food

Today I had the first food on this trip which was diverged from something I might make in the direction of good (and it was all of 5 YTL = $3.50): cauliflower with orange and dill. I'm guessing it's fried in olive oil, with a tiny bit of carrot, let cool, salted, and tossed with orange blossom water and fresh dill. What I don't understand is how this can be a traditional dish - even in Armenia, how can oranges and cauliflower be in season together with dill? Anyway, it was really good.



Its sequel was tasty, and well-presented... and I already had the camera out.



The restaurant, "Bostana," was right next to a coffee house, which was so smoky I had trouble breathing when I mistook it for the restaurant (the sign for which was actually in front of the coffee shop). Walking back down Istiklal Cad., there were two distinct anti-Israel rallies. In one, they were singing. I couldn't help but imagine them singing the song from Borat.



In other news, which I unfortunately don't have a picture to accompany, I got scammed yesterday, and didn't even realize it until today. Yesterday, a shoe-shine guy dropped his brush, and I exclaimed until, on the third exclamation, he turned around and picked it up, thanking me profusely. I kept on walking, but slowly, and he caught up, and started talking to me, in a perfectly natural way (Most aren't natural at all - out of nowhere, people say "Where are you from, or more often in my case "Deutsch?" But "Yes. Please, hello." is my favorite faux salutation so far.). He was Kurdish, and had come to city to feed his kids, because his village had been bombed, so it was really important that he not lose the brush. So we walked and chatted halfway across the Galata bridge, at which point he looked as if he'd made a decision, and telling me that he wanted to thank me, he insisted on giving me a shoeshine (but without cleaning them first - I really didn't want him to), and I felt guilty enough to give him 3 YTL for it.

I only realized this was a scam when another guy tried the same thing; but he had jumped up four steps to make the brush fall off, turned the first time I exclaimed, and then wanted to thank me immediately. I almost wanted to tell him: listen, there's this Kurdish guy: you need to go study under him.