Tag: food

Lost in the Alleys of Adana

M's Adventures

One day, I set out to find a well known “pilaf” eatery in old Adana. I had read that they were often sold out so one should go early. I got there at around ten thirty in the morning. They told me, “Come in, come in” but as there was no food, I said that I would come back after they opened at 11 am.

A quiet street in the inner warrens of Old Adana.

As I needed to find something to do for a half hour, I turned down an alley… in broad daylight, I generally do not feel apprehensive. The old streets of Adana are usually empty, sometimes foul smelling, worn down, and there is always a tea “shop” to be had. Today’s alleys were much the same but in one there was a man putting something in a grinder. It looked like green powder or grass powder. He looked annoyed at me so I did not stop to ask him what he was doing.

Wood stools.

Another thing I find fascinating is the variety of small stools. Today, I saw a saddle style that I had never seen before. In general, even if there is no tea shop or cafe, there will still be some stools and flat surface in or around every place of business. There are an innumerable tea boys and men running around delivering tea. Tea is a social habit, sort of like a handshake, in Adana.

Always tea.

While I was wandering around, I suddenly noticed raw meat on display, from lungs, stomach, testes, feet, and head. The heads were being blowtorched. Not sure how those heads were going to be prepared as one can get head soup, head sandwich, head cold cuts, and roast head. So many ways and apparently the cheek, tongue, and brain are the tasty bits. Am I right? (This makes me think of a “cute” street vendor in Istanbul who has been going viral because of his looks. He isn’t all that cute… anyway, there is a shop selling sheep head here in Adana that has employed that same marketing strategy. They have hired a cute “chef” who preps the sandwiches. Since they started featuring him, the views on their social media have increased exponentially.)

Sheep’s heads. And a woman.

As I walked through the meat market, sellers were calling out, “Welcome,” but I was not interested in buying any meat. I was also trying to make sure that I didn’t slip and fall on the slick tiles. Also, I noticed that there were only men shopping and only men working. I guess everywhere, butchery is a male dominated business. But, I was also in “the Egyptian Mall” and that could also be the reason that there were not many women around.

The meat market.

On the side streets of the meat market, there were lots of shops selling everything for grilling and cooking meat from knife stores to grinding equipment stores and some that sell everything but the meat. Aside from meat, there were the usual cell phone stores, sneaker stalls, cigarette stalls, and oddly, fake money stalls…

A grilling store.

In this warren of alleys, one could easily get lost, but not really because this area is only one city block. Eventually, one pops out on a “modern Adana” street again.

A street in the old town of Adana.

Another time, I’ll talk about the pilaf eatery and the dramatic stories of love, family, and money woes from some of the staff there.

Must Try Foods of Adana

M's Adventures

Adana is known for its food. It has contenders for most foodie city in Turkiye from the likes of Gazientep, but more on that later. There are certain dishes one must try when in Adana, so let’s discuss them here.

So good, it’s named after the city — the Adana kebab (or kebap). It’s made of chopped lamb mixed with spices, bits of tomato, and fat to keep it moist. Served with roasted tomatoes and chili peppers. Usually jalapeño. One makes a sandwich as one wishes. Also on the table before the kebab, are plates of salads that you can eat on their own or put in your wrap. See the ones in the background of the liver photo below. Each place will make their own but they tend to be the same, onion, tomatoes, parsley, pickles, etc.

Adana kebab.

Liver for breakfast with raki. If you are going to have it, try it here where it will be fresh and good. The liver is tender and not strong in flavor. When part of a wrap, you can hardly taste it at all. It is normally eaten after a night out, so from 5 am on.

Liver kebab.

Fermented purple turnip juice, şalgam (“shawl-gawm”) is sour and can be served spicy. It is quiet tart so can cut through anything you are eating. Served with pickled purple turnips (that look like carrots) or other pickles. Tastes like sour pickle juice. Made with a fermentation process sort of like kombucha. But doesn’t have fizz. Just sourness.

Fermented turnip juice.

Şirdan is so special that I think that it should be considered a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Along with the other dishes I have mentioned.

Şirdan, (“Sheer-dan”) stuffed lower sheep intestine. This is the one that is most difficult to stomach (punny!) as the smell is strong. Make sure to go to a place recommended by locals. It will taste better if you are drunk and hungry. Both men and women like this dish but it is a distinctly Adanali dish. It is a bit like haggis but is filled with only rice. The flavor of the broth and the rice is a gentle soup flavor. The texture of the sheep’s intestine is rubbery but less so at one end. Usually one removes the string and puts salt, cumin, chili spice, and lemon juice on it — before shoving it down as fast as one can. It is meant to be eaten with two hands and gobbled.

A sewn up stuffed sheep intestine.

Like in all cultures, every part of the animal is eaten. In Italy, they eat spleen sandwich and tripe. In other cultures, these parts are turned into sausages, or as Dickens called them, “bags of mystery”… or in this case, rice.

Many people will never try these dishes. There are many other things to eat that are much easier… but at least try the kebab.

Turkish 102

M's Adventures
The fries at Barks are the crispiest I’ve had in Adana.

I was trying to learn how to ask for my fries to be fried crispy and crunchy, and accidentally learned a slang word.

Citar (Che-ter): Crispy as in how I like my fries. Apparently also slang for a hot young thang. But for fries, I was told to ask for “citar citar olsun” and it worked.

Fries are a normal part of any “khavalti” — Turkish breakfast. To the left is menemen, a shakshouka-like egg dish.

I also learned that “mashallah” which is used joyfully as “god willing” is also slang for “fat.”

Who Will Rid Me of This Fly?

M's Adventures

I like Adana. I like living in Adana. And the flies in Adana like me. The moment I step outside, the fly is dive bombing straight at the corner of my mouth. (I now see why ladies of olden times wore gauze around their heads.) When we go out to eat if outdoors (and sometimes indoors), there will be a fly that will start to buzz around our food and our heads.

If you recall, I carried mosquito rackets with me in Dhaka. While I have yet to see a mosquito here in Adana, I decided that I needed a fly racket to defend myself and my khavalti (Turkish breakfast) from the flies. I bought an electrified fly racket at Koctas (like Home Depot), the home goods store. It didn’t seem to work. Maybe because it was too small and cute. I bought another.

But, more than that, I had seen that one of the bakeries used a table fly fan to keep the flies off their baked goods. I went hunting for it. The electronic stores did not have it. The home goods store did not have it. No one had it. I had to buy it on Trendyol, an online shopping site, and when I got it, I went on another adventures to find D3 batteries. It turns out that one can use two AA batteries instead. I was in the store and when the employees helped me with finding the batteries that worked, they seemed a bit disappointed for me that the fan was not going fast. I used Google translate to explain that this was not a fan to keep me cool but a fan to keep the flies off my food.

I don’t think they believed me.

A note about online shopping. The first couple of items that I bought online, the delivery person called to get the verification code, then hunted me down to hand deliver to me. A third item required me to go to the post office for retrieval. Now, Trendyol is growing accustomed to me and they just hand the items to my doorman. I am not endorsing Trendyol but if you use them through the internet, the site will get translated and that makes shopping easier. If you don’t speak Turkish.

Turkey, Should We Give It A New Name?

M's Adventures

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.

Groseri Shopping in Adana

M's Adventures
Some people do load up their bikes when they shop.

Grocery shopping in Adana can be done at Groseri, a large chain. Easy to remember. Bu that is not the only place to shop. There are different levels of fanciness in grocery chains and the level of foreign food products also depends on how expensive and fancy the chain is… Here they are from highest in price to lowest.

Macrocenter and Kiosks is the fanciest and has the most Whole Foods or fancier vibe. There is one main store and lots of smaller kiosks. I find the kiosks are more like liquor stores with drunk food and drink. Owned by Migros.

Macrocenter has a Dean § DeLuca feel.

Metro is a Costco type store for restauranteurs. They have all that you need to open a sushi and maki place. Sushi is the rage in Turkiye. You have to sign up for a membership but it’s free and fairly easy to get the first time you go to the store. The store is a cavernous warehouse like most Costcos and you can buy glasses, furniture, etc. plus food.

Metro Center has a warehouse feel.

Groseri is probably my favorite chain. They have some interesting imported items, they make fresh food at the deli, and often there is a lady making fresh cig kofte which are vegetarian meat “balls”.

Carrefour is a French chain. The store in the M1 mall is huge while most of the neighborhood stores are average size. Imports from France include butter and other items that the Turks enjoy.

Migros is your average grocery store. They are a Swiss chain.

BIM is the largest retail grocery store chain in Turkiye. The stores are not always huge but they are like Aldi or Lidl in style. The middle aisle can have treasures or an air fryer.

BIM and most other places sell unmentionables.

A101 is a discount grocery store chain often found along with BIM in mixed income regions of town.

Migros Jet is also owned by Migros and is a discount chain.

Şok is also owned by Migros and is even more discount.

There are also open air markets and street vendors if you want to avoid grocery stores.

Tea Always

M's Adventures
The most common shape and size of teacup.

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…

The double pot.

Learn from my mistake… dilute!

Bread Gives Life

M's Adventures

If you wander around Adana (probably elsewhere as well), you’ll notice bags of bread hanging places at convenient height. These are for the taking by those who need food. After all, bread is life.

But the shoes…

The River Runs from It

M's Adventures

Adana is distinctive for its river which runs through it and along the old town. The number one pastime for Adanalis (people from Adana) is to “grill” or picnic. They will set up wherever they think will be nice. Many spots along the river and lake have setups for grilling. I have been trying to “breakfast my way around the lake” because the views are so aquamarine. I love it.

The Seyhan Lake is an artificial lake that was created by the dam (and hydroelectric station) which opened in 1956 to protect old Adana, 15 kilometers to the south.

The lake is a popular place for restaurants, fishing, kayaking, and much more. Many nightclubs and shisha bars line the lake. One can drive around the lake (and on this site, one can learn more about the lake and the activities available.)

Khavalti

M's Adventures

Khavalti, khavalit, they always have khavalti! When I had just arrived in Adana, I was planning something and a colleague kept saying this word, “khavalti” and I did not understand at all. I found it hard to figure out. She kept saying the word like I should understand her, but I didn’t.

Then, finally, I got it. Khavalti is the Turkish word for the famous Turkish breakfast. After all, I had read about this famous breakfast, and I had had it before in Istanbul many years ago.

But, now I live in Adana. And breakfast is everywhere. Some are very basic with a few olives, cucumber, tomato, plain yogurt, and cheese. Always bread and tea. It is served like brunch on Sundays. There are some places that have it any day, but the weekend seems to be big for khavalti. If you are up because you were out drinking, then you go eat liver and drink a shot of liquor. Later, at 11 or noon, you eat khavalti.

Others are more elaborate with honey, tahini on top of pomegranate syrup, jams, and eggs fried with sausage meat. Most places will have a la carte items that you can order like omelet (a fried flat piece of egg, not folded or French style), and “menemen” which is the “shakshouka” style eggs of Turkiye.

Prices range from 340 Turkish Lira on up. All the items in these photos (except for the last one which shows another style of khavalti for one person) were from one khavalti for four people (two people per khavalti) plus menemen. The total per person was 340 Lira per person. We added a tip so it was a bit more. More on tipping in another blog posting.

Most restaurants serve khavalti on Sunday mornings. The places can be fancy and they can be casual. Later, I’ll write about the best in Adana.

This was khavalti for one person at a fancier place. Cost about 600 Turkish Lira.

Melon Season

M's Adventures

There seem to be three types of melons here including watermelon. The other two look like honeydew or cantaloupe. That’s what they taste like too.

But the melons are enormous. Maybe because Adana sits in a fertile agricultural area. The melon season is September. Then the plums start arriving. And nectarines hard and crisp.

It’s So Hot My Sherbet Melted!

M's Adventures

No, not true. Well, yes, it’s that hot, but not all sherbet/sorbet is iced. Sometimes it is a drink. The original word derives from the Arabic term “to drink” (shariba) and in modern Turkiye, you can still find it as a drink.

Sherbet of rosehip? With Turkish coffee and cookies.

Sherbet can be had in many flavors deriving from herbs, fruits, and other plants. Some specific flavors are famous in certain locations, such as Bursa’s peach flavor (Bursa is the old capital of Ottoman Empire) or ingredients such as musk.

I had the one in the photo at the Women’s Cooperative in Adana. We didn’t ask for it. It was offered with the coffee. I think of the sherbet drink as being similar to Ribena in Germany or fruit punch in the USA. It’s a version of electrolytes.

If you want to read more about this, check out this article from the Slow Food Movement.