A few weeks ago, when the weather was relatively warm, me and a few friends decided we need to get out of the heart of this concrete jungle and have a picnic. We decided on a Sunday when none of us had a hockey game, but woke up to cloudy skies and a light drizzle. We were set on having the picnic anyways, and I think they wanted to do it mostly to show me how Turks do a BBQ. We met up at the ice rink, and it was me, Emrah, his hockey friend Ozan, his girlfriend/my teammate Irem, Teksin, who plays on a different girls team, and two Slovakians, Pavol and Andre, who play on Emrah's team. So a Latvian/American, four Turks, and two Slovakians set out around 1pm for a picnicking place on the edge of the city, all the while it was drizzling rain. We arrived about half an hour later to find that the city had sprawled considerably, and the picnic place that they knew of was almost kaput. There were apartments built all around, whereas a few years ago, they say it was just bare hills. The picnic tables were still there as well as little party tents, so we could stay out of the drizzle, and so we dicided to stay here. At the grocery store, Ozan and Emrah went to town buying lots and lots of meat. Turks love their meat, and have many many different kinds of 'köfte', which are like meatballs or hamburger patties. They all have a name, and each kind has either its own shape or spices.I think they bought 4 or 5 packs of köfte! We also bought chicken wings and plenty of vegetables for a salad.
Starting a fire in a drizzle wasn't easy, and so only after about an hour of trying did we get hot coals to start cooking our food. First up, peppers and eggplant, put on the grill whole. Meanwhile, we put the Slovaks to work cutting up veggies for the salad. When the eggplant was ready, Irem skinned them and mushed the insides together with lemon and salt (and usually we'd add garlic, but we had none) to make a traditional Turkish eggplant mush, which is delicious. Next up was the meat. Ozan took charge of cooking the meat, and as the meat was ready, he'd put it in a piece of bread (we bought 5 loaves!) and handed it off to the first person in line. This went on for about 3 rounds, so that everyone got one of each type of köfte on bread. Delicious. Lastly, the chicken wings went on the grill, and meanwhile a small family of dogs, a mother with two pups, came to our area to beg for food and got plenty of chicken wing bones.
Even though it was a cold, wet day, the picnic was a huge success. And we were one of about 6 groups of people picnicking there that day! I guess Turkish people rarely get time to get out and picnic and thus, if it was decided to try for a picnic, they will no it no matter what the weather. I never thought I'd be having an outdoor BBQ in February, but I also never expected to be living in Turkey in the first place!
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