Turkey in Turkey

The Christmas menu at Poppy….

…a large quantity of turkey; I asked Cem to get an 8kg turkey which he did – but it had an eat-by date of 24^th December!  When he went to change it he found all the large ones were the same, so we ended up with two 5kg turkeys.  I cooked them both and I think they were alright, though I stuck to my nut roast.  Disappointingly the gimmicky plastic ‘thermometer’, which was supposed to show when they were cooked, didn’t do its stuff.  Anyway, there is a lot of turkey in the freezer!

The roast potatoes were spectacular, the hazelnut and apricot stuffing was alright but not amazing and the vegetables were as they should be – though no sprouts because I hate them!  Everything arrived at the table pretty much together and hot, unlike the food at a hotel where some of my students had their Christmas meal!  There is not so much emphasis in Turkey on getting food to the table piping hot; I have often seen chips being cooked and put on the table half an hour before the rest of the food is ready and have never seen plates being warmed here.  Still, this particular meal apparently broke all records by being absolutely cold.

Many local restaurants now do Christmas dinner.  A few years ago when we had Cumba bar in Fethiye we did Christmas dinner.  When you are cooking for paying customers, you have to do the whole works (even sprouts!) and want everything to be perfect (read hot!)  It meant I spent a couple of hours of my Christmas panicking with the chef in the kitchen; maybe that’s why I find cooking for friends a relatively easy job!

the best-dressed bear in town

This week life is fairly normal, with me giving lessons again and the boys back at school.  They have a half day on Friday and will be home ready for us to do the whole big meal thing again – with pretty much the same caste of characters – on Friday night.  The big difference is that I won’t be doing much of the cooking this time so can look forward to running up and down the stairs a lot less, relaxing a bit more and of course applying myself to the wine a bit better.

Many Turkish people celebrate New Year and it seems to be getting a bigger affair each year with more presents being given, way more decorations and increasingly expensive ‘New Year programmes’ in the restaurants.  A lot of people prefer to make it a family affair, with a big meal at home and – rather strangely this – a traditional game of bingo! 

We used to do a bit of each – having a meal with Cem’s family, then sneaking out leaving the children there, to party at one of the bars in town.  These days we no longer seem to feel the need to go out – whether because of the cost or because we are old and boring I don’t know!  Our other tradition, after plenty of partying, used to be going for a swim in the sea.  The expats had a Boxing Day swim at Çalış which I am sure had plenty of participants but that was in the day when it is sunny and quite warm.  I asked Cem this morning if he was planning on swimming on New Year’s night but he replied with his usual ‘we’ll see’.  Perhaps we should move over and let the boys take over that tradition!