Where is the pork?

View  from my apartment window this morning.  Nice day, as you can see the surrounding hills in the background.
Çig köfte is the one on the far left.  Mmmm

While I adore Turkish food, I do miss some things about other countries..such as the availability of pork.  While in Minnesota i do not eat that much of it to start with, it is nice to be able to get bacon or pork chops anytime I wish to.  Whether it is for breakfast, or for a big Latvian style dinner, I do miss pork.  

So far, we have found bacon in some of the huge supermarkets, but really, paying about $6 for 5 thin pieces of bacon just isn't worth it, though a Canadian friend did give each of us a packet for Christmas.  While I am learning how to make some Turkish food, like manti, I also want to make some Latvian food so that Emrah can taste it, but really, I would need a ground pork for 'kotletes', or a tenderized pork chop to really make it authentic.  I guess I will have to wait a few more months, when i head to Latvia, to get my fill of pork.

Lately we have been eating a lot of 'çig köfte', which is a type of raw meatball, though I'm told that now, the shops are not allowed to use raw meat and must substitute other ingredients.  A çig köfte is traditionally a mixture of raw fat-free double ground meat, bulgur, garlic, onion, peppers, and spices.  It is a lot of work to make it as it need a lot of kneading.  They say that all the kneading and spices cooks the meat.  It is formed into smaller pieces by hand and thus each has a fingers and palm imprint on it.  It is usually eaten by rolling a piece in a lettuce leaf and adding a bit of lemon juice, but you can also find çig köfte wraps as well, which are kind of like burritos.

Speaking of burritos, there are none here.  At least none that i have come across.  In general, i do miss the variety of food that can be found in the US.  Especially in my south Minnepolis neighborhood, I could eat Vietnamese food one day, Mexican the next, then Thai, and even German. Here, though it is all good, it is all Turkish.  I'm not sure if this is due to the proud to be Turkish culture, or because it seems like many Turks do not travel outside of Turkey, nor are there many immigrants here.  The diversity in America is really noticeable each time i come back from being gone for a while.

In other news, the weather here has been pretty pathetic, and hard to take for a Minnesota girl.  While we did get cold and snow for about a week (and thankfully that landed right around Christmas to make it a white one), since then it has been relatively warm and cloudy.  The past few days have been rainy and warm, maybe similar to early April in MN.  I know it's been a cold winter in MN, but i still prefer the cold and snow to any other kind of winter.  Due to the mediocre weather, the days here all seem the same, and i can't believe that it is almost February.

In a few months I will be heading off to Latvia, to train with the National Team in preparation for our Division II (yes, embarassing, as we need to get back into Division I) World Championships in Italy in mid-April.  After that, who knows, as my team here is already trying to find me a job, etc., to try to entice me to stay for next season.  As of now I plan to return to the states, but who knows.. as last October I had no idea that I would end up coming to Turkey of all places!  But in preparation for returning to the states, i need to keep experimenting with Turkish recipes so that when i do return,  everyone can sample how great Turkish food really is.