In order to attain your dreams, life coaches tell you to visualize them in detail first. I was never successful in doing this, until I saw a tiny scene in the movie, ‘Munich’, the exact picture of the life I would like in my future. A huge Parisian family was gathered together on their grandparents' farm in Provence and they were about to sit to eat the meal they had prepared. Everything in this scene, from the quaint farm house to the huge kitchen to the kids running around amongst the flower gardens and of course the table surrounded by the sons and daughters and their spouses, their children looked exactly like something that I might have created in my mind. Interestingly enough, when my son, Hasan, and I were discussing where we would be in the future, he mentioned this exact scene from the movie and said that this is how he visualized my future as well. I guess it fit somehow.
After I tasted the ‘Nar Eksisi’, I got so excited that I decided to make a salad I had learnt from my friend who visited Adana. She told me that this salad, that is the simplest and the most savory dish that appeals to my taste buds like not much else can, was eaten in all the restaurants in Adana. My husband is skeptical about this claim since there are no onions in it; Adana kitchen like most Southeastern Anatolian kitchens is very fond of onions- so he may be right, but I prefer it this way. It’s both easy to prepare and very tasty. It is basically chopped tomatoes, chopped fresh mint leaves, finely chopped walnuts and salt, oil and pomegranate sour to taste, mixed together. It has a sweet and sour taste that is like nothing else.
Yogurt goes really well with most Turkish home cooked meals. We traditionally prefer to eat our yogurt salty; it is something found either on its own or in a variety of ways on the Turkish table. ‘Cacik’ is a cold yogurt soup that is made by combining cucumbers cut into tiny pieces and beaten yogurt that is mixed with salt, dried mint and garlic, and drizzled with olive oil. This is a perfect summer side dish. Of course it goes perfectly with ‘Dolma’ and took its place on our dinner table as well.
We have a wonderful term in Turkish that would be very appropriate for all of us in this meal preparation, 'Benimde corbada tuzum olsun' (Let there be some salt from me in the soup as well) meaning let me be a part of the joint effort. After Hasan, Murat and I went to the bazaar to buy the vegetables, my mother-in-law's helper, Bostan, my husband and I prepared this unpretentious meal for the family last night. The boys were ravenous after coming home from working out and we all enjoyed an amazing meal, quite similar to most families' all across the country, prepared and consumed in our own style with passion and joy.
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