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!

Bringing Kalkan Home

I was trying to come up with some clever way to introduce this post, but after sitting here for a while, drooling over the pictures that I was trying to decide between, I decided just to post the pictures and go from there.

And because you can't really see everything that's going on there, here's another one:

And just in case you still can't tell, that is a waffle.  Covered in a (white) chocolate spread.  And bananas.  And caramel ice cream and chocolate chip ice cream.  And caramel sauce.  In a word, delicious.  In more words, I want one right now.


However, since I'm currently not in Kalkan, I am not able to wander over to Fener Cafe (AKA The Lighthouse Cafe, located on the harbour-front - you'll recognize it by the large green lighthouse) where the smell of baking waffles wafts over diners and passers-by, enticing them to order one.  So, instead, I'll bring a little of Kalkan to me with....


A waffle iron!  Here are a few options I've been looking into:
This one looks like it will do the job...
But, oh how much do I want this one.

Fener Cafe, by the way, serves way more than waffles - more to come on that later...

A Turkish Find

Remember the goats?  OK, so there has been some discussion as to whether they are goats or actually sheep, but either way, I shot the video more for the sound of the bells than anything else.  It was a beautiful sound to wake up to.  However, it seems that those goats (or sheep) are only around Kalkan in the off-season, because I haven't seen or heard them at all in the summer.  So no pretty bells to wake up to.  But, at the Sunday Market, I heard the bells again.  Looking around, I couldn't locate any goats, or sheep for that matter, but I did find these:

Goat (or sheep) bells!  A little hard to see, I know - they're hanging next to the hammock.  As soon as I make it back to Kalkan, a set of these are coming home with me.  They'll be packed right next to my trivets.

Collected on the Harbour Front

First item on the menu?  Beer.

My kind of ice cream shop.

Balm to My NYC-Missing Heart

I left New York for Kalkan just as street fair season was beginning in Manhattan.  From May (sometimes you'll even see a few pop up in April) until September (or a little into October), weekends in New York City are filled with street fairs.  I always loved leaving my apartment on a Saturday morning and having my plans foiled because as I approached Broadway (or Columbus, or Amsterdam), I would happen upon a street fair.  But, because I won't be back to Manhattan until mid-September, I'm pretty much missing the whole street fair season this year.  Fortunately, I was introduced to the Sunday Market in Akbel, located just a little bit outside of Kalkan.  It's like a street fair, a flea market, and a green market all rolled up into one!


Want inexpensive t-shirts, plastics kids' toys, fly swatters, batteries, kitchen equipment - you name it, they have it!

Need clippers, saws, BBQ grill covers, saws, shovels, knives, fry baskets?  You can get it all from one stall!

Turkey's version of a food truck:

Even Michael made an appearance:

But, our purpose in going to the Sunday Market was to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables.  Lucky for us, we found this stall:

Aydin, left, and Mehmet, right

Aydin, our market lady, had a great selection of fresh fruit and veg, but won me over with her potatoes - to me, the best looking potatoes in the market that day (they later ended up in an improvised-by-ingredients-we-had-on-hand potato salad - post to come).  The super-reasonable prices didn't hurt, either.  You can also find Aydin at the Thursday Market in Kalkan and the Friday Market in Kaş (pronounced "kash," a town about twenty minutes drive from Kalkan).


All-in-all, for someone missing New York City, the Sunday Market provided a little taste of NYC in Turkey. 


Oh!  And what visit to the market would be complete without a stop by:

The sheep and goat truck.

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…

A Turkish Find

When I left NYC for Kalkan and beyond, I was faced with the challenge of downsizing my life to fit into five, count 'em, five suitcases (yes, there are six there, one belonged to my mister):

Sorry for the poor picture quality, but it was about 4AM and we had to get all of this to the airport...by 5AM.

After eleven years of living in New York, I had accumulated a lot of stuff.  A lot of stuff which, unfortunately, had to go.  I was able to bring some things to my mom's in New Jersey (you know, important stuff - art projects, kitchen equipment, shoes), but a lot of it, I just had to say goodbye to.  One of the little things I was sorry to see go was a beautifully decorated blue and white round trivet that a friend gave to me as a gift years ago.  I will admit, when I first got it, I didn't know it was a trivet, let alone what a trivet was.  But it was lovely and unique and it sat on a table looking lovely and unique.  It was only after I started baking that I realized I could set hot-out-of-the-oven dishes on it - and then I loved it even more.  But, it had to go - it was a bit too heavy and impractical to waste any of my 115 kilogram (that's roughly 250 pounds, Americans) luggage allowance on.


So you can imagine my profound delight when, walking around Kalkan's Old Town one afternoon, I stumbled upon these:

Rows upon rows, boxes upon boxes, piles upon piles of trivets.  

I think I even spotted an exact replica of the trivet I was forced to leave behind! 

And they are oh-so-reasonably-priced.  The only thing that stopped me from scooping up a bundle was my 20 kilogram luggage allowance.

Bringing Kalkan Home

On a recent day at the Yali Beach Club, it was hot.  And I wanted nothing more than something cool to drink.  Then I saw this:

Well, not exactly this.  I wanted to take a before shot, but like I said, it was HOT.  And the drink that was in this glass looked so good that I slurped the whole thing down before I could even think about aiming my camera at it - and I had my camera in my hand.  What was it?

Freshly-squeezed orange juice.  Yes, I know it's nothing new, and it's not that difficult to make at home, yet it was so nice to have it made for me on a hot day.  But, in ordering my freshly-squeezed orange juice, and then watching Serden the barman make it, I discovered something that I now want to have at home - something that will make it super easy for me to have this thirst-quenching drink for myself anytime.

Kalkan has made me want:  an electric citrus juicer.

Want to add a bit of Kalkan to your home?  Here are just a few of the many electric citrus juicers I found when I started looking:

Philips HR2737/70 Citrus Press

Alessi Electric Citrus Juicer

Braun Citromatic Juicer MPZ9