New Year in Fethiye

Bodrum lamposts decorated with lights of New Year

Fethiye, Friday, 31st December 2010. Not just any other day. It's New Year's Eve of course. Tomorrow is the start of a whole new year and no doubt many of you have got big plans for how you're going to make 2011 the best year ever. We have plans like that every year...but for now, we're just going to make the most of the last day of 2010. All of these sparkly, festive photos were taken in Bodrum when we went to pick our friends up from the airport. I thought they'd make a fine contribution to the last post of 2010.

Christmas tree on the harbour on Bodrum

The restaurants around Fethiye are decorated in festive fashion and prepared for this evening. As is the norm here, a lot of them will be doing a fixed price evening and some of them even do an all inclusive where you buy your ticket and that includes live music, all your food and local drinks for the evening.

Us? Well, we like to eat and move on. This evening's general plan is to go to Fethiye fish market, get completely stuffed on king prawns and then walk off our food, all the way down to Paspatur - all of a 5-minute walk - where I am sure far too much alcohol will be consumed and we might even have a little dance. That could all depend on what we happen to be drinking of course.

New Year wishes from Bodrum

Our New Year's Eve is going to be spent with friends, old and new, all of whom we've been lucky enough to meet in Fethiye over the years. Anil (who writes the great travel smarter blog, foXnoMad) will be present for the festivities, along with his wife, and we also have friends over from England and down from Istanbul. Let's see what happens...


However and wherever you spend your New Year's Eve, hope it's a good one. Thanks to all of you who have read Turkey's for Life throughout 2010 and hopefully, we'll see you in 2011.

Happy New Year!

Mutlu Yıllar. Yeni yılınız kutlu olsun!

Seasonal Food in Turkey - Citrus Fruit

Many people come out to Fethiye at this time of year with the idea of enjoying a change of scenery while seeing in the New Year. As tends to be the norm during these festive periods, flights from all over the world are swapped, changed and cancelled and destination airports are altered. During the early hours of 28th December, our friends landed at Bodrum Milas Airport. Yes, they should have landed at Dalaman Airport but I'm starting to feel like Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't have to set off on a jaunt along the southern coast of Turkey to pick friends up.

I love to drive and make longer journeys more interesting by stopping off here and there. If there's no rush, what's the point of hurtling along the road, straight to your destination? There are many little places along that road waiting to be explored. Some are going to be better than others, but how do we know if we don't see for ourselves? We set off from Fethiye during mid-morning on the 27th December and paid a visit to Marmaris and Akyaka en route to Bodrum. We also made one other little stop...

  Köyceğiz citrus fruit stalls

Köyceğiz is a large village west of Dalaman airport and it is a major production area for citrus fruits. Orange and lemon groves line the road on either side, vivid green leaves and branches straining under the weight of juicy oranges. Trailers sit in lay-bys, overflowing with fruit waiting to be towed to market. And every few metres, stalls like this sell the juiciest, tastiest citrus fruits. Of course, this could be purely psychological but the tangerines seem to taste so much sweeter from these stalls. There's something really enjoyable about pulling up by the side of the road and jumping out for the car to buy a couple of kilos of tangerines for the journey - or are we just easily pleased?

Seasonal citrus fruit in Turkey

I don't know how many tangerines we got through before we reached our first stop of Marmaris. Too many - but we did manage to save some to share with our friends on the way back to Fethiye.

Seasonal Food in Turkey - Hurma of a Different Variety

This is another new and mysterious Turkish seasonal food that has just hit our radar. Anyone ever seen it before? When we went to our friends' house on Christmas Day to eat aşure, this was handed over to take with us. Neither of us had ever seen it before nor had a clue what it was!

Another unknown Turkish seasonal fruit - hurma

Our friend told us that the person he bought it from explained to him that it was hurma. This is where the Turkish language can become a bit confusing as hurma is generally used to mean currents and raisins - but, as we discovered and wrote last year, hurma is also used to describe the super-sweet fruit, persimmon. We've all had a taste (it's the gnarled brown shapes that you eat) and agree that it tastes a bit like a mild-flavoured raisin but with a drier texture.

If anyone knows an alternative name to the hurma in this photo, we'd love to know as we're very curious about it. Having never seen it before, we also noticed it was for sale on Çalış market on Sunday. It's serving as a festive decoration in our house at the moment - well, I think there's something oddly pretty and festive-looking about it.

Christmas Day In Fethiye - A Tale of Two Cultures

Our Christmas Day in Fethiye usually involves us inviting Turkish friends to our house for the day and force feeding mince pies and other Christmas 'delights' upon them. This year, we decided to keep it quiet and just do the rounds, bearing gifts. We were to go to our friend's house and give them their Christmas present, up to another friend's in Fethiye and then across to Çalış to visit Barry's parents and eat Christmas dinner with them.

The visits to Turkish friends was supposed to be a quick, 'Hello, Merry Christmas and here's your Christmas gift. Must dash.' However, what we should be more than fully aware of by now, is that that is just not possible with Turkish friends. Hospitality is everything - the guest is everything! Luckily, we'd given ourselves a bit of leeway with regards to time.

And so a Christmas Day stroll, in the warm sunshine, along Fethiye harbour and to 'house visit' number one. 'We can't stay. We're just dropping these off and then we're going to...'
'Nonsense. You can come in for ten minutes.'
Before we knew it, we were taking our shoes off, slippers were placed on the doorstep for us and we were sat in their house exchanging gifts. Then came the food...

 A VERY traditional Turkish recipe - Aşure / Noah's Pudding

This is aşure. The story goes that aşure is what Noah made as a last meal on the ark once the floods had subsided. It's also known as Noah's Pudding or Noah's dessert. As there wasn't an abundance of food left in the ark's food stores, Noah used the various ingredients that were left over (grains, pulses, dried fruit) and produced this bountiful and very filling concoction. Today, ingredients vary slightly between different regions of Turkey and countries of the Middle East.

Aşure is one of the oldest recipes of this part of the world and at the moment, unbeknown to us (until yesterday) it is aşure time of year. Turkish people make aşure and serve it to family, friends and neighbours. It's served as a symbol of peace and love - and we arrived just as aşure was being distributed. Spoons were handed to us and a rather large bowl of aşure - not something you want to be eating when you're just on your way to eat Christmas dinner - but hey, it's Christmas! What better time for us to be eating aşure?   

I swirled my spoon round and round in the bowl to try to identify the ingredients in there. Our friend is no cook and just told us there were 'lots of things' in it. I spotted barley, white beans, chickpeas, crushed walnuts, pomegranate seeds, cinnamon (lots of cinnamon). A quick scout around Google pages this morning has revealed that there was possibly rice and rosewater in there as well. A dessert containing chickpeas and beans is not something I would have considered - but it works. We shared a bowl of warm aşure and I have to say, I'm not sure I could have gotten through one to myself. Very rich, very festive (that must be the cinnamon) and then a burst of freshness as the crunchy pomegranate seeds pop between your teeth. Oodles of calories!

We arrived at house number one expecting to offload some gifts and make our bag a bit lighter for our walk to house number two. We left house number one with more gifts than we arrived with and very full tummies! Very fitting that we should arrive at our friends' house on our Christmas Day in Fethiye just as they were sharing out aşure; a symbol of love, peace and merriment.

Seasonal Food in Turkey - Bergamot(?) & Christmas Greetings

Another seasonal Turkish food discovery - bergamot

Anyone seen these before? We went to Cafe Pazar yesterday to arrange a hire car for Monday and to wish our friends a Merry Christmas. As we were sitting and chatting, one of our friends walked in with another man and they were carrying these. Apparently, they are called bergamot.

I've done a quick investigation on Google Images and typically, these two lumpy fruits do not resemble any of the photos on there. Maybe these are special Turkish bergamot! They're from our friend's mum's tree in her front garden, so they definitely grow here in Fethiye, and she had just made the jam/jelly that you can see in the middle of the two fruits. It was still warm and really aromatic. A bit like a mild, perfumed marmalade. Pleasant on the taste buds.

Bergamot is also the fruit that is used to make Earl Grey tea and the oil from the fruit is used in the fragrance industry. It's the rind and the skin that is used as the fruit inside is really sour. Yet more useful / useless pieces of information we have learnt since starting Turkey's For Life! Thought it was a nice one to leave you with over Christmas.

To all of you who read Turkey's For Life;

thanks for reading and, if you celebrate it, have a fabulous, merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Turkish Food - Pickled Red Cabbage Recipe

Today has been a 'getting organised for Christmas' day. We've done the Christmas shopping and the Christmas making. We like to feel we're putting the thought and the feeling back into Christmas (well, that's our excuse anyway) by not spending too much. Two of our Christmas presents for other people are made by us. Someone will be getting a jar of muhammara and another person will be getting a lovely big jar of pickled red cabbage.

We did quite a few posts last winter on the Turkish love of pickled vegetables and pickled red cabbage is included in that. These days, we struggle to get through a serving of gözleme without devouring a plate or two of pickled red cabbage and other pickled vegetables; peppers, carrots, aubergines, white cabbage.

Anyway, here is our pickled red cabbage recipe. I made it last Christmas and it went down very well with all concerned. It's actually an old Mrs Beeton recipe and I like it because of the spices in the vinegar.

Excess juices will leave the red cabbage because of the salt

• First of all, take all the outer leaves from a medium-sized red cabbage and cut it lengthways, through the heart, into quarters.
• Cut out the thick white stem, and slice the rest of the cabbage into thin shreds.
• Lay all the cabbage out onto a plate and sprinkle salt over it. The cabbage is supposed to be covered and left overnight like this but I just waited a few hours.

The spice flavours will infuse into the vinegar as it boils 

• Add some crushed black pepper, a pinch of freshly grated ginger and a little chilli powder to a pan. 
• Pour around 75cl of vinegar over the spices and bring to the boil.
• After the vinegar has boiled for a couple of minutes, remove it from the heat and leave to cool.

Glass jars are readily available on the Fethiye markets, maybe because Turkish people love their pickled vegetables so much. We usually use empty jam jars and the like but, well, it is Christmas so we splashed out 1 lira for a dedicated pickled red cabbage jar.

• Add the cabbage to your chosen jar (our jar holds about a litre) and then pour the cooled vinegar through a sieve and over the top of the cabbage.

 Festive pickled red cabbage

Seal the jar and leave it for a day or two before opening it. All ready for Christmas Day, Turkish pickled vegetables have made a decent Christmas present. It's the thought that counts!

Turkish Food - Turkish Rice Recipe

We've been meaning to do a recipe for what we call Turkish rice for a long time now but it's taken till last night for me to get round to actually making some.(It's real name is şehriyeli pilav.) If you're familiar with Turkish food, you'll know that rice features quite heavily in many of the main meals. A lot of the Turkish recipes I follow usually end with, 'serve with rice' and if you go to a lokanta (a type of Turkish restaurant), whichever dish you order, it's highly likely that you'll be asked whether you would like a side serving of rice to go with it. 

A staple Turkish food - side serving of rice

Thankfully, Turkish rice is very tasty. Whenever our friends come over to Fethiye to visit us, they always say, 'I can't wait to have some of that Turkish rice.' (They must be sick of eating the 'quick cook' rice for sale in the British supermarkets!) One of our Turkish friends is an amazing cook (and loves to cook) but her husband says he's happy just eating Turkish rice with yoghurt - surely a good example of how rice is much-loved by some in Turkey (even if it does drive our friend round the bend!)

So, it was becoming increasingly difficult to live in Fethiye and not be able to produce a good bowl of Turkish rice for the table whenever we had friends round for dinner. A couple of years ago, I asked my friend how she made it and I've made it this way ever since. So here is our friend's recipe for Turkish rice - with a tiny little change by us.

• Heat a glug of olive oil in a deep pan on a low heat. (This is the change by us. The traditional way is to melt a knob of butter but I find the butter a little too rich).
• Next, add around 3 dessert spoonfuls of şehriye to the pan. (I had never seen this till we came to Fethiye. It's a type of pasta and if you're outside Turkey and can't find it, vermicelli can also be used.

 Şehriye is used in servings of Turkish rice.

• Stir the şehriye and watch it carefully, as you are looking for a change of colour. As soon as you notice the slight change in colour, add a cup of rice (we use a coffee / tea mug) and keep stirring for a few minutes. (Remember to keep it on a medium to low heat or else the rice, and particularly the şehriye, will burn.) 

The rice and şehriye is sauted for a few minutes

• After a few minutes, add 2 mugs of water. Use the same sized coffee mug as you used for the rice.
• There'll be a big sizzle and the water will bubble up. Turn up the heat and bring the water to the boil, fully.
• Give the rice a couple of stirs, cover and return the heat to medium / low.
• Leave it to simmer for 8-10 minutes, turn off the heat and leave the pan covered for another 5 minutes.

Lovely steamed Turkish rice

• When you remove the lid, fork through the rice to make it fluffy and then serve it with whatever exciting Turkish food you have made.

(This recipe makes enough rice to serve as a side dish for four people. However much you decide to make, the easy thing to remember is you just use twice as much water as rice and it should cook perfectly.)

The Greek Island of Meis - Top 5 Things To Do

Kastellorizo's Greek name is Megisti. It is known in Turkey as Meis

'You will either love Kastellorizo and stay a week, or crave escape after a day.' (1)

'It takes a certain amount of decisiveness and a sense of adventure to come to tiny, rocky Kastellorizo, a mere speck on the map 118km east of Rhodes.' (2)

If you're a regular visitor to the Turkey's For Life blog, you'll know that we are regular visitors to Kastellorizo; every twelve weeks or so, in fact, and we can stay for a day without craving escape. Does this mean we have 'decisiveness and a sense of adventure'? Hmm, well we may have a bit of that in us I guess, but when this sentence was written I think the author was perhaps thinking about those wanting to visit Kastellorizo from Rhodes, 70 nautical miles away. 

Of course, things have changed a lot of late and Meis now has a healthy supply of foreign visitors from Turkey. Kaş is just 2.5 km across the water and is the departure point for foreigners hopping over to Meis to renew their Turkish visas or just to take a day trip. Recently, there are also more Turkish visitors to the island since the relaxing of their visa requirements.

So, if you find yourself on the beautiful Greek island of Kastellorizo but you feel you are craving escape, here are our top 5 recommendations for survival. (We love the place, by the way.)

1. Get some height! Take yourself off up the winding roads, get your camera out and take countless photos of the fantastic scenery. There's a ridiculously big army barracks up the road going towards the west of the island - put your camera away here! There are signs warning you and I didn't much fancy putting them to the test by continuing in my snap happy ways.

In the bottom right photo, you can see a steep, walled path going up the cliff side. We have yet to venture up here but it leads to a monastery - and amazing views over to Kaş and elsewhere along the Turkish coast.

There are also great views from the castle of the Knights of St. John and the museum (just beneath the castle). The museum is worth a visit if only to see how many buildings used to sit on the hillsides of Meis.

2. Explore the side streets. In the past, Kastellorizo had a significantly larger population - and more villas than it has today. Slowly, slowly, ex-islanders are returning to the island (mainly from Australia) to renovate dilapidated buildings or to build new summer homes from scratch. In the summer months, don't be surprised to hear lots of Australian accents which suddenly flip into Greek conversation. 

Whitewashed and pastel-coloured homes are more numerous with each visit

3. Eat, drink, chill. Kastellorizo is one of those picturesque islands where most of the activity is set around the harbour. Sit at any of the cafes or restaurants with a plate of fresh seafood, an iced coffee or a Mythos beer or three and before you know it, a few hours will have disappeared.

4. Stay overnight. There are a few little pensions and a couple of small hotels on Meis. Stay overnight in Meis and you can enjoy the same tavernas as the sun goes down and watch the twinkling lights of Kaş, opposite the harbour. 

If you stay overnight, you can also  go on one of the boat trips to the island of Ro and the Blue Cave (Parasta) where you can swim inside. There are also daily boat trips over to Kaş in Turkey.

5. Concede defeat. If you are here from Turkey, either on a day trip or for visa renewal, your boat will soon be taking you back to Kaş. If you are a party animal, an adrenalin junkie or just in desperate need of a tad more land mass, well, you can take Kastellorizo's only taxi to the airport and take a domestic flight to the island's nearest Greek neighbour, Rhodes. Or, you can wait for the ferry to Rhodes to come and pick you up. Your other alternative is to make the most of Kastellorizo's proximity to Kaş and go off to explore Turkey.(3)

(You can buy the latest editions of Lonely Planet - Greece and The Rough Guide to the Greek Islands direct from our Turkey Books, Music and Film store on Amazon)

(1) Rough Guide to the Greek Islands p.310 (2002)

(2) Lonely Planet - Greece p.493 (2004)

(3) If you needed a visa to enter Greece, please check with the travel agent along the harbour whether it is possible for you to enter Turkey / leave Greece from the island. Also, make sure you have met Turkey's visa requirements for whichever country's passport you carry. 

The Turkey's For Life Giant Mixed Tost!

Tost: You can't come to Turkey - at least the west of Turkey - and leave without sampling tost. Tost is a big, tasty toastie and the Turks do a mighty fine tost! It's not two tiny slices of bread with a delicate filling and a dainty side salad (unless you're in an eatery trying to cater for foreign visitors). Instead, expect a half bread - a Turkish loaf cut in half - with your choice of filling. In  Fethiye, the fillings you're most likely to see on offer are variations of cheese, sucuk and tomato and if you're in Turkey on a budget, well, you need to hunt out the Turkish toastie. They'll fill you up, they taste great and they're cheap!

For those who feel like splashing out and treating themselves, you can order a karışık tost. This is a mixed toast and means you would like all three fillings (our favourite tost). When we make our own karışık tost at home in Fethiye, of course we have to add a couple of little extras and we use bazlama rather than the usual, equally good, Turkish bread. This is purely for the reason that we're slightly addicted to bazlama at the moment. 

Prepare your Turkish mixed toastie ingredients first

• Slice your tomatoes and sucuk (salami or pepperoni is fine if you can't get sucuk) and grate your cheese. There are no set amounts for this. We've called this a giant tost because we like to squish a lot of filling in between the slices of bread.
• You will notice some chopped fresh chillies in the bottom right of this photo. For us, these are an essential ingredient in any tost. You can ask for chillies in your tost in the Fethiye cafes. Sometimes, they will be added into your sandwich or you might get a small plate of pickled chillies if you are sitting down to eat. 

Your Turkish mixed toastie is ready to be eaten.

• Preheat your toastie machine.
• Cut your bazlama in half (ciabatta is a good substitute for bazlama) and then carefully slice it through the middle.
• Spread salça across one half of the bread and sprinkle some of the grated cheese on top.
• Add your chopped chillies, followed by the sucuk slices and tomato. 
• Sprinkle kekik (dried thyme or oregano) over the top, followed by the rest of the cheese and place your other slice of bazlama on top.
• (Carefully) place your future toastie onto the griddle and pull the lid down. Our griddle comes off its hinge. If yours can do this, take it off the hinge so that you can just rest the top of it onto the toastie. (More even coverage!) If you're using standard Turkish bread, press down onto the top of the close griddle so you can sqaush the bread down to make it as flat as possible.
• After 10 or 15 minutes, işte! A personalised Turkish karışık tost. Either wait a few minutes to let it cool down or do what we do and wrap a serviette round it so you can begin straight away and burn your mouth!

Fethiye Storms - The Aftermath

I know there are horrendous storms that affect certain parts of the world on a regular basis and last night's storm in Fethiye would probably look like a mere gust of wind in comparison to those, but for this area of the Southwest Turkish coast, the storm was pretty significant. Thunder, lightening, high winds and pelting rain battered the house all night (amazingly, we only lost one roof tile) so that when we woke up this morning, we opened the curtains, not just to let the daylight in but to peer through the window to assess the aftermath.

Waves crashing against Red Island in Fethiye Bay

Being a large natural harbour protected by surrounding mountains, Fethiye doesn't feel the full brunt of the extremes of weather. Tell tale signs of last night's storm in Fethiye were a swollen sea the colour of clay and these waves crashing against the rocks of Red Island - these waves come from the direction of the open sea. A bit of online communication with a friend in Çalış and we had to go over there to see for ourselves.

A bedraggled Çalış water taxi jetty

We could hear the waves crashing onto the beach as we walked down the street in Çalış but the first effects we noticed of last night's storm were at the Çalış water taxi jetty. 

Çalış Beach Promenade

There's going to be a big clean-up operation going on over the next few days. Some of the bars and restaurants in Çalış have been damaged as the sea was crashing right over the promenade, bringing the beach with it. 

Crashing waves on Çalış Beach

As you can see in the photos, the sea at Çalış was still very swollen today. We've never seen Çalış look quite like this in all the time we've been here. Waves were still reaching the wall between the beach and the hotels and bars but we could see that they were even bigger down towards the dolmuş station - so we continued further along the beach.

Çalış rolling waves

The beach and the sea looked absolutely amazing. No pebbles on the beach; just pure, smooth sand. The waves were huge and I did a great video...but I've tried twice to upload it and it won't work, so photos it is. You'll just have to use your imagination.

The biggest, most beautiful waves were in front of Güven's

These were the waves at Güven's Restaurant. If you know this place, you can get a good idea of the strength of storm when I say the waves were coming right up, over their seating area, through the garden and hitting the windows. There's only the steel frame of their covered area left. The rest was blown away.

And as I write, the rain is again pouring from the sky in Fethiye. So far, only the odd grumble of thunder and no high winds. Here's hoping...


Update 18/12/10 - We managed to upload the video to our Facebook page. Watch it now!

Christmas in Fethiye – Why We Choose To Be Here

Although we’ve had our home in Fethiye for seven years now, this will be only our fourth Christmas in Turkey. The Christmas period is not officially celebrated in Turkey but, particularly along the coastal areas, more and more Turkish people are embracing the festivities and buying Christmas trees and decorations for their homes. However, as this is Turkey, the vast majority of trees and decorations are erected not for the 25th December celebrations but to welcome in the New Year (Yıl Başı).

So why would two people who love Christmas want to spend the festive season in a country that doesn’t officially celebrate it? There are pros and cons to all choices but we feel the pros outweigh the cons.

The Pros of Christmas in Fethiye

No seemingly endless build up to Christmas

We remember flying back to England for the winter a few years ago. It was mid October, we were still in our summer clothes (and the summer spirit) and we touched down at Manchester Airport. I could have cried when we entered the main terminal and were greeted with glittery Christmas decorations and a huge Christmas tree.

In Fethiye, there are no constant advertisements for the next (usually unavailable unless your name has been on the waiting list since the Christmas before) must-have toy, game or gadget.

In Fethiye, there are no Christmas departments in the supermarkets – yes, there are Christmas trees and decorations for sale now, but they haven’t been there since the end of September, and there certainly aren’t thousands of boxes of Christmas cards, mince pies, biscuits, chocolates and nuts being thrown at you as 3 for 2 offers. We fell for all of this when we were in Britain, ate about a tenth of it and threw the rest away.

It’s cheaper!

No tickets to buy for the work Christmas meal…followed by the work Christmas do …which means you need to buy new Christmas clothes for the do…and then you decide you can’t wear the same outfit twice in front of the same people…and, as it’s Christmas and you’re feeling festive, you buy the glittery clothes that you’re never going to wear again.

No taxi queues or extra fares or phoning up a week in advance to make sure your taxi home is definitely booked.

Christmas food – yes, the turkey. BUT, it was also always nuts, dried fruit, sprouts and tangerines in our house as I was growing up. They all still mean ‘Christmas’ to me. What I never knew as a child was that that is because most of those foods are seasonal. The Fethiye markets are brimming with citrus fruits (and festive citric aromas) and nuts of many varieties at the moment...and sprouts. At 36, we're just learning to like them. 

It's up to us

WE choose when our Christmas starts. WE can turn the Christmas music on and WE can turn it off when we’re sick of it. (Muppets Christmas is playing at the moment so that can stay on.)

Christmas Day will be spent exactly as we want it to be – we’ll do something to make it special, but, to be honest, we’ve not even really thought about this Christmas Day yet. Why? Because it’s only the 16th of December. IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS YET. We don’t have to order the turkey and stock up as if the shops are going to be closed for a month. Christmas Day is not a holiday in Turkey. We can go to the shops if we run out of milk. We can even buy our meat from the butcher on Christmas morning if we want!

It's a bit different

We’ve completely embraced Turkish food (not difficult being that it’s so good) but on previous Christmas Days, when Turkish friends visit us, traditional Christmas mince pies it is! They eat them politely – very politely. Maybe they won’t be calling on us this year.

The Cons of Christmas in Fethiye

Friends and family in Britain

When we chose to come to Turkey, that meant leaving friends and family behind in England so we do think about them over Christmas…but we will see a lot of them throughout the summer months.

We’ve only got three Christmas cards and they’ll probably be the only 3 we’ll get. It’s not really a con (we’ve only sent 2 so the extra one is a bonus!) but we had to have something to pad out this section.

I think that just about explains it.

How will you be spending Christmas this year? Are you a traditionalist or do you like to do something a bit different?

Cricket Fans in Fethiye - And A Bit of Inspiration

I wasn't going to do a post today. I've been browsing through our posts of 2010, pondering what sort of New Year post to do and as usual, when I start one task, I stumble across something and completely forget about what I was supposed to be doing in the first place. 

So I'm no further on with my original quest - I've not even started it actually - because I came across a post from December 2009, 'Cricket in Turkey?', and as our life is all cricket at the moment, I thought it only right to do an update. This is how it all ties in...

We started to write Turkey's For Life at the end of last November. Soon afterwards, we heard about an English guy called Oli who is a cricket fan. We heard about him because at the end of the last Ashes series, he decided to cycle from England to Australia - raising money for charity along the way - to get there in time for this Ashes series. It just so happened that he'd reached Istanbul (he managed to arrange a cricket match in front of Aya Sofya and we found out that Turkey has a Cricket Board!). We followed his blog, Twitter feed and Facebook page from there onwards and amazingly, he got to the first Ashes test on time. If you're a cricket fan and have been watching the coverage (or listening to it on Test Match Special), you've probably seen Oli being interviewed. 

I'm quite prone to exaggerating when writing about various events and achievements, but if ever the adjectives, 'amazing' and 'inspirational' should be used to describe an achievement, it's got to be for this, surely? Here's a link to Oli's last blog post which has a few photos of him at the the Gabba (that's a cricket ground in Australia for all you people out there who yawn at the thought of cricket!) being interviewed by Michael Atherton etc. Cycling to the Ashes - The End. I strongly suspect it isn't the end though - there's mention of the hunt for a publisher in the post. Hopefully one will be found soon because there's a couple of people here who will definitely be buying the book! 

Us? We're off to bed now so we can wake up at 4am and listen to England beat Australia at the Waca (that's another cricket ground in Australia) and make history...hopefully.

Fethiye New Year Treats - It Could Be You!

We're definitely in the festive spirit now. The weather's gone cold and wet, as it ought to be at this time of year, so we've been stuck indoors. There was nothing for it but to make an effort and put the Christmas tree up to the sounds of some classic Christmas tracks. The tree is up, the Christmas cards are on the wall and the fire is in full use! 

As soon as there was a gap in the rain last Friday, we made a mad dash to Kipa supermarket. Cabin fever soon sets in if we don't take our chances and venture out during the short, non-rainy spells. Once the rain has decided it's coming to Fethiye, it generally drenches the area for a few days (huge drops - umbrellas just don't cut it) and we stand with our noses pressed against the window, wondering when we can once again enjoy the great outdoors. That's pretty much been the story of today, too.

Anyway, there was a little added bonus from our trip to Kipa. Each New Year (Yıl Başı), Turkey has a big national lottery draw. The prize is some astronomical amount of lira that works out roughly at around £15 million. We're not lottery people but hey, it's Christmas, so why not? 

The girl who served us asked us would we like a lottery ticket. Well, 'you've got to be in it to win it' as they say, so that was part of our Christmas present to each other. 8 lira (4 lira each). Wouldn't that be a good present if we won? And if we do win...hmm, not thought about that bit yet. Our yıl başı would certainly be an interesting one. What would you do if you won all that money?

Turkish Food - Lost In Translation

The photo you can see below is minced meat encased in a minced meat and bulgur wheat shell. In Turkey, this delightful little torpedo of tastiness is called İçli Köfte. If you're familiar with Middle Eastern cuisine, you could well be looking at it and thinking it's Kibbeh. Whichever name you choose to assign to it, it can't be any better than the one we knew it as when we first came to Fethiye...the English translation!

İçli köfte - the meatball with feeling

In Fethiye there's a row of lokantas (canteen/kitchen style eating places) all selling similar Turkish cuisine goodies - including içli köfte. As Fethiye receives many international tourists throughout the year, all eating places make an effort to translate their menus into English and parts of the menu are written on boards and placed on the street outside the restaurant. This means the other restaurants can see what's being advertised and they write exactly the same thing on their boards and in their menus...

...and so we had a full row of lokantas proudly advertising that tonight's menu included 'Sensitive Meatballs.' For months, we sat in these lokantas, looked at the Turkish - içli köfte -  looked at the English - sensitive meatballs - none the wiser. How could a meatball be sensitive? What was a sensitive meatball? The years have passed and the menus - we can't actually remember what it says anymore but it's not as good as 'sensitive meatballs,' that's for sure - have changed to a description that gives you a rough idea of what is going to arrive at your table.

I guess the moral of the story is, if you're dealing with an unfamiliar foreign language, maybe you shouldn't just open your dictionary and assume all words are suitable for your purpose - especially if this is being launched on your public. In Turkish,  'Iç' means 'inside' and 'li' means 'containing.' So içli köfte is a logical name. A case containing an inside. However, 'içli' can also be used to describe a person who is within themselves - someone who holds their feelings inside - a sensitive person. 

We've never looked at içli köfte in the same way since, lest we hurt their feelings. Handle them with care, love them, eat them and enjoy them. They're good!

Turkey's for Life is a Favourite Blog

Expecting a mushy disaster - we actually got rice fritters

Remember this photo? This is a photo of the outcome of a recipe we attempted (and then posted) for rice fritters. Afterwards, people said to us, 'Oh, we made those rice fritters. They're really good. Nothing like we expected.' 

They are fantastically good (I'm not exaggerating - they really are nothing like you expect) and the recipe was from Sarah at Foodbridge. Sarah was one of the first people we 'met' online (on Twitter) and we hope to meet her in person one day. Her blog is all about Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine and travel. She recently travelled to the Republic of Macedonia and Sweden and is a bit of a champion of hunting out and exploring local food markets wherever she is (you can see why we like reading her blog.)

Anyway, why are we going on about Sarah and Foodbridge? Well, as we're nearing the end of this year, she's listed her favourite food blogs of 2010. There aren't too many in this list - just the ones she likes to read - and as you might have guessed by now, we've made that list. Woo hoo! Thanks Sarah. Of the other blogs she links to, we already subscribe to four of them so it appears we have very similar tastes. Click the following link to see all of Sarah's favourite food blogs of 2010 on Foodbridge.

Fethiye Weather - Baltic Temperatures

So far this winter, we've been enjoying warm Fethiye sunshine, unseasonably high temperatures and mild evenings. However, rumours were rife from the beginning of November that Fethiye was in for a cold winter (by Fethiye's standards) and last week, weather presenters broke the news that Baltic temperatures were being pushed towards Turkey.

Yesterday and through the previous night, thunder rolled and cracked right above us, lightening shot across the sky constantly and the rain pelted. This morning, we woke up and opened the curtains and it was that tell tale clarity to the mountain scenery, the sea was grey, the sky was filled with erupting white cloud. It was cold! We could see a couple of tankers sheltering in the bay and after a storm, there's only one thing to do; take a walk along the beach and watch the sea.

Rolling waves hit Çalış Beach

We were wrapped up in hat and scarf today and it was still cold. The waves along Çalış Beach were rolling in and crashing along the shore and as you can see, the sky has remained angry for most of the day. 

Angry skies over Fethiye

In fact, the sky and sea have been amazing to watch today - no doubt helped along by the Baltic storms and temperatures. Whether this is just a cold snap or if this is it for the rest of winter, we don't know. For now, it's all fantastic, powerful scenery and we'll make the most of it while it lasts.

Istanbul - Istiklal Caddesi Haven - Baraka Bar

Wherever we've travelled to in our lives, we've always hunted out - or stumbled across - a bar where we feel comfortable; somewhere that feels local to the town or city we happen to be in. We're bar people (as you may know!) so we feel we know a city and it's people better once we find the right bar - that haven away from the sightseeing, getting lost and everything else that goes with being in an unfamiliar place. 

When we travelled through Eastern Europe, we were only in each city for two or three days but we have memories of our favourite bars. In Fethiye, we stumbled across Deep Blue Bar over ten years ago and well, there are a good few stories from there. I can honestly say though that we have met most of our Turkish friends either in Deep Blue or through people who go in Deep Blue. Bars are fantastic places!

The wonder that is Baraka Bar - Istiklal Caddesi

So, in this post, I'd like to introduce you to the fabulous Baraka Bar. It's the row of windows directly above the maroon canopies. You're supposed to be able to see the sign in the middle window! Baraka Bar is on Istanbul's famous pedestrianised shopping street, Istiklal Caddesi - of Robinson Crusoe's bookshop and Taksim-Tünel historical tram fame - and there's a secret to the best bars and cafes of Istiklal Caddesi...look up! 

Okay, hands up to this one. We were introduced to Baraka Bar by a Turkish friend who used to work in Deep Blue. See, I told you bars were good! She's an Istanbul girl and it's her local. Well, are two Brits really going to walk down a side street in a big foreign city, see a concrete stairwell in a building with one of those open, historical, wrought iron lifts and think, 'Ohhh, let's see what's up here!' This Brit isn't! I'm glad we were shown though. Baraka is our far-from-obvious (from the outside)  Istanbul haven.

Artwork on the walls of Baraka Bar

The owner and staff are just very chilled out, pleasant guys! Last time we were there, I commented that one of them had really good English. 'Oh, that's because I used to work in Hisarönü.' Hisarönü is a resort next to Fethiye. For such a big country, Turkey is very small!  

Apart from the friendly, relaxed atmosphere and good music, the best thing about Baraka Bar is this...

View of Istiklal Caddesi from a balcony of Baraka Bar

Istanbul has an estimated population of 15 million people and I'm pretty sure a hefty proportion of this population walk up and down Istiklal Caddesi at all times of day and night! (See photo). It's great to walk up and down there and to explore all the side streets of Beyoğlu - but it's also great to be able to nip through those unnoticed doorways (when you know where they are!), climb the stairs and enter the different world of places like Baraka Bar - high ceilings, wooden floors...and Venetian balconies from where you can look down on the masses of Istiklal, wonder where they're heading to, what they're doing...and take a few pics. 


You'll find Baraka Bar by heading towards Taksim Square from the famous gates of Galata High School for about 100 metres. Look left - and look up!

Fethiye Festivities - Sundial Hotel

We're getting there slowly; Christmas is creeping up on us really quickly and we're starting to feel the festive spirit really slowly. Yesterday helped us along the way very nicely though. Murat, the owner of the Sundial Hotel in Fethiye decided to play Father Christmas and invite people for an afternoon of roasted chestnuts and jacket potatoes. How could we refuse?

Roasted chestnuts served with cold Efes

Being that the weather in Fethiye is unseasonably mild at the moment (winter is supposed to be coming tomorrow - I can hear rumbles of thunder right now!), we sat outside in the late afternoon sunshine to eat our first helping of freshly roasted chestnuts. And in true Christmas, nostalgic, Nat King Cole style, they were roasted on an open fire.

As soon as the sun starts to go down, the temperature in Fethiye drops immediately so it was time to move inside and get cozy.

Jacket potatoes and chestnuts, roasting in the fire of the Sundial, Fethiye

The potatoes were served to us with garlic butter and cheese and the roasted chestnuts kept coming and coming and coming and...well, it was a free festive tea and a lovely, cozy afternoon in the Sundial. 

Çintar Mushroom Risotto Recipe

It's that time of year again; the days are shorter and cooler, there's a dampness to the cold night air...and the beautiful çintar mushrooms sprout beneath the pine trees of Fethiye. As you are no doubt aware by now, we enjoy our Turkish seasonal produce and the çintar mushroom season is one we particularly look forward to. Perhaps it's because the season is really short so we feel the need to dive straight in there and snap up as many as we can. Or, maybe it's just simply because this mushroom is downright delicious!

Çintar mushrooms on Çalış Market last December

I mentioned in last year's çintar mushroom post that they were really tasty, eaten with scrambled egg. They are! This year however, we're trying to add a bit of variation to our mushroom diet. After I did the spinach and cheese börek recipe last week, we still had some spinach left over so Barry decided to produce Çintar Mushroom and Spinach Risotto. Risotto is perfect this time of year; oozy and comforting and these seasonal mushrooms fitted the dish perfectly.

The traditional rice for making risotto is arborio rice. You can buy it from supermarkets in Fethiye but it's expensive compared to local rice and to be honest, Turkish rice is just as starchy. We always use Turkish rice and the results are perfectly acceptable.

   Mmm - meaty but meat-free risotto

Many people are put off making risotto because you have to stand over it and tend to it constantly. But, it's not difficult and it's worth a little attention just for the final results. We love risotto! This recipe makes two decent-sized portions.

• First of all, in a pan, bring around 1.5 litres of stock (chicken or veg) to the boil and leave to simmer.
• In a separate pan, melt a knob of butter, add a chopped onion and fry gently for a couple of minutes.
• Next, throw in some chopped chillies (optional), a clove of garlic and fry for a few minutes.
• Once the onion has softened, add one mug of Arborio or Turkish rice and stir to coat all the grains. Add some salt at this point.
• Throw in a few handfuls of roughly chopped (not too small because you want to keep the flavour and feel the texture of the mushroom) çintar mushroom and stir. Obviously, you can use other types of mushroom if you can't get çintar mushrooms!
• Stir the mixture for a couple of minutes. At this point, it's traditional to add a splash of vermouth to your risotto but we stick to the stock otherwise, in Turkey, your risotto will suddenly rocket in price. 
• Get a ladle full of stock from your simmering pan and add it to the rice and mushroom. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until the stock evaporates.
• Take another ladle full and repeat the process. Keep adding a ladle full of the stock and stirring till it evaporates until your rice is al dente. 
• Keep testing it as you don't want to end up with a plate of mush. A risotto should have the rice grains intact and the starch should have created an oozy sauce.

Delicious, oozy çintar mushroom & spinach risotto

• Once you're happy the rice is cooked, remove from the heat, add a small knob of butter and some Parmesan cheese and stir.
• Add a couple of handfuls of chopped spinach, cover the pan and leave it to stand for five minutes.
• Mix in the spinach and serve. (If you're being very naughty, a drizzle of olive oil over the top does taste really nice - but I don't put it on. Cheese and butter is more than enough guilt for me.)