The Roman Stone Bridge with the Sabanci Central Mosque in the background.
A few years ago, I lived in Rome, Italy. For the past two years, I lived in the “new Rome” of Washington, DC, in the USA. Now, I have moved to a place that is still connected to Rome (after all, all roads…) but it’s also near history from beforeRome. (Rome was founded in 753 BCE). I’ve moved to Adana, Türkiye.
A “simit” vendor on the Roman Stone bridge.
Despite being a city of two million people, Adana is a less famous than Istanbul (Istanbul is 575 miles/925 kilometers from Adana) but Istanbul is its own universe.
Adana kebab is minced meat. It is the most famous dish from Adana.
I’ve moved somewhere famous for its kebab (More on that later). Adana is also known for its Roman stone bridge (Taşköprü in Turkish), and more recently for being near the location of another famous bridge (Varda Viaduct) featured in a recent James Bond movie. But there are over 12,000 years of history in this area of the world including the famous Göbekli Tepe, from 9500-8000 BCE.
There is so much to explore. I look forward to the adventure!
But order the west African food (the food is fairly meh but the west African food was not bad — the current cook is from there. I had jerk chicken and jollof rice). And take an easily embarrassed preteen with you (No preteens were harmed in writing this).
Gadsby’s Tavern is famous being one of the restaurants where the likes of George Washington ate. If you want that tourist experience, then go.
The actor who is dressed in period costume and makes his rounds speaking in “olde English” does a pretty good job of riffing in the moment (insert embarrassing comments to parents and preteen).
As Jeeves said, “It makes for light entertainment.”
The Knysna (the “k” is silent like in “knight”) Heads are some of the most dangerous narrowest waters to sail. Deceptively wide at 300 meters between the two headlands, but only 90 meters are deep enough for ships. The waters are rough. But only at the heads.
Our boat
I recommend walking along the coastal walk, staying at one of the places with a view, and taking a boat ride. We did a sunset and cocktails sailing tour. Read more about the 300 million year old history (is that true?) of the heads here.
Always a braai (barbecue/grill).
The ride out through the heads was rocky with waves up to six feet (two meters) and not good for those who get seasick.
The estuary is all calm.
The estuary inside is so calm that it seems strange after the violent heads.
Here is part three of the where I got to in my draft book about the history of America told through immigrant food. This is about three sisters.
For the next chapter in American history, we jump a century or so. After Columbus, there were other groups who attempted to conquer the “new land” of the Americas. Columbus had sailed for Spain.
Captain John Smith should get more play in American history as he made a lot of it. On May 14, 1607, he established Jamestown in Virginia. This was the first town of European settlers in the Americas to survive to this day. The earlier attempt at Roanoke failed in 1593. There had been attempts to settle in parts of the coast along what is Virginia today. The “Lost Colony” of Roanoke is a mystery. The 100 settlers left there probably were starving and assimilated with the natives who lived in the area. From 1492 to 1586, there were bloody battles between the natives who lived in America and the privateers/pirates/buckaneers who attempted to claim the land for their kings and queens. They were also looking for gold. When the rumor started that “Eldorado” or the land of gold existed, the race was on. But that is a story about South America. Maybe the subject of a different book.
Some of these explorers include Giovanni da Verrazzano who landed on the American coast in 1524 and in 1578, Queen Elizabeth I granted permission for Sir Humphrey Gilbert to conquer lands “unclaimed by Christian kingdoms.” When he died at sea, his charter was taken over by his brother and half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. There are lots of myths about Sir Walter Raleigh and it makes for imaginative films. Interestingly, he could not leave the queen’s side, so all his “conquering” was done through other men. Roanoke Colony was founded in 1685. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake, returned to England after visiting Roanoke. It was at this time that tobacco, maize, and potatoes to the English court.
But what were the Americans eating? The natives were eating the richness of the land they lived in. They ate mainly corn, beans, and squash. These three are called the “three sisters” but the natives also fished and hunted. The natives in the first encounters with the English were part of the larger Algonquian peoples.
The natives ate many foods that are rare today (porpoise, whale, seal, moose, beaver, and other animals that are still part of the native diet) but they also ate things that we non-natives also eat such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, nuts, scallops, mussels, clams, crabs, trout, bass, flounder, and cod.
The three sisters, maize, beans, and squash (gourds) were planted together and formed part of the mythology of several native cultures including the Seneca Nation.
The Iroquois and the Cherokee called corn, bean, and squash the three sisters’ because they nurture each other like family when planted together. These agriculturalists placed corn in small hills planting beans around them and interspersing squash throughout of the field. Beans naturally absorb nitrogen from the air and convert it to nitrates, fertilizing the soil for the corn and squash. In return, they are supported by winding around the corn stalks. The squash leaves provide ground cover between the corn and beans, preventing weeds from taking over the field. These three plants thrive together better than when they are planted alone.
These are not the food of immigrants. These are the foods of people who were already here. Of course, the immigrants took on the foods that the indigenous people taught them about, told in a dramatic story that is celebrated as Thanksgiving. The Puritans arrived famously on Plymouth Rock in 1620. Modern day America is based on a group who found England to be too lax. No wonder America is so puritanical. But I digress. These puritans are why Americans celebrates Thanksgiving (in Canada it is on the second Monday in October). Thanksgiving in the United States is a big deal. It’s the biggest holiday.
Next time, I may try to make a three sisters salad.
Continuing the history of American food… from last time…
“1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
In the port city of Genoa, as a young boy, Christopher Columbus, helped out at his father’s cheese stand. When Christopher was about 14 years old, he began an apprenticeship with a merchant family. This lead to his career at sea. He moved to Portugal as an adult and eventually convinced Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain to fund his search for a westward route to the Orient — source of the expensive spices, including pepper. Once Columbus saw gold, he wanted gold.
The three ships that Columbus captained were famously the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Actually, they were the Santa Clara, the actual name of the Pinta is unknown, and the Santa Maria. The Nina was the nickname given in honor of the owner, Juan Nino. The Santa Maria’s nickname was the “Gallega” as the boat was built in Galicia. And the Pinta actual means painted one or prostitute.
Whatever one thinks of Columbus, scholars consider his “discovery” of America to be the start of the modern era.
The massive exchange in flora and fauna is called the Columbian Exchange.
Today, we think of Genoa and think of pesto and pasta. More broadly, of Italy, we think of tomatoes and pasta. Here are some of the things that did not exist in Europe at the time: the tomato, the potato, maize/corn, vanilla, cacao, the turkey, and tobacco. And these are some of the things that went FROM the old world to the new world: citrus, apples, bananas, mango, onion, coffee, wheat, and rice. Can you imagine anywhere in the Americas without bananas, rice, and beans?
The United States was not a country at this point. Columbus claimed what he found for Spain. Columbus ate what sailors ate, from dried meats, fish, beans, hardtack (a dried bread), olive oil, wine, cheese, nuts, and it was noted that he was fond of figs. Often to purify foods, they would use vinegar. Columbus landed in what is modern day Caribbean. He noted in his log that the natives ate fish and “bread which tasted exactly as if it were made of chestnuts.” This is an interesting description because in the north of Italy where Columbus was from, they eat, even today, lots of chestnuts. They even make pasta from chestnuts. Chestnuts are easily found whereas wheat is not as easy a product. Perhaps the bread that Columbus had in Hispaniola was made of sweet potato and cassava, two of the mainstays of the Taino Indians who lived on Hispaniola, the island that is today Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This is where Columbus landed.
Columbus would be familiar with the texture of products made from chestnut and sweet potato bread would be similar in sweetness and texture. Today, most people think of the American sweet potato as a bright orange thing used for casserole or pie. It is associated with the South and the African American communities who descended from slavery. There are sweet potatoes that are not orange and do not have as sweet a flavor. The texture is also harder and less like pumpkin. Speaking of pumpkin pie, Jacques Pepin said that growing up in France, he only thought of pumpkin/gourd as a savory food ingredient but once he moved to America, he found out how great it was as a sweet ingredient.
New world foods for sale in Italy.
The Europeans were accustomed to eating carbohydrates in the form of gruel, pottage, pasta, or bread. Columbus was accustomed to a mediterranean diet. On his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus brought things he thought he could eat like wheat, rice, barley, oats, coffee, sugar cane, citrus, melons, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, beef cattle, and other agricultural animals like horses. (As an aside, when horses first arrived with the conquistadors in South America, the natives had never seen them before. If you find yourself in the cathedral in Cusco, Peru, take a look at the horses in the painting. They look look like llamas as the artists had never seen horses before so they painted them like llamas.)
Can you imagine American food without fried chicken and watermelon?
Columbus and his men enjoyed some of the new world foods immediately (such as a corn maize drink called atole which one can still find, or the more well known horchata) but others took many years to become common place foods in Europe. The most famous is the potato which was considered poisonous for many years.
So when America started as a country, it was not one. It was a few islands touched by Columbus and an unknown sphere claimed for the Spanish King and Queen. This map is from Wikipedia but it shows where Columbus may have set foot in Hispaniola and Cuba (Haiti/Dominican Republic and Cuba) but there was no United States yet.
Columbus made four trips to the new world but the exchange of products he started changed history forever. With the arrival of the Europeans, millions of native Americans died from diseases that they had never encountered before. Those first Indians met by Columbus, the Taino, also all died out. The Indians are called Indians because Columbus wanted to think he made it to India, the source of spices, or so he thought.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, who had sailed with Columbus, landed in Florida. St. Augustine in Florida is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited European settled place in America. Ponce de Leon was the first governor of Puerto Rico. He also discovered the Gulf Stream. According to myth, he was searching for the fountain of youth, but that is most likely a myth. Not much is known about what he ate but as he was part of the Columbian Exchange, I assume he ate what Columbus ate.
The foods of the Americas are integral to the modern foods of America from corn, French fries, ketchup, guacamole, but not apple pie. We will get to that in a few hundred years.
In 2023, I moved to Alexandria, Virginia, a historic old town across the river from Washington, DC, the US capital. As I scarfed Vietnamese pho, drunken Thai noodles, Korean barbecue, Taiwanese bubble tea, Russian blinis, Mennonite milk, Neapolitan pizza, mini crepes from Hue, Vietnam, hamburgers charred perfectly, Greek salads, Lao sausage, Spanish tapas, Peruvian rotisserie chicken, Salvadoran pupusas, Uyghar spaghetti, New England meatloaf, clotted cream from England, and dim sum from China… I realized how much I knew about the diverse foods that make up American food but how little I knew about American history. I decided to write a book about the history of America. Through immigrant foods. Then, I realized, this was too vast a topic to undertake in one book, plus I have other things to do in my life… so instead I decided to write about the foods of early American history — from 1492 to 1792. Then, I got to chapter three and realized that I was not going to get anywhere near finished in a year. So instead, I’ll post what I wrote on this blog.
Vietnamese food
Some would say that the history of the USA should go back to the land bridge from Siberia when the ancestors of the native Americans, indigenous people, first nations, walked to the Americas. Some might say that the Vikings should be included in a history of America. Leif Eriksson was the first white European to set foot on North America, around the year 1,000 CE. Five centuries before Columbus, who never set foot on North America. Leif did not influence American food history. Some say that a history of America should include the Pacific Islanders who canoed to Hawaii a thousand years ago. For this book about the melting pot of American foods, I will start with 1492. This is when the bounty of what Christopher Columbus found in the Americas entered the European lexicon and mouths. Why European? Victors write the history and the Europeans were the invaders of America for several centuries.
I will start somewhere easy as the United States of America is a young-ish country so we only need to go back to 1450 CE (current era or AD). The USA did not come into existence until 1775 but for ease of history, I will refer to it as the USA even from before 1775.
Next time, I’ll start at 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Christopher Columbus was not Italian. Italy didn’t exist as a country until a century after the United States became a country.
If you want a small town feel, a historic old European city feel, and still be near a big city, then you will understand why Old Town Alexandria keeps getting voted as one of the best small towns in America. It is really cute. It has free busses and a free trolley from the subway stop. Also, it is on a subway line that connects to two airports.
I just like how quaint it is (oh, and I love the dairy sold at the farmers market — the market is from 1753 and is the oldest continuous farmers market in America. It is every Saturday from 7-noon). Several of the blocks in the heart of the waterfront area have been made pedestrian only. Many restaurants line these blocks and it is a pleasant place to eat, socialize, and people watch. The boardwalk/quay is nicely made and there are both toilets, drinking fountains, and benches all within easy reach.
If you visit, try going during the day and visit the Torpedo Factory, an old factory turned into artist studios and shops. There are also many tours of Old Town, covering history, food, and ghost.
The streets are tree lined and a few still have the original cobblestones. This is an old city so you may need to walk arm in arm on the uneven sidewalks.
Watch the mighty Potomac crash through Great Falls. It is magnificent without being strenuous. Great Falls is on both sides of the river but the better walk is on the Maryland side.
View the monuments by night with friends. The monuments are lit up at night and it is completely different than visiting during the day. And cooler (if it is summer).
Walk in the Arboretum. See pretty plants and Greek columns.
Explore a local trail. There are many that one rarely notices. One example is the Arlington Loop, map here.
Walk along the George Washington Parkway, or along the river on the Virginia side. Take the trail from Memorial bridge. Walk all the way to Mount Vernon if you… bike! It is 18 miles from Theodore Roosevelt Island (see above) to Mount Vernon.
A view from the car of the Washington Memorial across the river.
Join a walking group. Or find other walks in this list from Town and Tourist.
An example of how people spied on their neighbors.
Last fall, I tried to go on a quest to do a “Fall of the Iron Curtain” and I nearly made it. Along the way, I saw many places that are basking in the post-communist times.
In Tirana, Albania, I went to a museum, Bunk’Art2, that explained in a tiny way, what times were like just a few decades ago. The museum is underground in an nuclear fallout shelter and the oppressive atmosphere added to the sadness.
A commandor’s office.
One can easily forget history and take for granted the freedoms that we enjoy. This museum was a quick reminder.
A man defending his freedom of speech.Rules for crossing the border.
Belgrade is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the world. There is so much history before the war thirty years ago and the Romans 2,000 years ago. Just imagine. I did not spend my time being much of a tourist so my photos were mostly taken from the car (I was there to visit a friend).
Belgrade has everything you would want in a modern capital city. The new waterfront is becoming a megapolis worthy of any big city.
I was here to catch up with friends. Luckily we did this while eating good food.
The food was good too. I ate at two of the best restaurants in town, Madera and Langouste. Madera has all the old world charm and lovely garden access to the central park, but Langouste has the view over the Sava river.
I will write about the food I had at Madera later. The food at Langouste was French, of a sort.
The one thing that made Belgrade an unattractive city was the smoking. Smoking is even allowed indoors.
Luckily, you can easily get out to the fresh air of the countryside from Belgrade.
Traditionally the ides of March was the 74th day of year and it was the day to settle debts so as to be debt free by March 25, the start of the fresh year. In Roman times, the Ides of March marked the start of a holy week celebrating the finding of baby Attis in the reeds, later his death under a pine tree (they would cut down a pine each year to commemorate this), and his rebirth on March 25. Sound familiar?
Then, in 44 BCE, the Roman senators, afraid that Julius Caesar was going to make himself king of Rome, stabbed him to death. In modern times, we are aware of the phrase, “beware the ides of March” because of the play, Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare. The famous, “et tu, Brute” is probably not what he said as he was stabbed to death by his senators.
2,065 years later, the location is now called “Largo du Torre Argentina” and is more famous for the cat sanctuary located there. The spot where Caesar was killed is near the pine trees.
This year, the ides of March marks the start of a three week red zone lockdown.
If you want to binge on watching videos about Italy, here are some I’ve found. Mostly on food. Mostly about Rome. I will not list all of them as there are too many, but a few that will give you some leads to follow.
Rick Stein is one of my favorite TV chef presenters. The thinking chef’s chef. Here in Corsica and Sardinia.
Insider is a channel about food. This host is Italian and in this short video, the topic is Limoncello. There are many other videos from Insider like this one pasta in Bari. Or focaccia in Genoa.
WocomoCook is another YouTube channel that I found. Here is an episode about food in Umbria.
Floyd was a chef who had a good time, this time in Liguria.
Pizza by the slice (taglio) sold by weight is a very Roman food.
If you want months worth of binge watching, Rick Steves provides! Rick Steves has eight hours of free TV shows on Italy alone! He also has free audio tours, apps, books, etc. He is much raunchier on his audio tours! If you want a private guide in your ear, he has those! If you just want to watch him give good advice, watch him here.
Also, many people like Dream of Italy. Here, the host is in Amalfi and Naples.
Then, there’s this guy is quite wealthy (he is an angel investor and helped start Virgin America) but decided to make a travel show because he didn’t find any that matched his lifestyle. Swish.
Possibly the most famous car in Rome? This is in Monti.
