your pickles, try to go to a place that does homemade turşu, like Peteks in Istanbul or a deli. You can buy turşu in jars from the supermarkets just like you can in Britain but these are not real pickles. The pickling companies manage to do something to the vinegar to stop it tasting like vinegar and the jars are tiny, like jam jars. These are absolutely no use whatsoever to the seasoned Turkish pickle eater - and the many foreigners who come here and end up addicted to pickle eating. If you read this blog regularly, you'll know we're serious pickle lovers so we're in our element here. No gözleme, kebab or fish butty is complete without a plate of pickles.

Mixed, homemade turşu bought from a deli

Making your own pickles in Turkey is easy for two reasons. 

1. The first one is that vegetables is so cheap here. They're available in huge quantities so you can buy extra to make your pickles with, and you can take your pick of what you want to pickle. As there are only two of us, pickle-making means we don't have to throw uneaten veg away. (Maybe that's one of the reasons why it's so popular in Turkey?)
2. The second reason is that because pickle making is just what's done here, you buy tubs and glass jars (like the one in the photo) from the market or high street shops for next to nothing. Ours was 1 lira. It holds about 1.5 litres and it's the smallest one you can get. They get pretty huge - at least 5 litres. 

Since moving to Turkey, we've learned that just about any vegetable can be pickled. I always used to love my grandad's pickled onions as a kid. No leaving them to stand or anything. He used to slice a couple of onions up into half moons, put them into a dessert dish, sprinkle a bit of pepper on top and half a teaspoon of sugar and then cover them in malt vinegar and leave them overnight with a saucer on top. Absolutely lovely with Lancashire cheese on a sandwich!

When I make pickles now, it always reminds me of my grandad's so I sprinkle black pepper and half a teaspoon of sugar into mine...just because. Turşu tends to be more salty but still fantastically delicious.

A Recipe for Turşu (Pickles)
The photo is of the pickles I made last night. We are heavily influenced by the pickles you see on the gözleme stalls on Fethiye and Çalış markets so we pickle similar vegetables.

Ready to go in the fridge

You need:

• 3 meaty carrots, peeled and sliced at an angle for more surface area (and therefore more pickled loveliness!)
• 3 large (for Turkish standards) cucumbers quartered and then sliced in half down the middle.
• 3 small onions (or one big one) peeled and chopped into bite-sized chunks.
• 5 green chillies, pricked and boiled for a few minutes in about a tea glass of water (quarter of a mug). Don't throw the water away.

To Prepare Your Turşu:

• Layer your ingredients into your tub or jar however you want to. It's not too important.
•  Sprinkle half a teaspoon of sugar in, a good pinch of black pepper and a little chilli powder (optional). 
• Add the water from the pan (this will have taken on a little of the chilli hotness) and then top your tub up with vinegar. 
• Screw the lid on, give them a good shake and stick them in the fridge (you might not need the fridge but it gets so hot here that even the pickles are better off in the fridge!) for two weeks. 

Once your turşu is ready, you can eat them all up. It usually take us about two days to polish them off. And we've got to admit, we never leave them for two weeks - well, they're just looking at you every time you open the fridge. About one and a half weeks and they're good to go, if a little crunchy!

*The standard vinegar in Turkey is grape vinegar and it isn't too overpowering so I find it's fine for pickling if the glass of water is added. No need to buy extra pickling vinegar. I've asked at some of the places that serve pickles too and they use the grape vinegar. If you're not sure how suitable the vinegar is in your country for pickling, get pickling vinegar.

*You might have also noticed there is parsley in the pickle tub in the photo. We've had parsley and celery leaves in our pickles on the gözleme stalls recently and it really holds its flavour. We had some parsley in the fridge that needed eating so I added it to the vinegar before I put the lid on, just to experiment. 

If you enjoyed this recipe, click on this link for our pickled red cabbage recipe.

National Sovereignty and Children's Day, Fethiye

23 Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayramı Kutlu Olsun! 

For those of us who are not Turkish, this roughly translates as, 'Hope your National Sovereignty and Children's Day is a good one.' This is a long way from a literal translation but you get the picture. 

Today is the anniversary of the inauguration of the Grand National Assembly - headed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the new, independent, secular and modern Turkish Republic. As it was a new beginning (since the fall of the Ottomans) and children are seen as the future, Atatürk dedicated this day to the children, hence Children's Day.

Folk dance performances at the Fethiye Culture Centre

It's also St.George's Day (patron saint of England) in England today. In good old English style, this is unfortunately not a holiday - nobody does 'stick in the mud' like the English! - but nice that the two countries share a national day.

Actually, The Guardian newspaper printed a great article today about St. George's Day being linked to Turkey. Apparently, St. George slew the dragon in the town of Ürgüp. You will know Ürgüp if you've ever been to Cappodicia in central Anatolian Turkey. 

The mayor of Ürgüp has decided it would be a great idea to be twinned with a town in England - seems logical to us - so bids have been invited. They're hoping to have it all sorted for next year. Wonder who'll get it...you can read the full article and about the possible contenders for twinning with the Turkish town of Ürgüp, here.


National Sovereignty & Children's Day Celebrations
Keeping with the theme of spreading the love between countries, we decided to have a walk into Fethiye this afternoon to see what the celebrations for Children's Day have been like. Children from all over the world are invited to Turkey for this festival; it isn't just limited to Turkish kids. Some stay in hotels and others are lucky enough to stay with families for a few days and workshops and the like are arranged so all the children can interact. We were lucky to arrive at the Fethiye Culture Centre (aka 'the blue building') just as the preparations were being made for a folk dance performance.

Children perform a traditional folk dance 

Eventually, two official looking guys, one speaking Turkish, spoke a few words to the audience and we got the general gist of the Turkish because it was all clear and slow. The other chap was speaking Greek though!! Rapturous applause form the Greek contingent in the crowd (who we only spotted at this point) as the other guy (who we think was also Turkish) spoke in broken Greek. All happy and lovely and even more happy and lovely when both the announcers stated that today, Turkey and Greece are brothers. Clapping, happy people and hugs. Then the Greek national folk dance troupe were announced. 

The whole concept of this particular Bayram (festival) is unity between countries and looking to the future. We all know there's a lot of crap in the world but events like today restore your faith that it's not all bad!

A Fethiye Harbour Photo- Landscaping

An absolutely beautiful day today in Fethiye. Spring is really kicking in and preparing us all for summer. Landscaping continues along the new harbour in Fethiye and all is looking green and shiny and new.

Various palm trees along the harbour

So it's just a photo today of our favourite part of the new Fethiye harbour with the grass seed doing it's best to poke through. Lovely!

Seasonal Food in Turkey - Them Round Courgettes!

At the moment, there are loads of these almost spherical courgettes on Fethiye market and we absolutely love them. We're not sure if there any traditional Turkish dishes that use this type of courgette in particular but we've certainly never seen any - and the last time we went to the market with our Turkish friend (who loves cooking and seems to know a lot about traditional Turkish cooking) asked us what we would do with these. 

Courgettes await their filling

Whether it's a bell pepper, an aubergine, a mushroom - any vegetable that has room in it - the tradition in Turkish cuisine is to stuff it with a filling of some description to make a dish known as dolma (dolma means 'stuffed'). There's a lot of room in our round courgettes so we decided to make stuffed courgettes. Let's call it Kabak Dolması.

A Seasonal Recipe for Kabak Dolması

This dish is for two people and you're likely to get full but it doesn't matter because you can do what we do and put the leftovers in the fridge for lunch the day after. Kabak dolması is fabulous cold with natural süzme yoghurt.

The bulk of our filling is going to be made of fine bulgur wheat (köftelik bulgur), so we need to prepare this first. 

• Fill a coffee mug to the half-way point with the köftelik bulgur and pour into a bowl. Boil the kettle, add a teaspoon of tomato puree (salça) to the mug and when the kettle has boiled, add the water until the mug is three quarters full. Stir until the salça has melted and then pour into the bowl, covering the bulgur. Add more water if the bulgur isn't covered. Set aside and cover with a clean tea towel or cloth.

Courgettes with the middles removed

• Slice a small lid off 4 round courgettes and scoop the middles out with a spoon. Think Halloween pumpkins. Nothing is wasted in our house so about half of the discarded courgette will become part of your stuffing. Put the rest in a bag in the fridge and you can make an omelette or risotto with it the day after.
• Now, finely chop a red pepper, an onion and a few chillies (if you like spicy - of course we do!) and fry in a little olive oil. Add a pinch of salt, pepper, paprika and cumin and mix in. Fry on quite a high heat so that you get the singed edges to your peppers and onions. It all adds to flavour.

Your bulgur wheat filling

• Once fried, remove from the heat, fork through your bulgur and stir into the peppers and onions. Preheat your oven to 220 degrees.
• Spoon the bulgur mixture into each of the courgettes until they're full. You can cram it in if you want and if there's any left at the end, you can save it for a salad the day after or do what we do and just eat it!
• Place each stuffed courgette onto a baking tray and brush with a little olive oil before placing in the centre of the preheated oven.

Add oil, bake, eat

Bake courgettes in the oven for about 40 minutes, remove, and then you can eat them. Turkish people love their natural yoghurt these courgettes are perfect served with a side dish of haydari (natural yoghurt with a bit of mint and grated garlic mixed in to it).

If anyone knows of any traditional Turkish recipes that use this type of globe-shaped courgette in particular, we'd love to know about them. 

Your Fethiye Transport Awaits You

Well, here is yet another example of, 'You know the Fethiye summer season has started when...' We mentioned about the Çalış-Fethiye-Çalış water taxis a few days ago but we couldn't make the photograph appear for some reason. Here they all are, newly painted, ready for action. We debated about what to write about today with the current travel situation as it is so I thought it might be apt to write about travel in Fethiye.

Ready when you are

So, the season has started and all the water taxis are lined up in the canal waiting for their customers, just as the aeroplanes are in European airports, presumably. It's all very strange really because everything's on hold. Many of the businesses in Fethiye are open all-year round and everything is as it should be but a lot of the businesses in Çalış and other resorts in the area rely on tourism. They're open but there are no tourists. Granted, it's never very busy at this time of year but the swell in population is noticeable by its absence at the moment.

Anyway, back to the water taxis. People staying in Fethiye or Çalış can get to either area using these boats if they can't face squishing onto a dolmuş when it's pushing 100 degrees outside. It's a great way to travel between the two places as the bay of Fethiye is sheltered so the sea is always calm in the summer months. We use it at least once a year just for the sake of it - it's a cheap sail - but when my dad comes out, this is is his major mode of transport. He loves it because he gets a 40-minute sail, panoramic views of the whole of Fethiye bay and, most importantly for my dad, it's cheap. Well, we all like cheap.

The Çalış water taxis start running on the 1st May and are every half an hour. By the time high season arrives, you can also catch the last boat back to Çalış at around midnight if you fancy spending an evening in Fethiye. We can recommend the Fethiye to Çalış water taxi at sunset. Your 40-minute sail across the bay is only going to set you back around 2 pounds sterling so it's a bargain. 

Maybe we take it a little for granted because we don't do this often but here's a little tip. If you're staying in Çalış and you're going for a night out in Fethiye, wait until it's going dark, put your mozzie repellent on (the local mosquitoes like the canal area) and sit outside of the boat, either on the front or on top. The sea will have stilled and will look more like a glacial lake than the Med. As the boat emerges from the canal, you will be sailing across flat, calm water and the lights of the Karagözler and Fethiye marina and their reflections directly opposite you just look amazing. We had a friend visiting us here once and we dragged him to all of the famous must-see places in the area we could think of. This little boat journey to Fethiye was the highlight of his fortnight!

Along the Fethiye Coastal Road Towards Çalış

Just a post about observations of Fethiye today and why I always try to carry my camera around with me. There's always a little bit of beauty to take a photograph of and you never know when it's going to pop up.

For instance, if you know the coastal road between Fethiye and Çalış, you'll know that the Çalış end is in a bit of a mess at the moment. It's like a forgotten bit of Fethiye, used only by fishermen and the odd fly-tipper. This road is our route to the Sunday market in Çalış and I manage to get at least one photograph every time we walk down there.

Poppies make an ugly area look very pretty

I took these two yesterday. The poppies are out in Fethiye at the moment. My favourite flower because of the vibrancy of the colour and because they grow anywhere, giving bad looking areas the appearance of a meadow. These poppies and reeds are growing on the seabed that was dredged up to make the sea deep enough for the boats in the new harbour. It was a mass of slimy black mud over winter but it actually looks quite pretty now.

A little further down the road, Fethiye's resident pelicans were coming ashore, curious about a Turkish family trying to get their boat into the water. The mum was looking at them with awe until they decided to come ashore. At which point she did an about turn and ran, leaving the two blokes hanging onto the boat to stop it falling into the water.

Pelicans going to say hello

Back up towards Fethiye, along the new harbour, I wish I'd had my camera with me the other day. As you stroll along the harbour now, you'll see a lot less of Boğaziçi Restaurant - about 10 metres less. 5 metres from each side has been lopped off! If you know Boğaziçi, you'll know that it's a wooden building - so in true Turkey style, the workmen set about shrinking the building...while the customers were sitting underneath them, eating. 

We kid you not. There was a party of ten people eating directly below the roof which was being stripped away plank by plank. The window frames were then removed (the glass had been removed the day before) and a metal frame was slipped in to support the new gable end of the building. So this group were in the old inside of the building and ended up on the outside after the job was completed. Genius. This family didn't bat an eyelid!

Fethiye Obstacles - When Fethiye Harbour Gets Difficult

You've got to admit, as obstacles go, this one in the photo is pretty decent. We bragged about the bridge on the new Fethiye harbour (no more teetering along the wall with a drop to the sea) making our journey home from Deep Blue Bar a more normal excursion but it appears our bragging was all too soon.

Nice of the workmen to provide a right of passage for pedestrians along the coastal road and having walked across it in the daytime (with a lot of encouragement/coaxing from Barry), I was all psyched up for it at 1/2/3 am (whatever time it was) this morning after a few white wine and sodas...but this is Fethiye. We enjoyed our Saturday evening fix in the bar, strolled towards home whilst putting the world to rights with a couple of friends, left them and continued towards 'the obstacle.'

The path home

All was well until we scrambled confidently up the side of the soil mound. Barry strode across the gangplank (in the photo) but as I'm the cautious one of the pair of us, I soon realised that there was another, less crossable obstacle and decided I was going no further - I just rummaged in the rucksack for my camera instead. Just where the darkness starts in this photo (before the digger) is another channel in the road...it wasn't there yesterday! It was crossable if we'd have wanted to really teeter across a not very wide cylindrical pipe under the road. Errr, no! Common sense prevailed and we did an about turn and took a u-turn detour to our house. Not what you want when you just want to be collapsed, curled up in bed, but what can you do? I bet it gets boring once we can just stumble home without a care in the world.

We're hoping these big channels in the roads in our area will disappear this week. Fethiye belediyesi (council) are pressing on with their ongoing canalisation project (laying bigger sewerage pipes) and it's the turn of our area at the moment - hence the obstacles and diggers. At least it's being done before they lay the road past the new harbour. Project management, you see.

Last night was great by the way. Another, 'You know it's the start of the Fethiye summer season when...' moment. We sat outside all night without getting cold and Paspatur was really busy and lit up. It's early in the season for Paspatur to look like this but the weather in Fethiye was really balmy last night so it was lovely to see. I think we can now safely say, 'Sezon başladı!' The season started...and let's hope for a good one.

Summer's Coming to Fethiye...But Are The Flights?

Wow, a hot one today. Even the arms are out. A few days ago, we wrote about the tell tale signs of the summer season starting in the Fethiye area. Well, as the Fethiye weather was so beautiful today, we decided to go for a walk along Çalış Beach to Güven's and the signs are now there for all to sea. The bars and restaurants along the beach are open, bar one or two, and the ones that were open had customers. As you can see from the photo, the beach has now been transformed into summer mode - umbrellas and sunbeds and even some people (granted, not many) sunbathing.

Çalış Beach, ready for summer

The other tell tale signs were all the Çalış-Fethiye-Çalış water taxis lined up in the canal, ready for service from the 1st May. The boats have been lined up along the side street all winter. We walk around here all the time and always seem to miss the boats being put back into the water! Most of them have a had a good paint job and are now awaiting customers.

So, both Fethiye and Çalış are gearing up for summer. Hopefully, people are going to be able to make it out here soon after all the ash cloud has dispersed. We're expecting a relative in the next week so we're hoping she can get here. And to anyone who's stranded here, hope you can get back if you need to be back and for those who don't need to be back...well, it could be worse.

Turkish Food - Fethiye Snacks For The Sweet Tooth

We shared a tatlı between us as we walked along Fethiye harbour this afternoon so we're having a rare post on the sweeter side of Turkish cuisine. We're sure tatlı a different, more official name but when they're being sold from the little carts, they're just described as tatlı (sweet). If ever there was an understatement in the Turkish language, this was it.

Super sweet tatlı

The photo underneath is of lokma. Look 'lokma' up in the dictionary and it will tell you that lokma means 'morsel' or 'small, round, syrupy fried cake.' Yep, that'll be the little tub of sweety godness in the photo then. We've put them in the same post because we think they're exactly the same thing but in a different shape (like when pasta or some Mexican dishes are exactly the same but they come in different shapes and are given different names). They're basically doughnuts but instead of being dipped in sugar, they're deep-fried and then syrup is added. There's an ever so slight crunch to them too.

Lokma - a ball-shaped tatlı

It doesn't matter what shape these things come in, they're still going to make your teeth tingle. They're great. I haven't got a sweet tooth at all - give me a tube of Pringles over a pack of biscuits or bar of chocolate any day - but lokma and tatlı are almost like a fun little challenge every now and then, just to see if you can do it - especially if you're feeling in need of a bit of an instant sugar rush. You'll be buzzing from these, let me tell you.

The long thin one - tatlı - you normally see being sold from the little carts with a glass cover over them and they're around 75 kuruş (next to nothing in English money) each. They're syrupy, but not too syrupy, with a bit of crunch. There's a guy with a little cart as you walk from Fethiye harbour to the Tuesday market. He sells tatlı and candy floss. You can't miss him and he might be good for the tatlı beginners because the tatlı isn't overly tatlı - if you get what we mean. 

But the lokma are the most fun. There's a little place on the side street opposite Fethiye fish market, near Ramadan Bazaar, and they specialise in pastries and lokma. They have a fryer outside and you can watch the owner make the lokma. It's always busy. Very occasionally we get the urge to buy a tub between us. You get the portion shown in the photo and a couple of cocktail sticks...and then Barry takes the lion's share. Good effort if you can eat a whole tub to yourself.

Here's the tip: Don't mess about with them. You've got to get straight in there and eat a whole one all at once. Don't just take a tentative bite as a little sample...unless you want to walk round for the rest of the day with syrup dribbled all down your clothes, that is. We're speaking from experience!

Fethiye Arrival of the Tour of Turkey Cycle Race

A perfect afternoon today. A glorious sunny day, a stroll into Fethiye, a couple of beers and then the witnessing of the completion of the Denizli to Fethiye stage of the 46th Presidential Tour of Turkey cycle race. We thought there weren't going to be as many people there as there last year at first but it soon filled up. The power of the mobile phone eh! A few 'geliyorlar' (they're coming) to friends on phones and in no time at all there were noisy crowds galore. A great atmosphere and it really puts Fethiye on the map. Fantastic to see it so well supported and hopefully, it all looked good on TV.

Waiting at the finish line

Last year when we went to watch the finish, I had my camera at the ready and just wasn't prepared for how fast the cyclists would be going past us. You watch them on TV and the commentators tell you how fast they're going but it still doesn't look that fast. I managed to get a couple of really good photos last year but none of the first few cyclists. They'd zipped past before I'd pressed the shutter button. I wasn't going to be foiled this time. It never crosses my mind that there's a video option on my camera but I remembered today so I used that. 

Winners of the Denizli to Fethiye leg

The photo that is actually there is of the first three cyclists to cross the line. They didn't even look tired! We left after this presentation and then there were other presentations. Prizes were given for the sprint winner (which seem to happen in mid race at certain points?), king of the mountain and the overall winner so far, which we presume is like the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. Hmm, as far as we're concerned, those three in the photo were today's winners. Think we need to study this sport more to understand what's going on. The cyclists go on to Finike tomorrow along the D400; a beautiful road. The next stages are Antalya and Alanya so the scenery is going to be amazing all the way along. We might even get to watch some more of it on TV tomorrow.

Hectic Fethiye Day

When we go jogging in the mornings and we keep writing about the sea being like a lake and the perfection of the reflections, this is what we mean (see photos). So it's no offence to Wigan really when I say it's easier keeping up with the fitness routine where we live now.

Early morning gülets

These are not my Fethiye photos, by the way. Someone very kindly emailed them to us after we mentioned the reflections in the sea so we asked could we use them. Thank you to those people. These are taken at 6am and 7am...We don't go jogging that early but we make sure we go early enough to catch the morning stillness before the surf comes in (if you know Fethiye harbour, you'll know that usually means no more than a few ripples in the water but a breeze is a breeze). We're fair weather fitness fans.

Stillness on Fethiye harbour

Well, we wrote on the Turkey's For Life Facebook page today to remind everyone about the Tour of Turkey cycling road race and we've ended up not seeing it ourselves, which is a shame. We really wanted to see the stage before the Fethiye one. Obviously we'll not be missing it tomorrow. We'll watch it for a while on TV and then mosey on along into Fethiye to watch the riders come in to the finish.

Today has just been one of those hectic days - the boring organisation of official stuff. The pair of us are champions of procrastination and we've been meaning to get some passport photos done since the end of December...we finally got them done today. We also had to print something off at the internet cafe and it wouldn't work. We had to go to another internet cafe to try it and luckily it worked. So today, we've managed to be proactive but we've managed to miss the Tour of Turkey as a result. Hmm.

I also had a brainwave this morning about the Seasonal Food in Turkey post I did yesterday. One of our Turkish friends (who told me about Rodos Kabağı) always seems to know the name of the more obscure fruits and vegetables that pop up on Fethiye market. I never thought to ask her but it jumped into my head in a moment of inspiration so I sent her a message this morning on Facebook. Within minutes I had a reply. She reckons it's Mendos Kişnişi. Great. What do I do with it? Well, I'm in suspense till we see her at the weekend.

Seasonal Food in Turkey - Courgette Flowers and Errm...

Two photos today for the seasonal food that's on Fethiye and Çalış markets at the moment. Spring is always going to mean an abundance of different fruit and vegetables so we're trying to keep up with it all.

What is Kiriş?
The greenery in this photo here - we have absolutely no idea what it is and we're hoping for a few suggestions. We see it on Fethiye market at this time every year but we've never seen it anywhere else. It's Turkish name on this stall is kiriş but this could well be a nickname. Many different words are used on the market.

Kiriş on Fethiye market

We just knew, when we looked kiriş up in the dictionary, that it wasn't going to tell us what we wanted to know - and it didn't. Kiriş means 'string of a musical instrument, bow string (of a bow and arrow) or chord.' So we're guessing it's a tough, stringy vegetable that maybe needs to be cooked for a while? On the other hand, it is spring and there are many salad ingredients around at the moment. Maybe a salad stuff with an onion flavour?

Update: Since writing this post, a Turkish friend has told us that kiriş is wild mountain fauna and it's chopped up and sautéed in olive oil and onions. 

Courgette Flowers - Kabak Çiçeği
Our second example of seasonal produce - mmmm, my mouth's watering just looking at this photo - is something we've only ever seen on the Friday village market in the past but these beautiful courgette flowers were on Fethiye Tuesday market this morning. They're so lovely dipped in a light tempura batter and deep fried. The traditional way to cook them in Turkey is to make dolma, stuffing the flowers with rice.

Beautiful courgette flowers on Fethiye market

I wrote a post a while back about the 46th Presidential Tour of Turkey arriving in Fethiye. Well, we spent the rest of today watching Stage 3 of the race on Eurosport. We haven't got a clue about road cycle racing but it we're in Turkey and it was mainly about watching all the familiar scenery pass by. It was the Bodrum to Marmaris leg of the race today and the commentators were talking about how stunning the Turkish scenery looked. The scenery certainly suited the TV cameras as well. It was a Turkey tourism coup!

Tomorrow is the Marmaris to Pamukkale leg and then it's the big one the day after - Denizli to Fethiye. 220 kilometres, reaching a height of 1600 metres; the toughest leg of the whole race. The riders are expected in Fethiye at around 4:30pm on Thursday afternoon. We'll be there to cheer them on - I think they're going to need it! There's a timetable, stage route map and Twitter updates on the Tour of Turkey website if you want to see what's going on.

You Know It's The Start of The Fethiye Summer Season When...

Yeahy. After a rather cold and damp (understatement - it was very rainy) day yesterday, the Spring Fethiye weather is back with a vengeance. It's been glorious today, although we were a bit dubious about the predicted hot weather this morning when we got up. We went out onto the balcony and you could see your breath - it soon warmed up though. I went for a run (note the singular there - Barry still has his sporting injury) and it was most pleasant by the time I finished. The sea was more like a lake - perfect reflections of the yachts, gülets and the pine forests. I have to admit, it makes going for a morning run much easier. I'm not sure I'd have the same get-up-and-go if I had to run through Wigan at 6am before I went to work every morning.

Gülets look more appealing in summer

Hagi's back!
I think we need to start a 'You know it's the start of the summer season in Fethiye when...' section because a couple of things have happened in the last few days. A couple of days ago, we were walking through Paspatur in Fethiye and who was walking around in his full regalia? Hagi. You know the season is starting when Hagi the shoe shine man pops up from his hometown in the East of Turkey. He's a Fethiye institution and he's looked exactly the same since 1998. He looks exactly the same this year - Galatasaray football club top with 'Hagi' written on the back (a couple of the letters are missing), jeans with toothbrush in the back pocket. One can only assume the toothbrush is some sort of shoe cleaning implement.

The tables are out!
And so another 'You know it's the start of the summer season in Fethiye when...' We've just had a lovely couple of drinks at Ocakbaşı Iskele Restaurant on Fethiye harbour. It stays open all winter and it's nice to sit inside then for a meal but, because it's at the beginning of the Karagözler, near Fethiye's ancient Telmessos theatre, you can't really sit outside in winter because the sun doesn't reach high enough in the sky to warm you up. Today though, the tables were out, the customers were there and the sun was shining. Beautiful view of the gülets in the marina from there too. We've identified a little wall as well - just enough room for two people - where people sit to admire the view, fish or search for turtles. Funny. We saw at least six different couples sit down there while we were sat at Iskele - and we weren't sat there for too long. (Today's pics are of the view from Iskele restaurant - including the said wall.)

We walked back through Paspatur to get the dolmuş home and noticed that a man who used to run a kebab shop we always went to in the past is now running a kebab shop in Paspatur. That was it then; kebab for tea. This man knows how to do a good half bread. We always get chicken and lamb döner mixed and a separate plate of pickled chillies. Bliss.

Our Growing Fethiye Blog

What a day. The weather forecast did say rain for today but it was all a bit autumnal. We got really wet walking round Fethiye market. It had stopped raining when we set off so we decided not to bother with an umbrella. We ended up very wet and very cold!

Where's Mendos?

We bought some yeni dünya on the market because we're on a fruit eating mission now. 5 a day and all that. We eat loads of veg but not enough fruit. For as long as the season lasts, breakfast is going to be a little fruit salad of banana, kiwi fruit and yeni dünya. It'll change when the fruit season changes. I ate one of the yeni dünya as we walked round the market. The seeds - well, stones - inside are huge. Completely unnecessary for a fruit so small.

About The Blog
Yesterday was an interesting day. All very strange for us really. We started this blog for a few reasons. In the beginning, it was partly a 'passing the winter' activity and a 'let's see how many positive things we can keep saying about Fethiye and Turkey' activity. It's all blossomed from there (with the help of Twitter and Facebook) and now summer is coming, people are coming on their holidays and you realise people have been reading what you write...now, that's the odd thing for us. We've just been typing merrily away for a few months now, hoping people read the blog - but now we've met a couple of people who know of us through the blog. Isn't life strange?

Maybe you've already noticed but we've managed to make the blog look more professional and website-like by getting some tabs at the top of the page. This is all a work in progress because we're not happy with how they look yet but at least they're there for now. The reason we're mentioning it is because someone asked us on the Facebook fan page about what they should do on their first visit to Fethiye. We've made a list of our Fethiye 'must sees and dos.' Again, it's a work in progress because it's crying out for some photos. There are also many other suggestions we could add but it's just a holiday one for now. People have different tastes and our 'must sees and dos' might be a boring holiday for someone else. If you've got any ideas that you think we've missed, please add them to the Facebook page so others can see them. Thanks.