Speaking of holidays, I am still in my holiday mood but is in my way of getting it out of it because I had to. =( Before officially getting out of holiday mood, my friends and I went for Turkish food. You know, usually I love going for new cuisine. But I have a condition, that is - going with friends that are equally as adventurous in terms of food as I am. I absolutely hate people that dare not try new food even though it looks disgusting. Just so you know, I tried lots of disgusting food. I've tried insects when I was travelling in China and remember how most people claimed that blue cheese stinks? Well, its one of the staple cheese in my fridge. My principal in life is, try everything before judging. So, if you are a food prude, I will mostly not dine with you or if you are the kind of person that stick to your own food (i.e. food from home), sorry, we can't really go try new things together.
Yes, I was slightly annoyed when people do that. You just live this once. Try all kinds of food. Of course sans the cruelty like eating a monkey brain when the monkey is alive. If its dead, no problem. Anyway, back to my virgin Turkish meal. Oh, how much I love lahmachun / lahmacun (a.k.a. Turkish pizza). I love it.
We went to a Turkish restaurant in Islington, called Antepliler.
They served us some kind of bread with olive and some spicy sauce. It is almost the equivalent of Italian bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I like it, reminds me of capati, the Indian flour bread that I eat with condensed milk when I was young.
We ordered 3 starters: Humus (mashed chick peas, i think the English equivalent is Hummus, Cacik (yogurt with cucumber) and Icli Kofte (basically something like a corn dog but instead of a sausage inside, there are minced meat). I love all of them, eat it with the bread they gave, I can make a meal out of it. =)
This is the Lahmachun / Lamacun (Turkish pizza), there are minced meat and some sauce on top of it and I was going to cut it like how we eat pizza with cutlery before my friend stop me and told me I am eating it wrong.
I was meant to roll it up to eat. Reminds me of Homer teaching Ned that if he rolls up his pizza before eating, all the toppings will not drop whilst consuming. Well, that was embarrassing, now I know the second time if I eat it. =)
The dish below is called Ali Nazik. Its basically meat with cheese, yogurt and egg plant. Its abit sour-ish and my friend barely eat because she thinks its too sour. Well, I thought people that love spicy food would like sour food too. Maybe that is just Thai, like tomyam. Hehe. Either way, all the dishes looks like you could just team it up with bread and make a good meal out of it.
This is what the bill comes in. How beautiful is it. I remembered that I've gotten similar trinket box from my uncle when he and my cousins went to Turkey for holiday. Perhaps the next time my friend goes home, I should ask her to get me one of these. Its so pretty and the inside is covered with turquoise velvet lining. I wish I could steal it. =)
I wish that we could end with some Turkish dessert but unfortunately, we are too full to had one. After the dinner, we decided to take a stroll along Upper Street, Islington. I vaguely remembered I went there once with my cousin, Soo, before many years ago. It looks better than it was, there are more shops and boutiques than I remembered such as a huge Jack Wills even Aesop boutique which I think there are only one in London and another counter in Selfridges. Perhaps the next time I should take a walk there. The only inconvenience is it took me at least 45 minutes by bus or by tube to get there while I have Stratford just 5 minutes tube away.
Here's my experience on my first Turkish meal. I had the idea that it might resemble Greek food but the Greek food I remembered are fairly dry as it was all grilled. Or perhaps I did not try the actual Greek food the last time. But I am glad to say that I enjoyed Turkish food, adding them into my list of favourite cuisines.
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