Christmas in Turkey

I never imagined a Christmas without my family, but finding myself in a country that is a 20 hour plane ride away from Canada's East Coast, and with only a long weekend to celebrate Christmas, I had to make Christmas happen in Turkey.

I was planning on going skiing at Turkey's Ilgaz Mountain until an unexpected toe surgery kept me off the slopes.  Stuck in Ankara for Christmas, I decided to make the best of it.  I ended up having a surprisingly great Christmas with my lovely friends, and made a few new ones.

On Thursday night, I went with my friends to the US Embassy for their Happy Hour.  The marine's fraternity-esquenmhb house was festively decorated, and we enjoyed what is probably of the best salsa I've ever tasted.

Friday, Christmas Eve, was my favourite day of the holiday, er, weekend.  I went to Cafe des Cafes, which I have decided is my favourite restaurant in Ankara, with Eilidh for lunch and then went shopping for our baking ingredients.  We bought the ingredients required for a delicious Christmas brunch, kısır, chinese fried rice and chocolate truffles.  Sick of drinking powdered Nescafe coffee mixes, Eilidh and I bought ourselves coffee makers and Starbucks coffee to go with it as a Christmas treat.  To my delight, my Christmas parcel that my mom mailed from Canada arrived just in time!  Unable to wait until Christmas day, I opened up my as soon as I got into my appartment and was elated, as usual, to have new pyjamas, which are my favourite gift to recieve.

My Christmas presents :)  and Mıstık, my little Munchkin

Eliidh and I spent the afternoon making chinese fried rice, kısır and chocolate truffles.  Have a guess for which one actually turned out correctly.  It's not easy to find the ingredients that you need to cook the food you would normally cook in the West.  We found the Toblerone bars needed for the truffles, but the cream cheese proved to be far more difficult. Krem peynir (cream cheese) is available here, but is not the kind we are used to.  Krem peynir is much more liquidy, not as firm as the Philidelphia cream cheese that my truffles recipe requires.  We thought we had found a more firm krem peynir, but it still wasn't firm enough....we did end up with truffles, but they need to be kept frozen so the soft mixture doesn't melt in your fingers.  The chinese fried rice (my favourite dish that my mom makes) didn't really turn out either.  My mom neglected to tell me about the oh-so-important step that is rinsing the rice, to get the starch off...well, Eilidh did tell me I needed to rinse the rice (she used to live in China, after all) but I discovered that I didn't rinse the rice nearly well enough.  By the time I mixed in the other ingredients, my rice was hardly distinguishable from a large, starchy blob.  It did taste alright though.




The too-soft-of consistency truffles



Kate's Christmas Tree

These 5 slices of bacon cost 9 Turkish Lira, that's about 6 Canadian Dollars

Kate, ever the organizer of social events for the holidays, organized a tree decorating evening at her appartment, complete with a skinny Christmas tree, mulled wine and eggnog.  After a few drinks at Kate's, we headed to the Forty-Nine for more drinks, and then off to Manhattan.  The band was great, and we danced all night, not arriving home until around 5am.

For Christmas Day, Eilidh and Colleen came over for breakfast.  We cooked hashbrowns, poached eggs, BACON and pancakes.  For a beverages, we tasted the Turkish winter hot drink salep, a milky, gummy liquid heated and sprinkled with cinnamon, and coffee from my new coffee maker.




Our Christmas Day junk food.  Oreos courtesy of the US Embassy.


Eilidh and I had a lovely Christmas day afternoon of munching junk food, watching movies, sipping mulled wine and rolling too-soft-of-consistency truffles.

All in all, it was a great holiday and even though I wasn't with my own family, my foreign family made Christmas great.

Cat Lady

Turkey is known for beautiful beaches, hospitality, history and delicious food...unfortunately it is not known for being warm and loving towards animals.  This is not to say that Turkish people are cruel towards animals, because they are certainly not, but animals are not really viewed the same way they are back home.  In Canada, it's common that pets are treated like children, and often sit on the couch, wear special clothes and sleep in their owner's beds.  Turkish people, however, are known for keeping beautifully clean, immaculate houses.... because animals are considered dirty, and well, animals, they are generally not kept inside the house.  Animals are treated like animals here...

Me and Mıstık

There are, however, some amazing people here who are constantly advocating for the rights of these animals.  I have been working with İpek, a really lovely Turkish girl who runs a sort of rescue organization for the homeless animals of Ankara.  There is no sort of SPCA here, but İpek is well known amongst the animal lover community and helps place homeless animals in vet clinics (the vets here usually provide temporary homes for homeless animals), foster homes and permanent homes.  I have fostered 3 cats since arriving in Ankara.  The first one was a pretty 5 month old white, female cat whom I named Ayla.  We have been able to find a permanent home for Ayla.

Sleepy Sissie Annie wrapped up in her scarf :)

The second is Sissie, a 2-3 month old grey and white long-ish haired female cat who I instantly fell in love with.  Sissie, or Sissie Annie was hit by a car and found a few days later by a gardner in İpek's neighbourhood.  She has a broken front paw, and the tip of the paw is paralyzed so she'll never walk properly.  I kept her for two weeks but now she's back at the vet's office because she kept removing her cast.  Sissie is staying in a cage there where it will be more difficult for her to remove her cast, and the vet will have easy access to her when her cast needs to be put back on.  I have decided to adopt Sissie, because, besides the fact that I love her, it will be next-to-impossible for Sissie to find a home here in Turkey.  Ity is difficult to find homes for animals who walk properly, let alone one who has a broken leg.  I plan on taking her wherever I go, so she will be coming to Canada with me this summer (unless there is a huge problem with customs...but there shouldn't be, I'm doing the research and getting all of Sissie's documents.)


'Can I has your password for the 'puter pls?' - Sissie Annie


I was afraid that Sissie would be lonely, because I am away during the day and this would be a very boring appartment for a kitty to stay in, so I got another cat.  This one's name is Mıstık, which is a nickname, his real name is Mustafa.  He is a HUGE 5-6 month old cat who looks like he should be on the cover of National Geographic.  He's got all the markings of some type of wild cat, with a big nose and big paws.  That said, Sissie was quick to put him in his place when he first arrived.  She hobbled after him with a cast on one leg while hissing at him, and he ran away and hid behind the couch!

Mıstık playing with the mouse toy Mom sent him for Christmas :) Thanks, Mom! :)

The cats are great company, and in a small way, I'm helping the animals of Ankara, because by taking one cat, I free up a cage in a vet's office so another homeless cat can stay there.  As an added bonus, I get to have two, cuddly warm cats, to curl up and sleep with, on my bed :)

For more information about the homeless animals of Ankara, please check out Ipek's Facebook Group.

kısır

One of my goals while I'm here is to learn to make delicious Turkish food.  While at my friend Güleyse's house on Saturday night, I had one of my favourite things for dinner: Kısır.  Kısır is a super healthy dish made with bulgar, vegetables and salça (a red pepper purée used as a spicy sauce).  Determined to attempt cooking at least one Turkish recipe a week (or rather, a more realistic goal would be to just COOK once a week), I decided to make kısır to bring to my friend Kate's Sunday dinner.  It went over great, I consider this dish a success, and it's so easy to make.

Bulgar is a great, healthy option for vegetarians.  Combined with lentils, it forms a complete protein (something about Omega 3...that's what Colleen says).

To make the bulgar (Güleyse's recipe):

Ingredients (for 3 people)

3 cups of bulgar and equal amounts of boiling water.
5-6 tomatoes
2-3 cucumbers
1 onion
a handful of parsley
3 tablespoons of salça

Boil water.  While water is boiling, finely chop the vegetables.  Put the bulgar into a large bowl and pour the boiling water on top.  When bulgar has cooked and absorbed the water, stir in the salça.  It should be a pretty red color.  Stir in the veggies.  Pour on a little olive oil  and lemon juice.  Stir and serve.

Teşekkür ederim Güleyse!  Nefiste!