I heart Marimekko

Image from marimekko "Unikko"

I am loving Marimekko fabrics. I would love to get my hands on these pillows featured on Etsy by ihamai. Simply stunning!

Out of Istanbul

We spent the week holiday of Bayram in Ankara and Konya. Most of Kenan's family (grandparents, Aunties, Uncles and counsins) still live in the village his mother was born, Sarayönü.

Village life is great. Fresh everything straight from the garden including eggs and chickens, mulberries, mint, granny smith apples, fresh ripe juicy tomatoes, massive pumpkins, long skinny eggplants, parsley, leek, cucumbers, deep purple shining plums, long green string beans, huge bright green quince, apricots and more. Inside the house there was more treats. Dried eggplants and peppers ready to be softened and stuffed (for dolma), sun dried tomatoes, bulgar, rice and lentils and dried beans from the fields, home dried mint for cooking, handmade makarna (macaroni), homemade salça (tomato paste) and pickled cucumbers, peppers and cherry tomatoes and apricot jam.

My cupboards are now neatly stocked with much of the dry ingredients and the fridge with loads of apples, salça, homemade butter, jam and a farm yard turkey.

Life in the village is much more slower than city life. But, the air is clean and so is the food and it's a nice escape from the real world hussle and bussle of Istanbul. It was nice to see the smiles on everyones faces when we arrived and the enjoyment we all shared together for those few days.

Tea with friends

Hava ne oldu?

What happened with the weather?

It's gone from normal-pleasant-summer-days to almost turning-on-the-heating-nights. I hate to turn on the heat before November, but really, it's getting there.

I was kind of looking forward to pleasant weather during Bayram next week, but I doubt it will be nice. Ho hum. It reminds me of Melbourne a bit or Canberra even, given I will be in Ankara. Yes, I know....Ankara. I am trying not to get depressed about the reality of spending a week there, but what can a girl do when that's where the out-laws live? Maybe a side trip to the village will be a nice distraction. Could go a few days in the garden eating strawberries, fresh radishes, tomatoes and fresh eggs. Maybe catching a fish or something in the lake. There is only so many laps of Ankamall a girl can do.

I guess I am totally bummed too that my sister-in-law is getting married on the first business day after the Bayram holiday, which means two things; 1) that she is getting married on a Monday and 2) I won't be there to see it because I have to come back to work. I never heard of a Monday wedding. Did anyone? And, to do it after the Bayram. Even worse, I heard to get married between two Bayrams (this one and the one in December) is bad luck. And she is doing it twice. One here, and another one in France two weeks later. Does that mean double bad luck? Neyse.

In more exciting news my sister will be here to visit in early January!! Given her little business has taken off on a international level, she will be stopping by here, en route to London for business, for 3 days! I'm so stoked that she will see Istanbul in winter! Hopefully it doesn't snow then and we can still manage to get out and about and see Istanbul Modern and its photography exhibit, Kasimpaşa market (if it's open then), maybe the Salvador Dali exhibit at Sakıp Sabancı Museum, plus many shopping trips to various places and of course loads of cooking and eating! Having her in Istanbul will be a great prelude to our trip back home in late January, which I am also very excited about!

Hoşgeldiniz Ramadan

During the last ten or so days of this month I have so far seen many varying emotions of people out in this huge village of Istanbul.

Every evening at around 6.30pm as I leave my office to venture on to the street, I see people anxiously waiting in bumper to bumper traffic that is the daily curse of this area of Istanbul; known as Maslak. In the last week or so I have seen people drive up the wrong side of the road in order to try and get out of a traffic jam only to create another on the other side of the road with on coming traffic. I have seen people bumped from their scooters by careless drivers, pedestrians (including my good self) almost swiped or hit by a slow crawling manual vehicle trying to accelerate bit by bit up the hill; men and women curse and gesture to one another because of their driving skills, or lack thereof; people fighting over a taxi and taxi drivers refusing to drive people because they don't want to be stuck in the evening traffic! It is a stressful time.

Such is the Holy month of Ramadan.

During this month many Muslim's undertake one of the five pillars of Islam; fasting. This month is considered the most holy of the Islamic calendar. Those who choose to fast are expected to refrain from eating and drinking, among other things, from sunrise to sunset; people are expected to have purity of mind and actions and the act of fasting is said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, with the purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm.

Therefore, those who have kept their fast only have one thing on their starving minds; İftar- the evening meal to break their fast. İftar takes place, these days, around 7.35pm, and becomes earlier as the days move through the month. People rush home from their jobs to cook the evening meal and have it ready on the table in time. No city has the same timing when it comes to breaking the fast as the timing is based on the sun and its movement. People listen for the ezan, or the evening call to prayer, which in the evening also signifies the correct timing for breaking the fast.

In the last week we have had some delicious meals of fish (fried, but oh so tasty!), köfte, sauteed lamb, lots of lentil soup, and tasty salads and of course the traditional Ramazan pide which is made specially in this month as well as buying lots of huge fresh dates from the market at Eminönü, and also the specialty dessert of Güllaç, a milky pastry dessert served with fresh pomegranate pieces and chopped pistachio nuts. It is a light and tasty dessert that doesn't make you feel overloaded after a meal.

The word 'iftar' in the dictionary is directly translated as "the breaking of the Ramadan fast at sunset", and is purely for those who are fasting during this month. People still participate in having "iftar" even though they haven't fasted a day in the month and people take time to catch up with friends and family for meals during this time.

Surprisingly, studies have shown that some populations actually gain weight during this month which is not surprising given the amount eaten in the evening and then throughout the night when the body is at its least active.

In any event, I really enjoy this month. Food is the focus of the day and cooking it together with family and friends and sharing the meal together is the highlight and something so looked forward to by those who have undertaken the fast.

Surprise trip home

My sister with M and L

I made a last minute surprise trip back to Melbourne on 16 August. I had told mum and some other people that I would be in town, but I didn't tell my sis. I figured if anyone could do with some excitement and happiness in their day, it would be her! I told her I was going to London for work so she didn't suspect anything different.

So there she stood at my mum's front door on Saturday 16th August with M and L. All of them were shocked, especially K who said "how come I didn't know about this?", "I know everything". Well not this time! It was so great to surprise her. She cried and I'm sure was pleased with the surprise I had pulled off.

Although the trip was quick it was nice to have the chance to spend some quality time with her and my mum. Although I saw them at the wedding in April, not much time was spent sitting around and really catching up propers over a cup of tea. April was rushed, full of time restraints and Ken and I both wanted to enable people to do and see everything they wanted in this great city. So we spent much of our time making sure people were happy and ensuring they got to see all that Istanbul has to offer.

This trip was also nice for me to see some people who have been amazing friends to me since I left Australia in 2005. Friends tend to drop off a bit once you leave and keeping in touch becomes harder for some which is normal. That said, there have been a select few who have really kept in touch and always made an effort which has enabled those friendships to flourish and become things of great value to me.

My sister and I had some lovely time together. We went to Italy I for dinner shortly after I arrived and also had a great dinner at Trunk. I had been dying to go there since it opened to see the work B had done on the place. B brother is one of the owners and while I worked for Liquid Lines last year, the work on the restaurant had just started so it was nice to see the final product. We ate lovely food and then went off to see a movie; The Visitor. Great film so if you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it.

I had some great times with the kids too. I went to watch them at their swimming class on a Sunday and it was great to see M's improvement since I last watched him. L is like a fish and loves the water and is less fearful than M at the same age.

B with M and L at swimming

I also had the chance to go to their Montessori school and see them at work. M really enjoys geography and made some flags from different countries and then learnt the countries by heart from recognising the flags. He even made a Turkish flag!

Off to school

I managed to squeeze in a dinner at Dumpling King, my old fave with some old work friends which was great. They had surprisingly arranged for a birthday cake and lovely gift for my 30th which was the week before. I miss the ease of eating out in Melbourne where you can head to Box Hill for Chinese, Victoria Street for Vietnamese, Lygon Street for Italian and Sydney Road for middle eastern!

All in all it was a great trip home, even if tiring and a long flight (17 hours!) I look forward to doing more trips like that in the future and of course for our next trip in January for our Austrlian wedding celebration!! It will be nice to enjoy the warm weather in Melbourne while it will be freezing in Istanbul. Melbourne was really cold this time around and you can never imagine how cold it is somewhere else when you are in the grips of summer!!

Mum and me

Me and my mates!

The price of fish

On a recent supermarket trip, I was amazed with the price of fish. Kenan said that the prices were so good because most people are out of Istanbul and not shopping and in order to move stock, they reduce the prices. I was thoroughly impressed and we purchased a load of fish for the freezer for the coming weeks.

İstavrit, small fish, 4.90YTL per kilo

Salmon cutlets 9.90YTL per kilo
Large whole salmon from Norway, 8.90YTL per kilo


Çıpra per piece 1.35YTL. Süper bargain!!

Other bargains to be had were on karpuz (watermelon) and yeşil zeytin (green olives). Check out those prices!

Still though, the price of rice milk or soy milk is so outrageous that I just don't buy it! 8.40YTL!!

I wonder if you can still get bargains in Australia? I know generally that prices there have risen for the basic necessities, but what about things like fish and meat, I wonder. It will be interesting to see when I am back there in January.