Good Eats: Foodie Adventures in Bodrum, Turkey

Of course, when one visits Turkey, you can plan to eat well.

I thought I would share some of the special dishes and places I visited during my trip to Bodrum, a beautiful resort area located on the southwest peninsula along the Aegean Sea.

Avlu Bistro & Bar

On the first night in Bodrum after the 3rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival had kicked off with traditional Aegean dances, we ate dinner at a lovely restored, 160-year-old stone house called Avlu Bistro & Bar. The restaurant has two levels inside and plenty of outdoor tables so you can enjoy the pleasant summer weather.

Here, we started off with several mezzes including smoked salmon bruschetta, veal carpaccio, Turkish olives, cheese, etc. Every dish was delicious, but to me, the real highlight was the main course – the çökertme kebabı. This traditional Bodrum dish features tender steak (bonfile) served atop fried shoestring potatoes in a yogurt and tomato sauce. OMG! As a meat lover, I was in heaven!

Somehow during my previous trips to Bodrum, I had missed out on having çökertme kebabı. Never again! If you love steak, then you must try this amazing dish when you visit the Bodrum area.

For dessert, we had a warm chocolate soufflé cake and a panna cotta with berries. After dinner, we walked along Bodrum’s famous Barlar Sokak and headed back to our hotel to relax.

Hotel Marma Beach

In the mornings, I enjoyed a full Turkish breakfast buffet at Hotel Marma Beach, a small, boutique hotel located on Ortakent Beach. I had a second-floor bedroom here with a small terrace where I enjoyed sitting out in the late afternoons with a glass of Turkish wine. A traditional Turkish breakfast often features several kinds of cheeses, breads, olives, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, boiled eggs and teas. Simple and delicious!

Köy Kahvaltısı 

Of course, I can’t forget the amazing köy kahvaltısı (village breakfast) that I enjoyed with my new Turkish friends in the countyside at Etrim Doğa Restaurant & Köy Kahvaltısı. To read more about that experience, please read this post: Enjoying a Turkish Village Breakfast Near Bodrum.

Kavurmacı Celal Usta

For lunch, we ate at a small family restaurant in Mumcular called Kavurmacı Celal Usta. Often, small restaurants in Turkey will specialize in cooking and serving just one or two dishes. In this case, we were interested in eating saç kavurma. Kavurma usually refers to beef or lamb simply seasoned and cooked in its own juices and fat.

Another traditional way to prepare kavurma is to cook it on a metal pan called a saç. The saç is placed over an open fire and the diced lamb or beef is stirred around and cooked with a large metal spatula until the meat releases its juices and fat. Our dish was served with lettuce, freshly diced tomatoes and bread. Of course, the drink of choice here is ayran – a salty, but refreshing Turkish yogurt drink. Ayran also goes well a really spicy meal. Trust me.

Göltürkbükü Mahallesi

Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, I often didn’t know where I was going on this trip since I had very limited wifi and my brain was constantly working away at my lost Turkish language skills. After leaving Mumcular, I know we drove south toward the Göltürkbükü Mahallesi. I have since learned that we stopped for afternoon tea at Hasan Restoran, a family-owned restaurant/motel located on the beach. We dined on chilled, locally-harvested grapes and figs while enjoying the seaviews in the afternoon sunshine. But the highlight here was eating Saraylı Tatlısı – another Bodrum specialty which is thin sheets of yufka (phyllo dough) baked in a sugary syrup and topped with chopped pistachios.

If you like Turkish baklava, then you will love Saraylı Tatlısı as well.

Whenever you travel to Turkey, I promise that you will eat well – be it a large city like Bodrum or Istanbul or the tiniest of Turkish villages.

Again, special thanks to Karaova-Der, Slow Food Bodrum and the Bodrum municipality for making this wonderful Turkish trip happen!

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Enjoying a Turkish Village Breakfast near Bodrum

On the weekends when we lived in Turkey, I loved going to have a traditional Turkish breakfast – where the meal is like an event.

And if you ever get to experience a Köy Kahvaltısı (village breakfast), especially with a group of friends, the meal can last for hours and feature dozens upon dozens of Turkish specialties. On my recent trip to Bodrum, I experienced exactly that at Etrim Doğa Restaurant & Köy Kahvaltısı, located in a tiny, traditional Turkish village up in the hills about a 40-minute drive from the main city. The meal is cooked by the sister of Engin Başol, who owns the attached Etrim Turkish Carpet cooperative with his father (more about that business in another post).

  

In Etrim, you are served a fabulous, traditional, Turkish village breakfast with the warm and generous Turkish hospitality that I miss so much. There’s no menu, and the dishes keep coming out of the kitchen. Plus, you are sitting in a tranquil setting with the fresh country air and perhaps a few (really) free-range chickens pecking at your feet.

A Turkish village breakfast is meant for sharing with friends!

Just look at the spread we enjoyed!

Lokma is a Turkish fried sweet dough that is covered in a simple syrup. I guess you could call lokma a kind of doughnut or sweet fritter as we would in the United States. Lokma is often served as a dessert (sometimes garnished with cinnamon, sesame seeds or coconut) or as an accompaniment to coffee.

Zeytinyağlı Taze Fasülye – Mediterranean-style green beans and tomatoes cooked in Turkish olive oil.

çiçek dolması are courgetti/zucchini flowers that are stuffed with aromatic rice with herbs and onions. These stuffed, edible flowers are a specialty in the Aegean region of Turkey. I love them!

One of my favorite Turkish treats are sigara börek – cigar-shaped savory Turkish pastries stuffed with feta cheese and herbs, and cooked until crisp. Delicious!

Otlu börek – a new-to-me Turkish pastry is delicious baked pastry made from thin sheets of  yufka (phyllo dough) and layered parsley, dill, green onions and a mixture of wild greens.

Ezme – a delicious spread of tomatoes, onions, peppers and herbs with a red pepper paste. Spread a generous dab of this on some freshly baked bread.

Fresh tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, black and green olives, spicy green peppers and Turkish cheeses.

Zeytinyagli Sarma – Stuffed grapevine leaves with aromatic rice, although the filling sometimes changes and different herbs are used.

And of course, rounding out all this amazing food is unlimited glasses of hot çay (Turkish tea).

As you can imagine, going out for Köy Kahvaltısı is a leisurely activity and best not to be rushed. You could easily spend a whole afternoon in the village of Etrim when you visit Bodrum!

Location:

Etrim Doğa Restaurant & Köy Kahvaltısı

Etrim Mahallesi köyü
Pınarlıbelen, Muğla, Turkey 48400

Best to call ahead to make group reservations.  +90 532 602 6769

Social media: Instagram and Facebook 

(I was the guest of Etrim Doğa Restaurant & Köy Kahvaltısı with a group of Turkish bloggers, but all the opinions expressed here are my own.)

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Expat Life: One Week in Melbourne

The ups and downs of my new life down under

I think I spent my first week in Melbourne overwhelmed and consumed by extreme jetlag, English-language overload and a burgeoning foodie scene.

From Warsaw, I had a 26-hour flight that took me through Dubai and Kuala Lumpur before landing in Melbourne at 1 a.m. on a Saturday. I was exhausted, confused and didn’t even know what day it was, technically. I left on a Thursday and landed on a Saturday as if I had been in some kind of time warp. This was the longest flight I’d ever been on, my muscles ached and all I wanted to do was sleep. 

Since I’ve had a little time to adjust and reflect, I thought I would share my ups and downs from my first week here in expat country number three.

Hello English!

After five years living as expats in Istanbul and Warsaw, I’m thrilled to not learn a new language for once. At first, I thought re-living in an English-speaking country would be too easy, but Australia is a whole new world for me. Everyone speaks English here, but it’s a different kind of English. “Is that all for you love?” “Sure doll.” “No worries.” “It’s much of a muchness to me.”

I often find myself messaging my good Melburnian girlfriend I met in Warsaw who’s now living in Dubai and telling her about my day here. So far the Australians I’ve encountered at cafés, restaurants and stores seem super friendly to me!

One of the rare, really sunny days during winter in Melbourne along the Yarra River.

Winter and Time Difference

Besides suffering jet lag and waking up every day at 3 a.m. wide awake, I’ve been dealing with different seasons and a major time difference. While all my friends in Europe and the U.S. are posting sunny beach and mouthwatering BBQ photos, I’m dealing with fall-like temperatures (5-10C/41-50F) and chilly, dreary, rainy days. I’m wearing winter hats, scarves and gloves. Our apartment never seems to warm up so I sit in front of an electric heater every day when I’m on the computer.

Staying bundled up while exploring Melbourne's awesome street art scene.

Although we’ve had several partly sunny days, we’re living in the middle of winter down under. At least, there’s no snow! Well, at least not in the city.

Being so far in another part of the world also means a crazy time difference. That means 6 hours to Dubai, 8 hours to Warsaw and 15 hours to my family in the U.S. Thank goodness my phone’s weather app keeps track of the various times for me! My mom still has a hard time understanding that I’m a full day ahead of her when I call in the morning my time, but early evening for them.

NYC Double Take

So much of Melbourne reminds me of a smaller version of NYC. The city is located along a river. The taxis are yellow. There’s a theater district just like in Times Square, and the CBD’s architecture is reminiscent of buildings built in the early 1900s in NY. The food and market scene is amazing! Plus, there are even restaurants named after places in New York. Perhaps all these almost familiar items are why I feel so comfortable in Melbourne. Now, all I need to do is find a good Mexican restaurant and I’m set as an expat.

Transportation Woes

Traffic flows in the opposite direction here compared to what I’m used to in Europe and the U.S. Australians drive on the left side of the road just like their counterparts in the U.K. Trams and buses follow the same route. I have to make sure I look twice before crossing the street. I have to always remind myself that if I want to go north, I need to catch the tram on the west side of the street and so forth.

Afternoon traffic in Melbourne's Southbank neighborhood where we live.

This opposite world also applies to people. Pedestrians must walk on the left side of road so people can pass on the right. Escalators are the same way. Stand on the left side, pass on the right. Did you know that “it is illegal to walk on the right-hand side of a footpath in Australia?”

At first, these rules were very confusing, but I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of opposite world and hopefully I’ll never get fined for walking the wrong way.

Foodie Heaven

During my first week living in Melbourne, I ate American barbecue, Australian kangaroo, Chinese dumplings, Italian cannolis, Korean ramen noodles, Vietnamese pho noodle soup and Turkish breakfast, gözleme and lamb pide. I am literally in foodie heaven here! I can get every kind of cuisine that I want, and I plan to try it all! I've also visited and been impressed with the farmer's markets here - Queen Victoria Market and South Melbourne Market - so far.

Coffee Fiends

I knew my Australian friends loved coffee, but to see this fact in person down under is a whole different thing. There are coffee shops everywhere! And a flat white, seems to be the popular Aussie order. This caffeinated beverage was created here  in Australia or New Zealand, both countries lay claim to its invention.

A flat white is an espresso-based beverage with steamed milk consisting of very small, fine bubbles (micro-foam) resulting in a velvety consistency. There’s no distinct layer between the coffee and foam. A flat white is not just a small latté  because there’s a higher proportion of coffee to milk and the foam is different.

All that I’ve learned so far is that a flat white is delicious and often pretty!

An Aussie flat white is best enjoyed with dessert in my opinion.

It’s been nearly 3 weeks now since I joined my husband here in Melbourne. I’m over the jetlag and just trying to explore the city as much as I can. I hope you’ll stay tuned for more of my Australian adventures! 

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3 Favorite Cafés for Turkish Breakfast in Istanbul

One of the many Turkish things I still miss is the fantastic kahvaltı or Turkish breakfast.

To an American or other foreigners, having fresh cucumbers, tomatoes and parsley as part of your breakfast selection may seem strange at first. However, it is a Turkish tradition I fell in love with and have recently been rhapsodizing about to two expats who are soon moving to Istanbul. I miss the breakfast plates piled high with varieties of Turkish cheese, balkaymak (honey with clotted cream), green and black olives, gözleme, eggs with sucuk, homemade jams, tahini paste, simits, soft, slices of white bread and the list goes on and on.

Turkish mezes for breakfast at Sütiş. 

Are you hungry yet?

Well, since I’ve been telling these new expats about my favorite breakfast places located in and near the Emirgan neighborhood, I thought this information would make an excellent blog post as well. Emirgan is a popular, slightly posh neighborhood located along the Bosphorus and is known for its many seaside cafés and the large Emirgan Park. Even though we lived in the city center, we often retreated to this area on the weekends to indulge in the Turkish kahvaltı tradition and admire the amazing water views.

Kale Cafe

I first heard about Kale Café shortly after we moved to Istanbul. In 2010, chef and TV show star Anthony Bourdain filmed an episode of his “No Reservations” television show in Istanbul and showcased this small, family-owned café. I’ve always admired Bourdain and had a mild crush on him for awhile. I figured if the café was good enough for him, it was certainly good enough for us.  I recommend ordering the serpme kahvalti (breakfast spread) and sharing between at least two people. You can order additional egg dishes separately.

Cafe Nar

Often, Kale Café is swamped because of its popularity and that’s how we discovered the nearby Café Nar. Here, you can order several delicious omelets or breakfast plates based on Turkish names such as Asli, Beril or Demet. The presentation is a bit more modern and the portion sizes are more than generous. Just keep waving down one of the friendly servers if you want more çay to drink.

My husband and I usually would order one of the omelets and a breakfast plate to share between the two of us. You can even get small, almost American-like pancakes here!

Emirgan Sütiş

Sütiş has several locations around the city, but we preferred the Emirgan location because of its spacious, seaside position. This place gets packed on the weekends, so I’d recommend arriving by 10 a.m. if you don’t want to wait forever for a table. Here, you want to order small plates of individual items, sort of like Turkish breakfast mezes.

Photo credit: Emirgan Sütiş 

If you save room, I also can recommend Sütiş’s selection of homemade desserts and ice cream, or you’ll have to make another trip back here just to try the sweets!

Afiyet olsun!

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Turkish “Green” Eggs Served For Dinner

Like other busy women, sometimes I just need a simple meal to prepare for dinner.

Some days I run errands all over Istanbul and by the time I get home, I don’t have enough time to make the dish I originally planned before hubby gets home. So onto plan B.

I looked in the fridge and found a half kilo of fresh spinach from the Turkish pazar that I needed to use. Just add some eggs and voilà - dinner!

An American friend (who is married to a Turk and lived here for 30 years) shared this simple Turkish recipe for yumurtalı ıspanak (eggs with spinach) with me. I understand sometimes rice is added to the spinach too, but I didn’t because I’m trying to cut down my carb consumption.

I served this simple meat-free dinner with a large side salad filled with greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, a little Parmesan cheese, dressed with nars ekşilli sos and Turkish olive oil. It’s a meal full of protein, vitamins and a healthy dose of veggies.

Afiyet olsun!

Turkish Yumurtalı Ispanak (Eggs with Spinach)

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp.  olive oil

1  small  onion, diced

1 head fresh spring garlic, diced

1  lb. (500 grams) fresh spinach, cleaned and rinsed

To taste salt, freshly ground black pepper

4 each eggs

Optional  pul biber (Turkish red pepper flakes)

1. In large stock pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes until softened.

2. Then, add the spinach and spices. Cover the pot with a lid to allow the spinach to steam and wilt - about 3 minutes. The spinach will reduce in size considerably.

3. Finally, make 4 small holes for eggs in the spinach mixture. Carefully, break the eggs into these holes.

4.  Cover the pot with the lid and cook just until the egg whites are set. This takes about 3 minutes if you want “runny” eggs otherwise continue cooking a bit more to set the egg yolk.

This dish also could be served for brunch or lunch. Serve with toast if you like to dip it into your runny eggs. Another Turkish recommendation is to serve the eggs with a side of yogurt, of course, because yogurt goes with everything!

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