Turkish Cuisine

Say what you will about its politics, but Turkey is a delicious country. From kabobs and complimentary appetizers to spices and seasonal drinks, Turkey offers a variety of flavorful foods. 

BREAKFASTS

 

Picture this: an assortment of high quality cheeses, spicy sausage links, hard boiled eggs, warm toast, fresh fruit jams, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, green and black olives, and finger-sized meat pastries. Are you hungry yet? Known as kahvalti, literally meaning "before coffee", this is the quintessential Turkish breakfast. Hot chai is served alongside the meal, which is ended with a cup of Turkish coffee. Gooood morning!

If you prefer a smaller breakfast though, menemen is another traditional choice. Cooked with eggs, onions, tomatoes, green peppers and spices, menemen is served inside the piping hot metal pot it was cooked in & typically comes served with a basket of warm bread rolls. While most Turkish families do not eat kahvalti or menemen every day, both are absolutely worth a try for any traveler!

 

LUNCHES

Carnivores live it up with doner kabobs, raw meatballs and spicy sheep intestine sandwiches called kokorec. Does the photo of doner kabob above seem foreign? It shouldn't - you may already know it as "shawarma" (especially in Arabic countries) or "gyros" (in Greece).

Other popular lunches include more familiar American foods like hamburgers, wraps, sandwiches and pizza. Some upscale restaurants also feature Chinese, Japanese and Mexican food. But why bother traveling to Turkey if all you eat is American food?

 DINNERS

Kabob restaurants are commonplace and cheap, often serving either an assortment of free bread / rice / yogurt / onions, or soup / salad / fries as complimentary appetizers. Most kabob houses are half upscale restaurant and half fast food - you're seated in a fancy booth but served quickly.

All kabob dishes are plated with bulgur rice and salad for ~15-30 TL (~$7-$15) depending on the type of meat ordered. Turkish tea, called chai, is typically served after meals although you can order specialty black or fruit teas if you prefer. Whatever foods you choose, afiyet olsun (bon appetit)!

* Note: none of the pictures in this post belong to me

Cultural Differences

My bf's birthday was on the 14th and he wanted a low key weekend, so we celebrated by going to The Cheesecake Factory, Ravi (Pakistani restaurant he's fond of), and Mall of the Emirates. I bought him a toy helicopter as a gift and he's been relentlessly irritating me with it ever since. 

Monkey cupcake (one ear already eaten) for his bday

Day by day I learn more Arabic. I'm fluent in Farsi which is helpful at times but otherwise I'm finding the language surprisingly difficult. Hopefully I'll pick it up while immersing myself in the culture. 

Working on the written aspect, too

Speaking of culture, I've learned that in some ways Arabic culture really isn't all that different from Persian or American culture. Other times I'll be confronted with some wacky ideas of what is considered traditional or open-minded:

Traditional (1) Today, two of my coworkers (A and B) and I drove to meet with a client. We were short on time when A decided to call the client, but realized his pre-paid phone was out of minutes. I offered A my phone but he declined. I stressed the time issue yet he refused, preferring to waste time searching for a phone shop in an unfamiliar area. We finally found a shop, B stopped the car and A ran inside to purchase minutes. While A was gone, B explained to me that A is traditional - he didn't want to accept my help because I am a woman. Tradition can be inconvenient. 

Open-minded (2) B went on to tell me that he was open-minded. Now, in Los Angeles, "open-minded" can mean many things: you're open to dating a former escort, pursuing both accounting and fire-eating, or shacking up with Craigslist strangers since they raised the rent in WeHo ("yes again, can you believe it? And now they're charging us for water and garbage too!"). B explained to me that many people marry their cousins based on tradition, but he wants to marry someone he loves, and his family agrees with him. Open-minded meant having the freedom to not marry your first cousin. #cultureshock

To me, open-mindedness is thinking "Sure, I can eat a Chupa Chup roughly the size of my head"

3 weeks in and I'm starting to realize that my new life here may not be as exciting as I anticipated since we came for opportunity (travel and work), and as such we spend most of our time working. At least it provides us with a better quality of life - we can afford a nice apt on the 12th floor of a building overlooking the marina, we can afford a maid, and we have more disposable income. So far, so good, and I hope it stays that way (or as the Arabs say, "inshallah"). 

Back of the elevator in Mall of the Emirates; we're movin' on up!

Saturday Night Special: Pictures-Only Post

New idea: I'll periodically post blogs that are pictures-only (with captions/descriptions). Please let me know what you think!

Dubai Mall. 

One of the views from our apartment at night. The street structure is very well designed. 

The building I work in. Armada (Medical) Tower 2, cluster P. Locations are identified more in relation to what's around them rather than a numerical physical address. 

The office where I work in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT). Our boss is very kind and understanding, providing us with snacks, drinks, and half-days on Thursdays.

Ravi restaurant in Al Satwa: Salad (mostly eaten), large bottle of water (not pictured), 2 entrees, 2 sides of naan bread, and 1 after-dinner dessert (not pictured) for the equivalent of US $15.

Mini architectural design located inside Dubai Mall depicting how Dubai will look like in the future. Is it still appropriate to call it the Eiffel Tower if it's in Dubai?

20 days

Time is winding down. We have 20 days left before we leave. That means:
- 19 days to get my work visa & residence permit
- 13 days until my current contract ends
- 9 days off school to complete my bucket list (I left out a few items on the first post... oops.)
- 5 class sessions remaining
- 3 exams

K24.

- 2 weekends & 2 papers
- 1 Behavioral Analysis extra credit opportunity & 1 Shabbat
remaining.

And here I am blogging ;) I've managed to cross off most of my foodies from my bucket list (Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory, Kitchen24) as well as a couple non-foodies (Shabbat, seeing my bf's family, hanging out with friends).

+3 for adulthood! (-.5 for duckface)

I've started my position as a PT Social Media Marketer for a medical consulting firm in Dubai (Balsam For Health Promotions JLT) and will be moving into a FT role upon my arrival. Along the way, I learned some much-needed skills on how to write an offer letter, proposal, and contract.




I'm looking forward to the move. Nervous as hell, but excited nonetheless. My bf made a great point about how people generally spend their whole lives inside of a happy 10-mile-wide bubble with occasional vacations, road trips with friends, or visiting relatives; and here we are with the opportunity to burst outside that bubble and travel the world while developing our professional profiles. I'm still not 100% sure what I want to do with my life, or what constitutes a life-well-lived, but I am certain that capitalizing on this opportunity will bring me one step closer.

Bonus shot of my bf capitalizing on eating as much bacon as he can before moving to a halal country

The First Step

It's begun. Or rather, it began back in November when my boyfriend Chris talked about us traveling and leaving the country. Now our flights are booked for August 23rd, literally 30 days from departure. While we'll be back to visit, I have a few to-do items on my LA bucket list:

* Finish Arrested Development
* Play on the swings at Roxbury Park
* Another themed party (wine, cheese, and crackers anyone?!)
* Shabbat
* The Getty
* Shul/temple
* Write a really mean Yelp review ;)
* Play soccer at La Cienega Park
* In n Out
* Diddy Reise in Westwood
* Kitchen 24 (they have the. best. black coffee)
* Jinky's Cafe
* CHIPOTLE
* Cheesecake Factory

What do you think? Is there anything else I forgot that I should add to the list? Reply in comments! I'd like to update my blog regularly as a way of staying connected with everyone but can only really do that if y'all participate. Since this is my first post, I'll end with this Internet image: