One day when in Flushing, Queens, I felt the need to find a foot rub. Maybe Chinese reflexology. After all, I was in one of the largest Chinatowns in the world.
I looked at the map and there was a place nearby with a 5-star rating. I eventually found it in a high rise behind a bakery (to the left of the green awning in the photo).
The reflexologist was a gentle soul who bathed my feet first before working on my meridian lines. Luckily my Mandarin-speaking friend showed up so she could do some translating. Not that I remember very much as I was too busy feeling relaxed.
Ms. Annie Wong was a treasure. I wish I lived nearby. Because I was the first customer of the day, I got my 90-minute foot massage for around 50 bucks.
I highly recommend finding places like AW Spa when in Chinatown Flushing.
This is my first Ramazan (Ramadan) in Adana. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I recalled from Dhaka, that during Ramadan month, those observing Ramadan did not eat or drink during daylight hours. Every evening, the breaking of the fast, iftar, was a celebration. There were celebrations with family and gifts given. It was a festive time.
Ramadan follows the moon so this year is in the winter (February 18 to March 19). This year is the year 1447 in the muslim calendar.
So what is different her in Adana? Adana is a fairly open minded place. When I got to Adana, the locals told me that I should expect to see restaurants open during Ramazan and that people would also be drinking alcohol. This is so. Also, many restaurants closed for the first week of Ramadan but then opened up again.
Mini pide with mozzarella, potato, white cheese, sausage, and kale.
What was great interest to me was the food. Apparently eating “pide” is a Ramadan thing. It’s also an every day thing, but more so at this time. I noticed a different kind of mini pide and I have a feeling that these are only available during Ramadan. Today, March 14, is international pi/pie day (3.14) and pide is a kind of pie so quite appropriate.
Many bakeries are open around the clock so that was something to try out during this time. I discovered some lovely bakeries and almost all gave me samples, tried to serve me tea, and gave me freebies. Very hospitable.
Since you can’t take an Adana kebab as a souvenir, one has to (has to) find a magnet or mug as a souvenir. Recently, I was at the women’s cooperative, Adana Kadın kooperatifleri Birliği, for brunch and it turns out that they also have a shop (one is sitting surrounded by things to buy) so that is my recommendation for where to buy souvenirs.
Adana is famous for its clock tower, orange festival, Roman bridge, and the kebab. This shop, located conveniently in old Adana (just down from the clock tower, on the side of a park, Ziyapaşa Parkı), is a nice reprieve from the heat and bustle. Or cold and wet.
The orange festival is the biggest event of the year in Adana.
Aside from souvenirs like magnets, they also have handmade items and food for sale. And as I mentioned, you can eat there. The staff are very nice. It is hard to not buy a basket or hammer pants (which is the baggy style that many people wear here).
The other place I would recommend for souvenirs is Starbucks. Sounds odd? The Adana mug is adorable.
There are also other places to find souvenirs but one has to search. Or stick to the main touristy street.
When a cup of tea costs $20, then you might as well get as many brews out of it as possible. The tea tasting I did in New York seems a world away from Adana, and centuries ago.
One of the pours.
When I went to Chinatown Flushing in New York, I went on a tea tasting at Fang Gourmet Tea. After selecting two teas (at $20 each), the tea connoisseur explained the tea, washed the miniature cups in hot water, and brewed the tea. Five times for each tea. After each brew, we tasted the tea again.
The tea changed color with every brew.
I’ll admit that this may be too subtle for me. After a while, it just tasted like ‘tea’ to me. I could see the change in color, but I started to hallucinate that I was making up flavors and aromas just because I was supposed to be able to detect them… actually, what I found most interesting was the tea person. She had worked there for decades. She was calm and deliberate with all her movements. She really sensed every nuance in each brew… and I think she found our obtuseness a bit amusing.
The skein of a filter.
After the tasting, we could buy the teas. These are not cheap. Nothing below $45. The shop was filled with tea paraphernalia that we could buy.
Fast forward a few centuries and I live in Adana where tea is offered at every meal. And in between. But here the tea is the color of mahogany. (Turkiye has the highest per capita of tea drinking at three kilos per person, per year.)
Cig kofte are uncooked balls, here made with wheat and served like a lettuce wrap.
It seems at times like everything has the same name. The word, “köfte,” is the word for meatball. But, it’s not always made of meat. And it’s not always a ball. It seems like köfte refers to a ground meat formed into a ball, lump, or along a skewer (to make the famous Adana kebab).
A really famous dish of köfte is more of a hand formed polygon? I was out to eat at a local cafeteria and I ordered the Çiğ köfte which is raw meat balls. Most places do not make them with meat. They are made with bulgur, which is cracked wheat. This is because eating raw meat involves a higher risk and many restaurants do not want to take that risk. But, at the local place that we went to, one of my colleagues was a big cautious about the raw vegan balls because they are formed by hand.
The ones in the photo were delicious. Slightly tangy and spicy. Served in a lettuce wrap, they become a vegan or vegetarian raw food ball. It’s actually very modern food even though the history goes way back.
İçli köfte made by a Turkish mom.
Stuffed meatballs are also famous. Called İçli köfte in Turkish, these stuffed balls are called kibbeh in the middle east. One can make them with the pointy ends so that they look like lanterns or as perfectly domed balls like the ones made for me by a Turkish mom.
The ones I got were the kind that one boils like a dumpling. They were stuffed with ground meat. The exterior was made of bulgar wheat. These can also be fried.
Türkiye, the nation, had the UN officially recognize the spelling of its name in English as Türkiye (tur-key-YAY) in 2022 to have the spelling match the pronunciation in Turkish. But it is still hard for some people to call it that. Even for the Turks, many of whom called it Turkey for decades and then had to change in 2022. By now, most remember. If one slips up, no one comments. They are forgiving.
But until then, why did the place and the bird share the same name?
The land was called, “the land of the Turks” = Turkey. Pronounced, tur-key-YAY, but in English the Y at the end doesn’t have that “yay” sound. The land, whatever its name, has had humans living on, in, it for a long, wait, really long, time. More than 12,000 years. That’s considered a long time in human history. One of the many names was “Asia Minor,” or “Anatolia” which derives from the Greek term for where the “sun rises” or “levant” which means to “rise” or “sunrise” and before that, “the Land of the Hattians.” So, even over here in Adana, all roads lead to Rome. But more about that some other time.
So how did it become “Turkey?” For that we move forward to 1077 when the Seljuk Turks set up their nation and called it the “Sultanate of Rūm” referring to the area being considered “Eastern Rome” and today rūm refers to Orthodox Christians who were in this part of the world since Christianity arose. Keep in mind that St. Paul was born in Tarsus, less than an hour’s drive from Adana. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II declared himself, “Kayser-i-Rum” or “Caesar of the Romans” or Emperor. So all roads do lead to Rome… by the 12th century, Europeans, west of the Balkans, started using the term, “Turchia” which is what the modern Romans, Italians, call Türkiye. So even though the first of the Turkic groups to rule modern day Türkiye, called it something else, from this point on, the land started becoming more and more Turkish.
Chicken wing, chicken breast, and liver kebab.
Now, to the bird. By the way, as an aside, the way that the Turks give the bird is quite dramatic and done with flourish. More on that another time.
The bird, the Meleagris gallopavo, is indigenous to the Americas. When the Europeans encountered the bird, they called it guinea fowl or turkey cock/hen as they had seen pheasants and guinea fowl from Africa that looked similar. But, maybe not as big. In 1550, an Englishman William Strickland, who had introduced the bird to England (the first turkeys in Europe were taken to Spain by the Spanish from Mexico), was given a coat of arms which included the “turkey-cock in his pride proper.” Turkeys were introduced to North America by the English in the 17th century.
The bird was named after the country. Why? This article explains it well. Basically, when the birds were being traded for food, a confusion arose between the bird from the Americas with a bird from Africa…
But was it a fair trade? And should we re-name the bird? Call it the Mexican fowl? Or “huexolotl”? That’s the sixteenth-century Nahuatl, language of the central America, name. So for Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving or “Turkey-day”, they could say, “Happy Huexolotl!”
That said, here in Adana, they do not eat so much turkey. Mostly chicken.
Every meal will end in tea, or “çay” (chai). It might even start with tea, if it’s breakfast, but it will always end with tea. Turkiye is the highest consumer of tea. It is customary to offer tea — always.
You can try to say no, but you will still get it. It’s like water in the United States. I have already grown accustomed to it. I still can’t hold the cup which is HOT. But, I do like the tea. I take it with one cube of sugar.
Tea is a serious shopping item.As is sugar…
There is an art to tea. I’ll write more about that later as I learn more. But what I have learned is not to drink it straight up. Dilute with the hot water which is always part of the tea setup. I didn’t know this and was drinking tea that was darker than American coffee…
Turkiye is famous for its cotton towels. Some places sell these for 30 or more dollars or British pounds. Some are small and made for wrapping around the waist. Others are for using as blankets, beach towels, tablecloths, etc. I found a place where the small ones cost 100 Turkish Lira ($2.39) and the large ones cost 300 TL ($7.17). Should I have bargained?
200 Lira per tablecloth/beach towel/throw.100 for these small ones.
The owners name is Serkan (There was someone else who worked there too but he seemed a bit giggly at the notion of a foreigner in the shop). Serkan spoke no English but was friendly and helpful. The store is located in old Adana city. It is not on Google maps. It is across the street from a shop called, “Demir organizasyon adana” which sells wedding stuff.
Serkan in front of the store.
I inadvertently bought quite a few things. I do not know if they take credit cards. I paid cash.
You might wonder how, in a big place like Washington, DC, if it’s possible to shop local. Washington is a touristy place, just like Rome or Istanbul. While the shopping is not on the level of Istanbul’s market, there is shopping to be found here.
Made in DC is a local chain selling items about Washington, DC, or by artists from the greater metropolitan area of Washington, DC.
Made in ALX (made in Alexandria) is a local shop in Alexandria, Virginia. They feature items by local artists from the greater metropolitan DC area.
Shop DC, located in Adams Morgan in DC, is sort of the same type of shop, but they do not exclusively carry locally made items.
Eastern Market is the farmers market on Capital Hill and features items by local artisans. There is a food hall and market as well.
Farmers markets abound in the DC area and many feature art by local artists. There is probably a farmers market for every day of the week, but most are on the weekends.
Aromatic, seductive, entrancing, spiced crumbles of ground lamb, warm like an embrace, soft like sweet nothings, strong like passion… is what you feel, smell, sense, when you bite into the flaky crunch of the thick golden samosa crust.
I miss Vik’s samosa.
Photo does not do it justice.
I liked the dosa and I liked that he has children’s dosas. I love the chutneys and sauces. I love the strong substantial mango lassi, bright yellow like a sunny memory. I liked the pani puri (small chickpea ‘bowls’ which one stuffs with more chick peas and ‘water’ if one gets the kind with lots of spicy sour ‘water’).
Dosa is a crepe like wrap. This one is ‘masala’ so filled with potatoes and spices.
Viks Chaat (‘chaat’ means ‘to lick’ as in the food is so good you will lick the plate) is a hidden gem on 4th street in Berkeley, California, serving Indian street food. It has been around since 1989. Don’t go to any imitations. Go hungry. Sit indoors or out. Eat in or take away. Tell yourself that one portion is enough.
Pani puri — pani means water. Pani puri with the spicy ‘water’.
Radical open plan living was shocking in the 1930s in Pennsylvania. This is one of the things you learn when visiting Falling Waters, the house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Falling Waters is a UNESCO world heritage site.
The inside living area was low, cool, and open.
Visiting Falling Waters makes for a long day trip (a 3.5 hour drive each way) from Washington, DC. Falling water is a popular site so make sure to buy tickets beforehand. The tour is about an hour. Be warned that there are many steps.
The house is built over a water fall and one can see how this was a calming retreat from the bustle of the big city.
The amenities are super. The visitors center is well designed and has a cafe, shop, bathrooms, and lots of comfy chairs.
Falling Water is so secluded that your cell phones will not work out there. The WIFI is spotty at best.
The building is being renovated.
We visited during off season which was cool and peaceful.
