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Turkish Iskender Delight

7 May

I promised all of my meat loving friends that I would explore how the Turks make meat divine.  It took me nearly the entire trip here to give it my attention, and well I am glad that I did.  This morning I had the final conference sessions, and as soon as they got out off I went wandering the streets of Antalya.  I wove through all of the downtown neihborhoods and found that they come to life on the weekend.  The parks were filled with Turks of all ages doing everything you can think of -skateboarding, playing backgammon, napping on the grass, biking, playing music, drinking tea from little tulip shaped glasses, and cooking kebab on small charcoal grills.

The streets were equally alive.  Saturday is shopping day for most and Antalya has a myriad of large bazaars selling cloths, spices, textiles, jewelry, shoemakers – you name it, they have a shop for it.  Some shops are nothing more than a table with a bunch of trinkets sprawled out.  Others are groupings of little one room shops and traditional restaurants are intermingled in this sea of micro-commerce.  Many of the shops are run by families, which to me is very neat.  I also found a small narrow street that consisted of 10 or so little enclosed booths.  They served as the workshops and storefronts for Antalya’s shoemakers.  I’ve never seen so many shoemakers, all producing shoes on customer order only.  You visit one of the shoemakers and tell him what kind of shoes you want, and he goes to work making your shoes.  Carefully cutting the leather, stitching the sole to the show, sewing on appliques.  I like the idea of bringing back these types of micro-enterprises and trades.

Now onto today’s foodie experience.  After a few of hours weaving around the sunny streets of Antalya I found an area where there were several traditional kebab restaurants.  The doner kabab meat rotates on a large vertical cooking device, it continually cooks over low heat  that brings to life the aromatics of the spices laced within the meat & natural juices.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity to give Turkish meat a try – and I am glad I did.  All of the restaurants in this area were filled only with local Turks, so I put my bet that this would be one of the best places.  I took a seat at a table outside, dining al fresco is the best way to go in Antalya.  The waiter kindly gave me the menu, all in Turkish yet again! But this time the Turkish names & descriptions were accompanied by photographs of each dish.  This was most helpful.  I gave my broken Turkish a whirl and placed my order with the waiter.   Here you have to order using portion sizes in grams.  Given how large servings here are, I went for the small portion (100 grams).  And out it came 20 minutes later – a heaping plate of what I call Turkish Iskender Delight.   Thin slices of the doner kebab meat cooked in an aromatic sauce of tomatoes, onions, and spices.  Served up on a bed of cubed pita bread, all the saucy doner kebab meat drenched the pita cubes with its delicious juice.  It was served with four thick slices of sweet tomatoes, a big spoonful of natural plain yogurt, and one fresh hot pepper.  The meat was so flavorful and juicy.  The yogurt gave the dish a cooling sensation to balance the crisp hot pepper pieces I ate with each bite of donor kebab meat.  I was also divine – like most all food in Turkey so far.  After I finished my meal, I went inside and spoke with the chef for a few minutes.  He was busy chopping up fresh herbs and cucumber.  I do believe this meal of Turkish Iskender Delight was cooked with love!

Color photo of a plate of Turkish Iskender Delight

My only “complaint” – even the small portion was too big for one person.  An hour after this wonderous foodie experience I went for a 5k run along the Mediterranean Sea!  Now back to eating fresh & clean.

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Turkish Nuances

4 May

I’ve been in Turkey for 5 full days now.  And I am happy to say that I have 5 more days remaining here – except that I will be busy working most of the time, which has also proved very inspiring.  But this blog is about traveling and life, not about my work.  So back to Turkey and all its wonderous peculiarities!

I’ve established a kind of daily routine here that I really enjoy.  I woke-up around 5:30am and spent some time catching-up on email and then headed out for a sunrise run.  It felt so good to jog along the Mediterranean Sea at sunrise, looking out at the mist hanging above the water and a few distant sailboats on the horizon.  The roads near my hotel are ancient, from the Roman Era, and I pass the ruins of an old Mosque from the Middle ages before heading down to the edge of the Sea.  Then there is another ancient Mosque from the 13th Century CE – it is a beautiful house of devotion even with all its signs of age and simplicity.  The minaret (the large tower where the 5 daily prayers are announced daily) was made of old stone and had a beautiful scalloped structure.  The domes of the mosque’s main building were made with a terra cotta roof.  Simple really is beautiful.  From one outlook you can see this mosque and the towering minarets of 2 other mosques in the distance.  It is a profound view.

Color photo of skyline in Analya Turkey

All of the roads are really just for pedestrians here, which suited me perfectly.  I jogged along a nice road along the Coast that runs through a very large tree covered park next to the regional soccer stadium.  I enjoyed passing by all the locals, mostly proprietors of little shops opening up for the day.  I’ve been practicing my Turkish every free moment I get, which is not much, but now I am comfortable with the basic phrases.  It is customary here to say hello and good morning to everyone you see – strangers and all.  And I LOVE this about Turkish culture.  It was one of the things I learned, and loved, when living in Costa Rica.  Except here you say “Salam” which is the equivalent for “hello” – except that is actually means “Peace be with you”.  What a wonderful salutation!  I do think the world would be a better place simply if we all greeted each other with such kind words.  It would be such a simple part of our daily lives that I think would change our outlook on life and others.  And in these morning jogs and walks I’ve picked-up this cultural nuance and ensure I give my respectable greetings.  With that, i’ve been surprised at how respectable men are to women here, and how well I am treated.  But I’ll share more on that in my next blog.  All this was just great food for thought to start the morning!

Then there was a delightful foodie experience this morning.  Breakfast.  When I got back to the hotel breakfast was just about ready.  It is buffet style – as the Turks love buffets!  I’ve befriended the chef at the hotel restaurant and he has graciously educated me on Turkish cuisine, how the dishes are cooked and which spices to use for what, etc.  This morning the buffet included bowels of fresh herbs and a variety of greens that looked so fresh I couldn’t resist – red leaf lettuce, rocket, lemon arugula, fresh dill, mint & parsley.  It’s a salad kind of morning!  And there I created a masterpiece.  A tower of vibrant leafy greens topped with aromatic spices, crumbled feta, and fresh lemon squeezed lemon.  All this paired with a hard boiled egg, fresh cucumber slices, a dollop of natural yogurt, and fresh tomatoes of course.  My whole body felt good after this clean and hearty breakfast.  I want to start having salad breakfasts a couple days a week.  If you haven’t tried a salad breakfast like this before, it’s not too late to give it a try.  And with summer just around the corner, tis the season to grow all these delicious greens and fresh veggies.  Add a little protein and you’ll have an energy packed day.  A lot of people wonder where I get my energy from, well I think God blessed me with a little extra energy but I also try to feed that energy with things like fresh greens and clean foods.  Now I’m not always fresh and clean like this but most of the time it works out.  Now if this breakfast, doesn’t make your mouth water I don’t know what to say. Bon Apettit!

Color photo of a Turkish Breakfast

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Bounty from Land to Sea

2 May

color photo of three yellow lemons

Cirali, Turkey –

Since this is going to be my first post really dedicated to food I need to give you some background on what exactly food represents to me.  Well it means a lot of things and to me at the essence of life – food is the heart.   I love the sense of community around food and the ceremony of eating.  I love family dinner.  I love brunch and lunch with friends.  I love the good conversations that manifests between my husband and I over a good dinner.  Even more, I love cooking good food, and I love it when I can share my food with other people.  Food is a really simple way to bring people together.  All this does not have to come from gourmet shops or five star restaurants – but sure those are good every now and then.  If anything those gourmet places somehow make you so much more conscious of what you are eating and how you are eating, which is a practice that should be a part of our daily life anyways.  These feelings, and passions, I have for food – well they can kind of be related to a love story.  And I realize that I am not the first person to have such a love for food, it’s been a part of who we are as humans for thousands of years.  I guess I am just fessing up to my love affair with food.  While most people attempt to tame their feelings, I guess I am just putting my feelings on the table for you. (No pun intended!)

Enough of my love for food for a few moments… Let’s talk about my deepest passion in life.  Farming.  Yes, I am a Washingtonian, living in a cement jungle and I love farming.  Nothing is better to me than the cathartic feeling that one experiences when working with the Earth.  The dirty sweat that pours down my face and into my eyes, and the salty taste when it hits my lips.  It’s the best feeling of truly hard & good work.  I feel such a deep sense of worthiness when I plant seeds in a vegetable garden, care for the mango trees, turn the stinky compost, give the ducks grain & love, harvest the tomatoes, and milk the goats.  I’ve always held the connection between the farm, the Earth, and my food.  I like to know that there is someone with an equal love for God’s bounty nurturing the food on my table – which is probably why I’ve been a champion for “organic agriculture” since I was 13-14 years old.  Yes, I did know what organic was then and I even (however ‘annoying’ it was) insisted on educating my parents about organic agriculture, mad cow disease before the outbreak occurred, health implications of persistent organic compounds found in conventionally grown produce, and everything related in-between.  I guess this whole farming thing – working the land, connecting with the earth, living sustainably for future generation – is just a big part of who I am.

So, what does all this have to do with Turkey and traveling?  Well it’s the preface for how I will share with you my foodie experiences in this blog.  And the past few days in Turkey have served as a prime opportunity to give you my initial Turkey Food Panorama.

Color photo of greenhouse filled with veggies

I’ve been so impressed by the Turkish customs & culture around food and farming.  In every restaurant there are many dishes prepared only with fresh vegetables and many options perfectly suited for flexible vegetarians (I’m not talking about Vegans here).  I’m also astounded at how ‘victory’ gardens are a de facto cultural norm here.  Everyone with a piece of land has a vegetable garden.  I see baby aubergine (eggplants) growing on little strips of Earth near parking lots.  I see large pots (often old buckets & milk cartons reused) filled with soil where tomatoes, cucumbers & mint explode with life.  And in the country side, nearly everyone has a small greenhouses filled with an abundance of fresh veggies – some greenhouses are made with clear plastic sheeting while others are glass structures.  Many people also have a few goats or a cow for milk production – yogurt & fresh cheese are staples in the Turkish diet.  On my journey so far, I’ve explored this custom quite a bit in talking with locals – in my very broken Turkish and all!  They’ve shared with me that they too love fresh food.  And that organic agriculture is simply just “how it is done” in Turkey.  They don’t want to dirty their streams, rivers, & ocean with pesticides and the like.  They know the implications of such contamination, and so they are organic.  They didn’t have to become organic.  Now I don’t want to give you a false impression here – I am simply talking about the same household gardens, I am not talking about any commercial agriculture in Turkey.

What have all these fresh veggies and little gardens meant for me?  Well I’ve wanted to taste and savor them all!  Through this food journey in Turkey, I’ve reunited with the vegetarian in me.  I don’t know if I’ll ever revert to being a loyal and stubborn vegetarian again, but I’m thinking I just may work to focus on living a largely vegetarian lifestyle that still allows for cultural flexibility.  I love the ripe plump juicy tomatoes I eat 3 times a day here.  I love the fresh mint & arugula in my salad.  I love the stuffed eggplant.  And did I mention how amazing the cheeses are?  And the apricot preserves. And the fresh pomegranate juice.  Then there are the lemon groves that dotted the coastline in Cirali.  Well they are magnificent.  And their blossoms are intoxicating.  I also loved the fresh plentiful fresh lemon wedges served with all of my salads and fish.  They are all divine! These are the foods of the ancient Greek & Roman Gods for sure!  Now, I don’t want to turn off my meat loving friend vis-à-vis this blog, so as a fair heads-up I will talk about the meat dishes in a future blog.  Bet let’s stick with my food experience thus far.

I love fresh fish.  And it’s the only “meat”, besides eggs, that I have eaten here.  Then today, I experienced something almost magical, but really it was just daily life in Turkey.  I was relaxing on the beach, taking in my last few hours bathing in the Mediterranean and sunshine.  An older woman, maybe in her early to late 70s, came down to the edge of the water about 8 feet away from me.  She was wearing sandals, long pants, a flowery head scarf, and had a plastic bag in-hand.  She kneeled down into the pebbly shoreline and unpacked her bag – 2 fishing poles and a sealed container with her bait.  She carefully set-up her fishing poles, baited the hooks, and with great finesse cast them into the sea.  She (and I from a distance) keenly watched the tip of the poles for any indication of a fish making move.  It was really beautiful watching her fish.  I hoped that the fish I had eaten had been caught with such care and love.  After about 20 minutes, a man and woman with their two young children came down to the sea.  They all sat down around the old woman and were talking.  The woman, I believed it was her daughter, was talking to the old woman with kindness and sincerity.  I saw sadness come over the old woman’s face, and two tears fell from her left eye.  The younger woman gently touched the side of the old woman’s face and her thumb rolled over the crevice under her eye lightly drying the tears.  It was a very endearing and powerful moment.  It reminded me of how similar life is no matter how different our cultures and history may be.  I don’t know what happened exactly but they all continued to talk while the old woman fished.  The conversation got more spirited and light; the young girl (about 2 years old) was laughing and throwing pebbles into the sea.  I think the little girl’s young & vibrant spirit somehow reminded the old woman that everything would be okay, and gave her a purpose to keep on fishing.

woman fishing on the edge of the sea

Later on in the evening I enjoyed a delicious dinner of grilled Sea Bream.  When I inquired to the waiter about what type of fresh fish they have, he insisted that they have many.  And that led to me getting invited to go to the kitchen.  The waiter showed me the chilled box of fish and I got to choose my own fish for dinner.  And to top it off I got to see ‘inside’ a traditional Turkish kitchen which is very cool.  Now choosing my fish is not as good as eating the fish that you catch, but it was close and just a fun part of this foodie experience.  The chef rubbed some spices and sea salt on the body of the Sea Bream and laid him out on a hot grill.  Just 5 minutes on each side and he was perfection.  My Sea Bream was served up with a fresh salad doused with typical Turkish herbs, a few cips, 2 juicy lemon wedges, and a fresh pillowing pita hot out of the wood fired oven.   And I can’t forget the glass of red wine.  This was dinner fit for a King!  And there it was before me.  The perfect balance of all the things I love about food and farming – under the Turkey sun!

Color photo of a whole grilled fish - Sea Bream - dinner.

Now tell me, do you love food?

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Zeus – Master of Olympos

1 May

Photo of a carved face within a ruin in Olympos

Olympos, Turkey

Today I headed down the beach by foot towards the Lycian Way, a series of trails that have been the “roads” of ancient civilizations dating back earlier than 350 BCE (pre-Hellenistic era).  Just a few kilometers past Cirali is a small river with crystal clear water flowing from a valley nestled within the Taurus Mountains, which are mostly covered in a blanket of pine trees & rock formations.  This whirling little stream, that is seemingly uncontaminated as there does not appear to be any discharge of grey or black water or any garbage, flows out into the Mediterranean Sea.  The mouth of this little river is the entrance into the valley, and the ancient lost city of Olympos.  Little was known, and much still unknown, about the city of Olympos until about 1990 when the government of Turkey began to explore.  Along the banks of the river are the remnants of civilizations lost over the past 3,000 years – and still granite arches stand tall and tombs remain untouched.  Young tree saplings, ferns, and vines have managed to find elements of life (water, soil, & sun) in the cracks and crevices of the ancient building blocks.  The power of nature, in this case natural succession, is quite remarkable.

Ancient unearthed sarcophagous

As I meandered through the forest, I could hardly believe what was before more.  On the ground lie pieces of fallen columns intricately carved with scrolls and other decorative design, all weathered by time and the elements.  It could almost be a scene from an Indiana Jones movie, but it’s not – what lays before my eyes is real, I can touch it, feel it, and smell it.  I stumbled by a pre-Hellenistic stone sarcophagus resting on the forest floor.  It had a hole in the front of it, as most that are unearthed do, from grave robbers long ago.  Maybe it was the pirates? Or the Greeks? Or the Romans? In these bits of unknown history lies the mystery.  I continued on and found the ruins of one of the first Christian Churches (Byzantine) known in the region, and still this dated back to the 5th century CE.  I walked along the “floor” inside this ancient house of worship and it came to life in my mind – these walls held a place of devotion for many people.  I could envision people walking around the church, wearing sandles and simple clothing.  And next thing I knew I found my way to a Roman Temple, and quite possibly even pre-Roman era.  Hidden among trees and other flora, was the towering entrance way to this even more ancient spiritual place.  This “temple” pre-dates nearly all known recorded history of religion.  I couldn’t help but stop and marvel in its grandeur and intelligence.  Yes, intelligence.  The Romans, and pre-Romans, were truly masterful in how they cut, created, and assembled each of the massive marble blocks into solid structures.  And their refined building skill actually reminded me of the precision and detail held by the ancient Mayas in Tikal (2000 BCE to 900 CE) and the Incas in Machu Piccho and other sites (400-1500 CE).  Could this temple be the house of Zeus – Master of Olympos?  I will never know and that in itself is the magic in this place.

Color photo of an ancient temple with the Taurus mountains through the doorway

After several hours exploring Olympos and the Lycian Way I continued on wards into the “modern” village of Olympos.  And to my surprise it was a haven for young Turkish teens escaping the cities for the weekend – in a very rustic way I might add.  Along just one side of the small dirt road were a few tree houses, pansyiones, and basic traditional eateries – yes tree houses and how cool! much like the kind we build for our kids in our backyards.  I crossed over the river by foot to check out the less accessible ruins and came across a lot of bright red poppies, croaking frogs, and a myriad of unearthed ruins.  I couldn’t help but think that someday our modern cities that we know so well may somehow not withstand our civilization, or perhaps the opposite – that perhaps we will not withstand ourselves, and in effect will become lost cities to future civilizations.  I picture history made in my own “backyard”, the Capital of the US – Washington DC.  Much of our buildings are made of marble & granite, grand with architectural detail borrowed from the pre-Hellinistic era, Greeks and Romans alike.  I do not see this in the near future, and even if I did, It is not necessarily a bad thing, afterall evolution is a natural process – much like succession in the forest.  The real question is, what lessons will we ensure are carried forward from this life & era to the next?

Realizing the sun was going to set in about one hour, I started to head back and stopped at one of the little huts serving fresh food and drinks.  Realizing how little I’ve shared with you about the food so far, it’s about time I give you some detail.  I stopped at a place serving Turkish tea and Gozleme.  I sat at a small wooden table and before me was the kitchen.  A wooden platform hosted a large dome-like metal cooking structure (I think it was heated with hot coals or something of the like), 2 wooden circle tablets, and 3 people – 2 women prepared the Gozleme dough and one male handled cooking it on the dome cooking structure.  The two women, one in her 50s and the other one in her 70s or 80s, sat Indian style in front of the wooden circle tablets preparing the dough.  One formed the dough into round balls while the other use a wooden stick to roll the dough out into perfectly-uniform paper thin pancakes.  She carefully placed the filling of choice (in my case fresh spinach & feta cheese) on one half and then closed the extra thin pancake in half forming something resembling a quesadilla but only better.  She then rolled this filled pancake up on the wooden stick and placed it on the metal dome cooking structure.  The man carefully watched my Gozleme cook for a few minutes on each side, turning it with a flat wood tool.  He then cut it up into four piping hot pieces and vwalah!  Divinity on a plate served with cold natural yogurt milk (Ayarn) to wash it down – another typical Turkish beverage – all for less than 5 bucks.  What made it even better? Well from my seat I could see the family’s garden plot where all the lush spinach grew, alongside peppers and arugula, and their goats which they milked to produce the cheese.  Truly and organically from farm to table. What made it modern?  Well they had one refridgerator that kept the Ayarn and a few Coca Colas cold for its customers.  You can’t ask for much more in a day’s journey!

Color photo of the Gozleme experience

And well, here is my version of a modern-day Zeus.  Equally grand in his own demeanor.  Blessings to my animal kingdom at home.

Color photo of my Zeus

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Finding Eden

18 Apr

Hands holding a fern about to be planted.

Bringing nature to our doorstep represented in planting this Oyster Fern. (Photo: Rebecca Harned - Washington DC - April 2011)

I’ve always found internal peace when in nature.  I look at a walk in the woods as time to be with God, or mother earth, or pachamama, or whatever other way you characterize a higher power.   Quite simply, I see God (or pachamama as I prefer to refer to her) in the fern heads popping-up from the earth, in the little brook trout, and in the bromeliad that coexists on the branch of a strangling fig in the rainforest.  And when I feel any of these intricacies of nature a sense of peace comes over me.  It is kind of hard to explain but I think many of you know this feeling.

Over the past few years I have come to see how important it is to help bring nature out in all of us and in our communities – even if we live in the concrete jungles that define our urban landscapes.  I’ve been trying to find ways that I can spend more time with pachamama as I live each day in the bustling city of Washington, DC.  I could take a day trip to the National Arboretum or bike up Rock Creek Park, all are just a few miles from my house.  But finding the balance in my life is really about how to bring nature to my door step and make it a part of daily life – and a part of the daily life of the community I define as my neighborhood.

A small cement slab serves as my back patio area.  No real potential for nature there until its time for major patio renovations.  But I do have a small, postage stamp size, front yard that faces a busy artery leading to the downtown area. That is where the transformation occurred.  It was nothing more than a wasteland of crab grass and a few sink holes.  Now its exploding with life.  Colors, flavors, aromas, and textures.  I found Eden right here in Washington, DC – and right at my doorstep.

Today there are a variety of herbs growing among arugula, praying mantis, lettuce, eggplant, earth worms, daffodils, broccoli, sparrows, ferns, roses, bumble bees, and raspberries.  Its kind of like an urban permaculture that serves many purposes: 1) it provides organic fresh clean foods, 2) it nurtures an ecosystem, 3) its my personal sanctuary, and most importantly 4) it inspires our community to nurture nature.  The woman a couple of houses down, Gloria, planted cabbage and collard greens this spring.  Another man on the block over planted two blackberry bushes for the first time after living here for over 25 years.  We all plan to share our small little harvests with one another, and this has become the primary topic of our weekly conversations.

I’ve found Eden in my little patch of earth amid a sea of concrete, brick, and asphalt.  We’ve nurtured a little sanctuary for pachamama that is a part of daily life.  And we’ve started to inspire our neighbors to bring this urban ecosystem back to life.  I hope our community finds gratification in the peace that comes from nurturing nature.

Baby broccoli plant emerges from the earth in an urban oasis.

This baby broccoli plant is exploding with life from the nutrients in the earth, sun, and rain. It embodies the beauty of my urban Eden. (Photo: Rebecca Harned - Washington DC - April 2011)

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Want to go on a journey?

2 Apr

I’m not always going to take you to paradise, but sometimes I will!  I welcome you to join in my personal journey through life vis-a-vis this blog.

Together we will – Go to gritty little niches in the world.  To blissful paradises. To Pandora-like lands. We will face bitter realities of inequality and injustice.  We will try heavenly new foods.  Endure vast new lands.  And reflect on personal moments of fortitude, desperation, hope and triumph.

It’s a candid and honest reflection of the daily life and dreams of one woman – a global citizen, social entrepreneur, wife, daughter, Washingtonian, artist, companion to 3 cats & 1 dog – and someday a mother.

Learning at each step… how to be a better person, make the world a better place, simply striving to live more gracefully.  I will stumble along the way, trip over my own feet, gets bumps & bruises, pick myself back-up and live another day.

The essence of this journey – Vive y Deja Vivir – Live and to Let Live – The single most important lesson I’ve learned in the thirty years of my life so far.  I am still trying to figure out exactly what it means for you, for me, and for the greater humanity.

I hope you will share with me your reactions, thoughts, convictions, and insights on life throughout this journey.  I want to learn about your perspective – no matter how different from my own.  It’s through your contributions to this blog, that you will help shape the journey, determine the places we go & the things we will do for years to come.  Lets get ready for liftoff!

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