Bringing America to Kalkan

A note from Turquoise Collected: I originally intended to post this story right after the 4th of July, but it somehow got lost in the shuffle.  I was worried that posting it now would seem a little funny given that it's six months later and the dead of winter, but then I thought, "what better time than now to share a story about the middle of summer?"  It'll give us something to look forward to - less than six month until 4 July 2012!  Enjoy!




I consider it a bit of a coup that most of the people attending my 4th of July BBQ in Kalkan were British.  What I hadn't anticipated though, was the moment when all assembled guests hummed the US National Anthem for me.  For someone missing her homeland, having such a thoughtful group of friends around me on such an important day (did I mention that the 4th of July is also my half-birthday?) was a treat.  So, how does one hold an American 4th of July barbecue in Kalkan for a bunch of Brits and Turks?  Like so.


First, a little food shopping:

For some special ingredients:

Clockwise from top left, mini croissants, mini hotdogs, blue cheese, AVOCADOS.

Then, visit this guy, for your meat:

Bulent of Bulent's "Et Ve Tavuk Galerisi"

Run around Kalkan, sufficiently convincing people that you are crazy by asking where you can find something red, white, and blue to wear:

Found the dress at Vasila & Brako and the necklace at a jewelry shop just down the street from V&B.

Next, install yourself in your kitchen and chop, cook, mix, add mayo, strain, chop again, cover, refrigerate, rinse, and repeat until you end up with this:

Salads!  Including:

Watermelon, Tomato, and Blue Cheese Salad; Potato Salad; Bean Salad (brought by a lovely guest)

And:

Pasta Salad; and the winner of the evening, Corn and Avocado Salad

Then, fire up the grill, grill up the meat, and try to convince people that they should be eating the kofte (mini lamb burgers) and mini hot dogs like this:

Like mini burgers and mini hot dogs!

Check to make sure that glasses are refilled and move on to.....dessert:

Fruit Salad; Baklava; and HOMEMADE CARROT CAKE (which, luckily, wasn't finished on the night so we got leftovers!).

And, finally, score some of these:

So you can do this:




Hope everyone had a Happy 4th!

Easy Entertaining - Kalkan Style

Impromptu barbecues (or planned ones, for that matter) are a great way to spend an evening in Kalkan, especially if you're staying with a group.  It's as simple as:


1: Making a trip to the butcher - who, most days, sells ready-to-throw-on-the-grill chicken skewers, lamb skewers, and lamb kofte (they look like mini-lamb burgers to me).  We like this guy:

Bulent, the butcher - located just past the Tesko roundabout.

2: Throwing said meat (or seafood - maybe you like seafood instead?) on the grill.  Even if your accommodation lacks a grill, it's easy enough to pick one up (along with coals and lighter fluid, and beer - what is a BBQ without beer?) at most supermarkets:

A selection of grills outside of Kartin Market.

And 3: Inviting over a group of friends, acquaintances, or those people you just met on a boat trip...


Besides feeding them and keeping their glasses filled, here's an easy way we've discovered to keep BBQ guests entertained.  First, grab an iPod - yours or someone's who's hopefully got a similar taste in music.  Then, sync it with one of these:

The Jambox from Jawbone, which you can also find here, among other places.  This nifty little speaker connects to devices with Bluetooth and will fill up a room with sound - we were really surprised at the amount of good sound that comes out of such a little speaker.  Tiny and light enough to fit in your hand luggage (though it slightly confounded some of the security staff when we took it into Dalaman Airport), we've discovered it's a great way to listen to our own music when we're on holiday.  And it makes entertaining in Kalkan just that little bit easier!

Day Trip: Kaputaş Beach

A lot of steps...

About 188 (give or take a few - some are smaller than others).  But the pay-off?

Worth it.

Kaputaş Beach is about a ten to fifteen minute drive from Kalkan.  

Want to skip the steps but still want to visit this secluded beach?  Some of the boats leaving from Kalkan Habour will make a stop at the beach, depending on the weather - check with your captain.

The Lilo, Part II

Remember the lilo (float, Americans)?  I neglected to mention an amazing feature I discovered once we had inflated ours.

The perfect spot for this:

Not sure if this is what the designers had in mind when they added this feature, but to me, it seemed the perfect fit.  You could float around for hours without having to run inside for a top up!

Oh yeah, works for these too:

To the Market We Went...

A shot of yummy from the Sunday Market:

Total price?  7 Turkish Lira (roughly £2.50, or $4).

The Lilo

Or: "I Learned a New Word Today"

And no, it was not a Turkish word.  It was an English word!  Or, perhaps it would be better described as a “British” word.  British readers will recognize the word “lilo” as referring to what American readers know as a float.  As in, one of these:

We bought one!  We also bought one of these:

To inflate it.  Wee little one of these:

To inflate RATHER LARGE ONE OF THESE:

Seems like it would take a while, no?  And we were losing the sun!  What to do?  There was nothing for it but to give it our all and hope that the foot pump would hold out for the duration.  Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly – we are fit people after all.  Fit for what?  I have no idea, but anyway…), we had the lilo (pool float, American readers) inflated and conveying us around the pool in twenty minutes!

The foot pump, sadly, did not fare so well:

So now, the challenge!  When in Kalkan, go out and purchase a lilo of your own (most shops you pass will sell some form of inflatable pool gear) – don’t forget your pump – and see if you can inflate and be relaxing on your lilo in twenty minutes or less.  The prize?  Satisfaction!  What?  We’re a new blog and don’t have sponsors with fun things to give away.   Yet…