After an ok dinner at the hotel, the Missus and I still felt a bit unsatisfied. And the Missus suggested we take a walk, which sounded like a great idea, since it was either that or reading. And I'm glad we took that walk because halfway down the hill we passed this part of the Roman Aqueduct and I took one of my favorite photos of the trip.
I'm not sure why I enjoy this photo so much, but I do. If you click on the photo to enlarge it; you'll see a stork's nest on top of the pillar. The aqueduct runs right through the main part of town, and adds a "little something" to the place.
We headed to the place that the owner had recommended to us earlier in the day. It was right behind the place we stopped at for lunch. And while the scent of grilling meat was somewhat intoxicating, we made our way to Pinar Pide Salonu, a little shop specializing in that Turkish speciality Pide, a leavened flat bread usually topped with ground meat. The version here was stellar.
The crust was crunchy without being hard, the flavor of the leavening came through without interfering, and it just seemed perfect. The meat topping the pide was mildly rich, well spiced, and somewhat gamey tasting. This was very satisfying....
The lahmacun, the very popular (and cheap) thin and topped flat bread, wasn't so good.
The crust didn't stand up too well and just cracked when I tried to fold the vegetables in it. The meat over-powered everything on this making it seem kinda greasy. Actually, the version at Sultan in El Cajon is better in my opinion. Still at 2.5 TRY (about $1.50 - the pide was 3.5 TRY - $2.20), it seemed like a bargain to us.
And of course I had some ayran, the yogurt drink, which was a typical market brand. Not bad....... for reason, I really took to ayran.
Here's a photo of the shop we took the next day. The smiling young man in the front was grilling up meat the night before, and was always smiling at us. When we passed on this day, he gave us a smile and waved...... Man do I miss the people.... After our "snack" we strolled around a bit, then dropped by one of the little stores to buy some water. That's where I really noticed beer for the first time in Turkey.
They only had cans, and we didn't have a bottle opener anyway, so I got a can of Efes Pilsen, which had a mildly sweet upfront note, but was kinda "skunky" and stale in flavor. I think this was a bit past it's due date. The Tuborg Gold, a Danish Malt beverage brewed in Turkey was just plain nasty. Yuck. I know that Turkey is overwhelmingly Muslim, and alcohol is forbidden, but man, there's no excuse for brewing such a bitter, kind of strangely grassy flavored, with weird sour notes, and a tin can finish beverage. I'd try Efes again later on in bottle form, and it wasn't too bad.
Oh well. We hit the sack early since we had a full day ahead of us.......
yikes on the beer but the pide looks great! and that aquaduct, amazing!
Posted by: kat | Thursday, 16 June 2011 at 11:02 PM
Hi Kat - I really love that photo.... dunno why really, but I do.
Posted by: Kirk | Friday, 17 June 2011 at 06:46 AM
That pide bread looks delicious! I remember eating a Lebanese version (I think it was called Sfeeha) when I was younger. It was mind blowingly good! The little chunks of tomato with the different spices... mmmm..
Posted by: ChristineT | Friday, 17 June 2011 at 08:53 AM
Funny about the beer being so bad. I guess that's why we've never seen turkish beer imported to the US, not worth the trouble =)
Posted by: Lynnea | Friday, 17 June 2011 at 09:15 AM
Hi Christine - Man, this pide was good!
Hi Lynnea - Yes, that was pretty funny. I heard that you can get Efes in the US...... though I'm not going to go looking for it!
Posted by: Kirk | Saturday, 18 June 2011 at 07:30 PM