Last night, the crowds – including us – gathered early, knowing the open-air stage was about to be graced with members of Turkey’s Konya Mevlevi Order ; better known to those in the West as Whirling Dervishes. We’re halfway through the Muslim holy month of Ramazan and, in Fethiye, the council (belediye) have organised free …
Okra in olive oil – zeytinyaglı bamya – is the recipe that is going to convince you to love okra! If you’ve read our article about the health benefits of okra, you’ll know it was those health benefits, coupled with a Turkish dish served to us by our friend’s mum, that forced us to give …
In July and August in Fethiye, okra is in its prime! We love the Turkish word for okra: Bamya. It’s just got a nice sound to it…but that ‘nice sound’ was all it had until we conquered our okra fear. Despite a plethora of okra health benefits, poor old ladies’ fingers are not well loved …
A couple of years ago, you may remember we went to Iztuzu Beach near Dalyan to watch the release of Özlem the loggerhead turtle back into the wild. A few weeks ago, while killing some time before dropping friends off at Dalaman Airport, we returned to Iztuzu Beach because these friends wanted to see the turtle …
Et sote is a really popular dish in Turkish cuisine. A Turkish beef stew in tomatoes, it’s proper comfort food. Because of this ‘cosy comfort’ feel, we usually eat Turkish sote dishes during the winter months. However, we do like to break with tradition on occasion. Recently, even in warmer months, we felt the urge …
Sometimes, with Turkish food, all is not what it seems. Self-catering vegetarians visiting Turkey will be delighted by the variety and vibrancy of the colours of seasonal fruit and vegetables on the local markets. And whether you are vegetarian are not, the meze fridges of Turkish restaurants tempt people of all persuasions with non-meaty goodies …
In the UK, we call them aubergines but a more common word for those plump, dark vegetables is eggplant. However, as translations of the Turkish dish “patlıcan salatası” tend to say aubergine salad on restaurant menus, we’ll go with the flow and stick with that, rather than eggplant salad. This is a roasted aubergine salad …
These days, Fethiye is considered to be ‘coming up in the world’ amongst a lot of our Turkish friends because three of the world’s major fast-food companies have set up shop in the town centre. The fact that not many people seem to have flocked to these places is completely unimportant. As far as our …
This is an updated post from the original so that the recipe is easier to follow and the photos are improved. It’s also an update because we’ve never seen geren in the meze fridges of restaurants since the experience we had in Dalyan. We can tell you, though, that that means a lot of people …
Eventually, we tore ourselves away from the view – well, we didn’t have all day to idle around, unfortunately – and made the slippery, winding descent to Sarsala Beach. There are always new places to discover in this area of Turkey! A few days ago, we asked a question on our Turkey’s For Life Facebook …