Kalkan Autumn Sunset - A Photo

To be honest, there aren't many signs in Fethiye yet that autumn is upon us. Swimming pools and sun loungers are still full of summer sunbathers, the leaves on the trees are still a vibrant green and the nights still mild. But in our heads, it's autumn. 

I mentioned in a post last week that it was the end of the Fethiye summer for us...but it's not quite the end. We've got a grand finale. Two different sets of friends will arrive at Dalaman Airport on 7th October and come to stay in Fethiye. We'll spend a few days with them - perhaps not the best preparation for the 2011 Eurasia Marathon! - and then we'll head for our beloved Istanbul for the run and for summer's grand finale; an end of summer-season break. 

Autumn sunset over Kalkan

By the time we return from Istanbul, we'll be in full winter mode. The clocks will be about to go back, making days shorter and the nights longer and colder. But the shorter days mean stunning late afternoon sunsets like the one in this photo. 

On the sunny, crisp, autumn days we love to go out for the day to catch these sunsets. This photo was taken a couple of years ago as we drove along the D400. We stopped in a very sleepy Kalkan for çay before driving up and out of town and towards Kaş. As we hit the road above Kalkan, we were greeted with this car-stopping view. Well, how could you not stop to take a photo of that?

We're looking forward to more days like this very soon...

Check Out Hotels In Kalkan and Kaş on Turkey's For Life

Today's photo is our contribution to Travel Photo Thursday, hosted by Budget Traveler's Sandbox.

Turkish Recipes: Kadın Budu Köfte (Lady Thigh Meatball)

Kadın Budu Köfte - Lady Thigh Meatball. Hmm, well, where does this name come from? Ladies, I can't help but think this particular type of köfte was named by a man who thought he was being humorous in declaring it resembled a woman's thigh to his male counterparts before having a good old chuckle. If anyone knows of any other theories (as that theory is purely my mind working overtime!) we'd love to hear from you.

 Our serving of kadın budu köfte (lady's thigh meatball)

Anyway, there's usually a reason why we choose to do a particular blog post on any given day. Today's post is a Turkish recipe for kadın budu because I made it last night for tea. It's the first time I've ever made it and thankfully, it worked. 

The reason why I decided to make it was because a portion of yesterday was spent browsing Istanbul hotels online. As you know, we'll be heading up to Istanbul in just over a couple of weeks to take part in the Eurasia Marathon so it's about time we found ourselves some digs. When we went last year, we returned to Fethiye a few days later and headed straight for one of our favourite lokantas. On this particular day, they were serving kadın budu and it was just a pleasant welcome-back-to-Fethiye meal. That meal popped back up in both our heads yesterday as we were were researching Istanbul so there was nothing for it but to go out, buy some meat and give it a go.

A Turkish Recipe for Kadın Budu Köfte
The main ingredients for kadın budu are really simple; minced beef or lamb, rice, egg, onion, parsley. Those are the basics and then you can play around with adding extras. Some people add cheese or dill. Guess what we added? Yes, that'll be chilli flakes.

If you've got leftover rice from another meal, making kadın budu is a great way to use it up

This recipe made 10 kadın budu köfte so you can increase the ingredients if you're cooking for a lot of people.

• First of all boil a quarter cup of rice till the water evaporates and leave to one side to go cold. You can follow our Turkish rice recipe for this and omit the şehriye.
• Finely chop a medium-sized onion and begin to saute in a frying pan. Take 250g of minced beef and add around two thirds of this to the pan, leaving one third behind for later.

We let the meat cool before adding the raw meat and egg to the mixture

• Once the meat is cooked and the juices have evaporated, add it to a large plate and leave to cool. As you can see in the top left photo, I added a few hand-chopped dry chillies at this point. This is an optional extra. 
• Once cooled, sprinkle salt and pepper and roughly chopped parsley over the top of your meat. 
• Now add your rice and the remaining raw minced beef to the mixture.
• Beat an egg, pour that over and then mix it all up.

Be careful not to break your kadın budu köfte as you dip them in egg and place in the pan

And now, here comes the messy bit. If you've followed a recipe for köfte in the past and thought it was a bit messy on the hands, this one is even better.

• Knead your mixture for a few minutes to make sure all the flavours infuse.
• Now take large golf ball pieces of mixture, form them into a ball in your hand and pat down to make little patties. You'll have rice and meat stuck all over your hands but it's all part of the fun.
• Set the köfte out on your large plate and leave to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. The köfte will be quite loose at first but this helps them to set.
• After 30 minutes, sprinkle both sides of each köfte with flour.
• Beat an egg and heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan.
• Now dip each köfte into the beaten egg and gently lay in the frying pan. Fry gently for about 5 minutes on each side. I did ours in two batches and kept the cooked ones warm in the oven.

My first attempt at kadın budu - a success

As you might imagine, kadın budu can be very filling so we served ours with a simple salad of lettuce, rocket and cherry tomatoes dressed with a little vinegar and olive oil.

Afiyet Olsun!

A Fethiye Bay Cruise Ship - Crystal Serenity

We've just been having a lazy Sunday lie-in; not rushing to get out of bed despite the digger's engines rumbling just outside as it (seemingly) single-handedly constructs phase 2 of the new Fethiye harbour. As I was lying there with my morning brew, I was pondering what to write about today on the blog - and then I came down stairs and opened the curtains...

Shuttle boats ferry passengers between Fethiye and the ship

We only get two or three cruise ships a year calling off in Fethiye, so it's always a bit of a shock to be greeted by the sight of a huge, white vessel when you've only just woken up. If you read this blog a lot, you'll know I have a slight tendency towards ship watching (nerdy, I know) so it was a moment of glee as I ran for my camera to get a photo. While we've never particularly fancied going on a cruise, I do love the sight of the ships dwarfing all around them.

After getting the photo, I zoomed in to find the name. This beauty is the Crystal Serenity - and a quick search online took me straight to their website. It appears we may have quite a few American visitors in Fethiye, today - 1,070, if the ship is full. It's the company's largest ship and certainly one of the biggest we've seen in Fethiye bay.

These people are on a 12-day Mediterranean cruise from Istanbul to Venice and have paid FROM $6,995 per person. Wow! I guess we should be honoured that Fethiye was chosen as a port of call along their route, and no doubt the traders in Paspatur and possibly Kayaköy will be hoping our day visitors will be keen on picking up a few souvenirs to remind them of their day in Fethiye.

Next stop for these lot? They leave Fethiye later on this evening and cruise through the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Ionian Seas before arriving at the Greek island of Kefalonia on Tuesday. Hope the captain sounds the horn as they leave the bay then we can wave goodbye. 

Good Morning Fethiye - The New Harbour

One hundred and something days ago, it was announced that work would commence on the continuation of the new Fethiye harbour; the work would be complete within 90 days. Hmm, maybe someone forgot Ramazan and Bayram were right in the middle of those 90 days. Nevermind; after a period of absolutely nothing happening, activity has once more begun with gusto.

In May, we posted photos of the changes to Fethiye harbour between 2008 and 2011 - and the final two photos show the arrival of the digger and dumper truck, ready to begin phase 2. Since then, tons of earth and gravel have been dumped and flattened, pushing the sea back and creating a 'harbour path' about 15-20 metres wide. Amazingly, a team of only 5 men then constructed barriers ready for the concrete to be poured into to form the harbour wall. The concrete arrived...and so did Ramazan.

We're used to the sight of this digger, now.

For the last few days, we've been living in a bouncy house. Since work has recommenced, a steady flow of dumper trucks have trundled along the sea road and proceeded to shed their load of huge rocks onto the new path. It really is an almighty crash as the boulders tumble down to the ground, causing the house to judder and creating the sensation of a small earth tremor.

It's the job of the machine in the photo to lift each of these rocks, one by one, and lay them into the sea, presumably to make the harbour wall look more natural rather than the line of concrete it currently is. This is going on as I type. Ahh, the sound of steel scraping rock...

One woman and her dog

But we don't let upheaval like this affect us in Fethiye. In fact, we completely ignore it and pretend it's not happening. Earlier this morning, not 20 metres away from the grinding, banging, tumbling of boulders, shaking of ground, this lady was just sitting, having a quiet morning moment with her lovely dog. 

Fethiye Weather: The End of Summer...For Us

It's almost as if the Fethiye weather has synced itself with our daily life. As we said goodbye to our friends on Monday afternoon and began to wind down and return to a more normal existence, so the unseasonal September humidity finally gave in to the inevitable build up of electricity. 

Throughout last night, continuous thunder rolled, grumbled, cracked and sometimes boomed right above the house, causing the whole building to vibrate. Lightning caused a strobe light effect in the bedroom (we really must invest in some thicker curtains!), rain pelted the windows and the electricity flickered on and off, leaving the fan to clunk into action only to be stopped in its tracks again a few minutes later. But, despite only achieving restless sleep at best, all of this was strangely comforting - Autumn is on its way. 

Of course, the Fethiye summer season is still upon us, but for us, we're in that last-dance-at-the-disco kind of mood. We're slowing down. So today, we want to look back. Here is a tiny fraction of the photos uploaded for summer posts that were lined up but, for one reason or another, were never written. It's been that sort of summer in Fethiye.

These chairs are a feature of Kaş for us

While we fully intended going to the Greek island of Rhodes for the day in May to renew our visa, going to Meis three months later was not on the cards until a few days before we went. I love the colourful chairs outside this bar in Kaş and I took this photo while we were waiting to board the Meis Express.

Barry's pork lunch on the Greek island of Kastellorizo

We always look forward to our home made, barbecued, Greek sausages when we go to Meis but this time, Barry went for something different; pork and potatoes baked in a honey sauce. I coveted it when it arrived. Described as Mileto on the menu, we've looked it up but can find no information on it. No matter; the taste was fabulous!

Evening at the Yacht Classic Hotel in Fethiye

Many of our days in Fethiye have been spent enjoying the pool and gentle breezes at the Yacht Classic Hotel along the Karagözler so it's been quite a feature of our summer. As you can see in the photo, it's a very pretty place to sit in the evening, too.

Lunch on the Fethiye to Göcek boat trip. Trust us, it's good - if you're not vegetarian!

How many times have we done the Fethiye to Göcek boat trip this summer? 3? 4? Lost count but we've loved it every time. Göcek is as chilled and relaxed in the daytime as it's always been. 

And what's the purpose of the photo? Well, that's the lunch you get on the boat going across. A choice of köfte, barbecued chicken or trout, served with pasta, a green, minted salad and fresh bread. Some mock the food on the public boat trips - we chose to eat in Göcek on the first boat trip of the summer - but hey, we're paying 25 lira for a 7 hour boat trip. The lunch is perfectly good and fits our budget nicely, thank you. 

So what's next? A bit of detoxing, morning jogs in preparation for Istanbul in October, a few days in Istanbul, a few day trips here and there, more Turkish recipes...and before we know it, it'll be Christmas! 

Dalyan Once More - A Perfect Last Day

This is our remedy for those last-day-in-Turkey-blues. Yesterday, after a fortnight in Çalış, we had to take our friends back to Dalaman Airport for 3pm. Rather than them mope around in Fethiye, sulking at the thought of heading back to rainy Manchester and real life, we suggested hiring a car so we could set off early and spend the day in Dalyan. 

And, it appears a pre-flight day out is the perfect remedy! Because we were all somewhere else and enjoying the different scenery Dalyan offers, it didn't feel like we were waiting for 'the end.' Of course, there were those little blips as we all sat laughing where our friend would suddenly stop laughing and do the, 'Ohhh, I can't believe we're going home. I keep forgetting.' But that was the little blessing; we all kept forgetting.

View of the Dalyan Lycian rock tombs from Yakamoz Restaurant

Our friends had never been to Dalyan before, so we walked along the river and then took them to Yakamoz Restaurant (the restaurant of Hünkar Beğendi and Ali Nazik fame) for a late-morning coffee. It's right on the water's edge and a perfect place for admiring the views of the Lycian rock tombs. 

A stroll around town and a quick kebab and we still had time for a final drink together at M&M Rock Bar.

And then it was time for the inevitable. As much as we all enjoyed the little detour to Dalyan, we all knew it was going to come to this. We walked back to the car knowing our friends knew they weren't heading back to Fethiye but to Dalaman Airport and eventually, Manchester. Oh, that dreaded feeling. Our friend was grumbling in the back seat about how many emails he would have to deal with in the office today, that the house would be cold, that there would be loads of mail to deal with...we didn't envy them and they had our sympathy!

We drove up the ramp towards Departures, quick hugs and goodbyes, a beep of the horn and then we drove off back down the ramp and returned once more to our normal lives in sunny Fethiye. We did feel a little bit guilty...but only a little bit. They'll be here again!

Check Out Dalyan Hotel Prices On Turkey's For Life

Turkish Food - Kuzu Tandır (Lamb Tandir)

We've been wanting to do a post on the sheer delight that is lamb tandır for a long time but I always forget to take a photo of it whenever we're at Cin Bal in Kayaköy. As soon as the tandır arrives at the table, we all dive straight in there; testament to how good this dish is I guess.
When we were at Cin Bal a few days ago with friends, I finally remembered to have my camera ready before our forks did battle in the communal pan, trying to pierce every last morsel of meat.

A half-kilo serving of lamb tandır

Unless you're vegetarian, of course, lamb tandır is a must when you're in Turkey - just look out for the boards outside restaurants advertising 'Kuzu Tandır'. Red meat is not cheap in Turkey but it really is worth treating yourself to this lamb, even if you only get yourself a tiny sample. Most places sell it by weight, so you can choose the size of your serving. At Cin Bal, we usually order half a kilo between 4 people and eat it along with our meze dishes as a starter.

As you can probably tell from the photo, lamb tandır is lamb shanks that have been cooked very slowly over a period of hours, resulting in soft, tender meat that falls away from the bone. In days gone by, the lamb was cooked in an underground oven (a tandır) but these days, restaurants are using more conventional ovens. 

If you visit Cin Bal, look out for their tandır oven inside the restaurant. They have a huge brick oven that's heated by coals, built into the wall. Once the lamb is cooked, it's stored in iron trays under the oven and then served to order on hot plates. 

I always resist temptation because I know it can't be good for you, but people like my dad love to mop up the juices with bread once we've all polished the meat off. Would you be able to resist the temptation?

Kayaköy - A New Arrival

Most visitors to the Fethiye region head to Kayaköy to see the ruins; old homes left behind by the Greek population in the 1920s. When the weather is cool enough we love to walk to Kayaköy from Fethiye and then rest our weary legs and quench our thirst at Poseidon, sometimes followed by a barbecue at Cin Bal.

We have friends out to visit us at the moment so we took them on the obligatory trip to Kayaköy. Hot and humid weather meant the dolmuş was a more sensible mode of transport than our feet, but we still managed to quench our thirst at Poseidon while they took their photos - it's a great angle of the village from the little opening where Poseidon is situated.

Donkey in Kayaköy

But the main reason for today's post is just because we wanted to show you Kayaköy's new arrival. I spent a while the other day, stroking the nose of this very cute donkey. He managed to distract us from our Efes for quite some time because he was just loving the attention. He is very cute, isn't he?

But he's not the new arrival. These days, visitors to Kayaköy are able to go on a small camel trek if they so wish. Not really our scene but each to their own. There's something quite odd-looking about pink tourists clambering aboard a camel's back and then waddling off along the road. Anyway, these camels (much more friendly-looking than the beasts we observed at the camel wrestling over winter) have become a part of the scenery of the area and this is the new arrival...

Baby camel

Isn't this just the cutest little thing? Mother and baby were sitting together all day and we were wondering what would happen if someone booked a camel trip; hoping baby wouldn't be left alone.

Mother and baby in Kayaköy

A short while later, we found out, as two people climbed into the camels' saddles. The guide lead the camels and riders away, with baby trundling along at the side of mum. Feeling happy and heart-warmed at the sight of the baby camel, we headed off to Cin Bal to eat far too much food.

Turkish Seasonal Food: Nectarines

Have blog, will post! This feels quite strange as we're used to sitting on the sofa in the comfort of our own home, creating blog posts. You may have noticed we've been quiet for the last couple of days and that's because Turk Telecom are 'doing works' which have involved our neighbourhood being minus an internet connection. Not good for a pair of internet freaks like us - but at least we've got some cleaning done!
So, today's post is coming to you courtesy of the free internet connection provided by Cafe Geniş on Fethiye harbour - this is the second place we've tried after walking not quite far enough from our house, getting settled at a table with a Diet Coke...and of course, they had no internet connection either! Now, here we are, hot and bothered having braved the masses at Fethiye market, and needless to say, the Diet Coke is now an Efes Pilsen!

There's a certain irony to that, seeing as we've come out to do a post about a really healthy (and fantastic) snack that we've been introduced to in Turkey. 

Miracle breakfast of fruit, yoghurt and honey

Since moving to Fethiye, Turkish süzme yoghurt and honey have become staples in our house. Many of our Turkish friends have told us to eat yoghurt and honey together, but it's never really appealed to us - until a few weeks ago. Natural yoghurt is magical when settling an upset stomach and tackling nausea, even when that nausea is self-inflicted. 

So, whilst in the throes of a typical summertime hangover a few weeks ago, I decided a bit of fruit was a necessary accompaniment to my usual medicinal yoghurt in the interests of returning my body to a more natural state. I cut a nectarine into bite-sized chunks (just to make it more palatable - I was ill, remember), arranged it on a plate, slapped a large dollop of yoghurt on top and then, in for a penny in for a pound, I decided to stick the teaspoon in the honey jar and I drizzled the honey over the yoghurt and fruit.
Bliss! This has now become my favourite breakfast and I'm dreading nectarines going out of season. Of course, it works with other fruits. You could even do a mixed fruit salad but I just love nectarines. It's my newly discovered hangover cure and my post-jog breakfast. All round healthy eating. Now, back to that Efes...

Celebrating a Turkey's For Life Milestone

Browsing through all the stats for Turkey's For Life yesterday, I realised that we've reached a little milestone in the lifespan of the blog.

!!!500 blog posts!!!

Wow! We were going to be writing about something completely different today but it seemed a shame to let a lovely round number like 500 slip by without so much as a bat of the eyelid. That's a lot of writing!

There's a lot going on in little old Fethiye

The goings on in the Southwest corner of coastal Turkey that is Fethiye have provided much of the material for these 500 posts and will no doubt be providing much of the material for our next 500 posts, too. Inşallah.

When finances permit, of course we do like to explore further afield. So far, we've included posts on places such as Bodrum, Antalya and Istanbul amongst others, and visa renewal has also taken us to the Dodecanese Greek islands of Meis (Kastellorizo) and Rhodes. If you're a regular visitor to Turkey's For Life, you'll also know we have a love of Turkish food and that - deservedly - gets quite a lot of dedicated space within the blog. 

Don't forget, you can find any of our previous posts by using the customised search box on the left of the page. You can also scan the tag cloud which is on the left, too. 

So, here's to the next 500 posts! We've really enjoyed creating and organising the first 500 posts and we're still blissfully absorbed - some may say too absorbed! - in the world of blogging and are looking forward to developing the Turkey's For Life blog further.  

So, whether you drop by occasionally or whether you are one of a growing number of subscribers to Turkey's for Life, thank you to all of you for taking the time to read. It keeps us going! 

Fethiye Cheap Eats: Mozaik Bahçe Meze Plate

We seem to remember a while back, we started on a little quest to hunt out Fethiye's cheap eats. Remember that? Places where we can eat out for 10 lira and under. We wrote about the dürüm kebabs at Öz Gaziantep and the Sundial Burger at the Sundial Hotel amongst others. 

A crazy summer season schedule of playing out with visiting friends and family has meant the schedule on this blog has become, let's say, a tad haphazard. And as for the cheap eats, well we've not done very many, it has to be said. Our diet has been a lively mixture of grabbing a quick snack at home before dashing out or sitting down in restaurants and proceeding to shell out rather more than 10 lira! 

The Mozaik Bahçe meze plate is a great lunch or light evening meal

So, let's start getting back to some sort of budget-life-normality with our latest offering towards the Fethiye Cheap Eats series. The photo above is of the 'meze platter for 2' served at Mozaik Bahçe restaurant in the centre of Fethiye. At the time of writing, this dish is 14 Turkish lira but it's for 2 people. If you're visiting the restaurant alone, you'll be pleased to know they do a meze dish for 1 as well (and yes, that's 7 lira).

Generous helpings of Antep ezmesi, hummus, olive salad, yoghurt with peppers, aubergine salad and a spinach fritter for each person are garnished with spicy pickles and served with a basket of warm bread. (Click the links to take you to our recipes for these meze dishes.) 

We've had this meze plate for lunch on a few occasions. Sitting down to take time over a few light meze offerings makes a pleasant change from grabbing a quick kebab and it's also a perfect amount for two people. 

However, all of this comes with a little warning, and if you know Mozaik Bahçe, you may well know what this warning is going to be. You see, the menu is full of really interesting and tempting dishes from the Hatay region of Eastern Turkey and, if you're like us and get a bit excited about trying different foods, you may well struggle to stop at spending 7 lira on a meze plate. You've been warned.  

Mozaik Bahçe is tucked away on a quiet side street in the centre of Fethiye, directly behind Domino's Pizza.

Fethiye Boat Trips - The Blue Bays

The coastline and islands in and around the gulf of Fethiye make it just perfect for boat trips. Recently, we've taken advantage of this a few times by doing the Göcek market boat trip - just a great, cheap day out for us.

However, if you're not the sort of person who wants to be on a public boat with lots of other people you don't know, Fethiye and Çalış also has no shortage of smaller boats where you can book a private day out with family and friends - and the cost isn't ridiculous. 

The traditional Turkish gülets anchor in the Blue Bays

Most of these smaller boats leave Fethiye or Çalış at around 10:30 -11:00am and chug along the Fethiye coastline taking you on a tour of what are known as the Blue Bays. Although it's almost impossible these days to have a bay to yourself - we managed it last year - the Blue Bays are much quieter than the islands where all the bigger boats head for.

Sailing past one of the Blue Bays

If you're like me and not too brave in choppier waters, a Blue Bays boat trip is perfect. The boat hugs the coastline where the sea is much calmer and you can either let the captain choose a bay for you or ask them to stop if you see somewhere you like. 

A privately owned boat anchored at the entrance to one of the Blue Bays

And, as the boat trip is private, it's up to you when you move on to another bay. Like us last year, if you find an empty or particularly quiet bay where the water is dead calm and crystal clear, why move on? You can opt to stay put all day if you like. Swimming, snorkelling, a bit of fishing, sunbathing, usually lots of eating (the food on a private boat trip is just fab!) and quite a bit of drinking. 

We were lucky enough to be invited along with friends on a Blue Bays boat trip last week. We've done many in the past but hadn't been on a private trip in just over a year. It was a long, relaxing, lazy day and these bays are somewhere we will never tire of. 

Çalış Tattoo Convention & Bahane Bar

Last June we did a post about a new bar that had opened along Çalış Beach. We were very happy about this because most of the places along Çalış Beach are restaurants, so the arrival of Cafe Bahane filled this gaping gap in our Çalış visits.

We're pleased to report that Bahane is still going strong, and whilst last year it had the beach bar look, this year's decor more befits the personality of the owners, staff and many of the customers - they're into bikes. Big bikes!

Inside Cafe Bahane - notice the motorbike chained to the ceiling

We're mentioning Cafe Bahane again for two reasons. The first reason is purely because we have whiled away many an hour in there since we did the first post, last June. Bars are just not easy places to leave once you get settled. And Cafe Bahane is a very settling bar.

And the second reason we're mentioning them is...

Ticket sales point for the Tattoo Convention

The 2nd International Tattoo Convention. 
Yes, we have yet another international event to celebrate in the Fethiye region. It's not just tattoos either. If you're a fan of live rock music, get your gladrags on because none other than Hayko Cepkin will be coming to town for the occasion. If you're in the Fethiye area at the time of the convention and you don't know who Hayko Cepkin is, you soon will! Not to everyone's taste with his Marilyn-Manson-style-screaming down the mic, but he's hugely popular in Turkey and there's a bit of a buzz around town about his arrival.

What's all this got to do with Cafe Bahane?
Well, as you can see in the photo above, Cafe Bahane is the ticket sales point for this event. The 2nd International Tattoo Convention will run for 3 days from 9th to 11th September. Tickets are 50 lira each for the 3 days and this includes live performances by Turkish rock bands with, of course, Hayko Cepkin as the headline act on Saturday night. There are also going to be masses of Turkish and foreign tattoo artists attending the convention. 

All this is probably sounding really interesting to all the tattoo lovers out there. We're absolutely not tattoo lovers so why are we so bothered about all this? 

Sitting outside Cafe Bahane along Çalış Beach

One of the owners of Cafe Bahane is a member of the Anatolian Tigers. As far as we can see, the Anatolian Tigers are a group of people who ride around on huge, grufty, noisy motorbikes (I LOVE motorbikes) wearing black leather waistcoats or jackets that have an Anatolian Tigers badge on the back. Although not essential, long hair seems common, as does the presence of various tattoos. We know of at least one member who's covered in them - faces, too!

Anyway, if they've not completely organised the tattoo convention, members of the Anatolian Tigers have certainly worked hard in making it all happen and in riding around Fethiye and environs, putting up posters advertising it all. 

We're hoping Fethiye will be visited by LOTS of motorbikes between the 9th and 11th September and I suspect there might be a few weird and wonderful tattoos on show, too. 

If you're interested in attending the 2nd International Tattoo Convention in Çalış, you can visit the official website or the Facebook page for the event. Both are in Turkish so if you don't read Turkish, get your Google Translate into action.
If we find out any extra information, not included in this post, (where bands will be playing, where the tattooists will be and what they'll be doing) we'll let you know. 

Fethiye Entertainment: Live Rock Music

At least in the western half of the country, live rock music is very much on the radar of music lovers in Turkey. In the '60s and '70s, slightly older Turkish friends of ours (sorry, to those people) bopped away and absorbed the lyrics of the stars of Anatolian Rock: Erkin Koray, Cem Karaca and Barış Manço. Indeed, today, Erkin Koray is still seen as 'The Godfather' when you listen to the younger generation of Turkey talk about rock music. The man is a living legend.  

Live music, whatever the genre, is part of the fabric of Turkey - so our nights out in Fethiye very often involve watching a live performance of some description. Lucky us! You can't beat live music. We're not pop fans by any stretch of the imagination, so wherever we've been to in Turkey, we usually find ourselves in the type of bar that looks like it's going to ply us with a bit of live blues or rock. Deep Blue Bar in Fethiye, Cafe Bahane in Çalış, Baraka Bar in Istanbul, Filike in Antalya, Rock Kulesi in Bodrum...hmm, maybe these places find us. Our havens.

The band with no name - Live Turkish rock music

Cafe Pazar in Çalış doesn't normally enter our heads as a live rock music venue (it wasn't until recently) but a few weeks ago our friend Cenap (the owner of Cafe Pazar) told us his nephew was playing there. 'They do rock music. Come along.' This is the same friend that introduced us to the sound of Cem Karaca and Anatolian rock many moons ago and we've never been ones to shy away from a night out that involves live rock music so we went along to see them last week. Brilliant!

We'd love to give them a great big plug and tell you the name of the band but that's where we hit a problem - they've not got a name. A bunch of lads, recently graduated from university, play some of the the hotels of Ölü Deniz and have popped over to Cafe Pazar for a few, shall we say, cameo appearances. Deep Purple, Cream, White Stripes; that's the type of stuff they play. (It's the type of stuff many gigging, Turkish rock bands play when there are a lot of foreigners in the audience. If you want to hear some Turkish rock, be loud and proud and ask!) 

If the likes of Deep Purple or even a bit of rock n roll is your bag, then you might be lucky enough to be staying in a hotel in Ölü Deniz where this band perform. If not and you're in the Fethiye area any time soon, they're playing Cafe Pazar (near the Sunday market in Çalış) again on the 8th of September. Meanwhile, we're White Stripes fans, so I filmed this little section of their cover of a White Stripes track.

Turkish Recipes: Çoban Salatası (Shepherd Salad)

Whenever you go to any of the main tourist centres of Turkey, you will always see English (and sometimes German) translations on the restaurant menus. When we used to come to Fethiye on holiday, I would sit and look at the salads on the menu and one always stood out: Çoban Salatası - Shepherd's Salad. 

See, sometimes the translation doesn't quite hit the mark. Great that I'd now learned the word for shepherd but what was a Shepherd Salad? Descriptions or photos never seemed to be present at the restaurants we chose, so I never ordered it.

A Turkish Recipe for Çoban Salatası (Shepherd Salad)
Let's fast forward a few years to the present day. These days, especially throughout the Fethiye summer, it's a rare occasion that we don't have some type of side salad with our meal because they're just so light during the hot months. Çoban Salatası is a favourite because it's so simple.

An individual portion of Çoban Salatası (Shepherds Salad)

Shepherds' Salad contains some essential ingredients.

• Juicy, ripe tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Onion
• Peppers (I use red or green peppers, depending on what mood I'm in)
• Parsley

How you prepare those ingredients is up to you. The salad in the photo is an individual portion and that's what today's recipe is for - but if we have people round for food, we'll make a huge plateful and usually use the large summer Fethiye tomatoes all chopped up. This makes for a lot more dressing in the salad as the tomato juices mix in, too.

• First of all, cut an onion in half and then slice it into half-moons. Sprinkle sumac over the slices and mix them around to get an even coating. (Sumac has a slightly citric flavour and is perfect with onion. If you're not in a country where sumac is common, you'll be able to buy it from stores specialising in Middle Eastern and Turkish foodstuffs or online. It's worth the effort.)
• Chop 2 small cucumbers into chunks, as large or as small as you like - I like a chunky, crunchy salad - and add to your serving plate.
• Do the same with your tomato and peppers. (I used a few cherry tomatoes because they looked so red on Fethiye market. Choose the ripest tomatoes you can find. I also used one red banana pepper.)
• Roughly chop a handful of parsley and add it to the serving plate with the onion and mix it up.
• We've already added sumac as an extra and here's the next little optional extra. Finely chop a couple of mint leaves and sprinkle them into the salad. It's something we've come across a few times recently in salads and we love it.

And for the dressing...

Roughly, 3 parts olive oil to one part lemon juice. Add that to an empty jar with a sprinkle of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Give it a good shake and then drizzle all over your salad. Lovely! If we've got some in, I also drizzle nar ekşisi over the salad, too because I can't resist!