February (Subat) 1 to 12

For a few more photographs (not many this week), see: http://anatolianphotos.shutterfly.com/ Feb. 1 to 12.

Another two fairly quiet weeks.

We continue with our attendance at the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra’s Friday night performances. On the 5th of February, the performance included Milhaud’s "Creation of the World," a Strauss solo piece, sung by Elena Brilova, entitled "Ariadne of Naxos," then Beethoven’s Symphony #1. Tonight we will see a Valentine’s Day special: excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s "Romeo and Juliet," Bernstein’s "West Side Story," and Prokofev’s "Romeo and Juliet." I wonder what the theme is?

Last night, we joined Meldan and her brother, Ercan, for a concert at Ankara’s central Concert Hall, home of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. This is one of the oldest symphonies in the world, having been founded in the 1820s. The first conductor was Giuseppe Donizetti. Last night’s performance included a father-son rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto #1. The father conducted; the 28 year old son was the pianist. Great performance, but, alas, the piano was on occasion too loud. Larry thought so, too, so my suspicion that my hearing was at fault was put to rest. The tyranny of the audience’s synchronized hand clapping forced two encores from the pianist. The last half of the program was Gudonov’s "Four Seasons." This time, the conductor would have none of the audience’s insistence on another encore; I don’t blame him, we were shameless.

When not attending concerts, we were visiting the rug shop, Best Koleksyon. First, for a cocktail party (really another big meal, but this time in the evening, with wine), and orientation for our upcoming trip to the southwestern part of Turkey, led by our rug dealer, Kadir Bey. In a little more than a week, we will see camel wrestling, Pamukkale (I hope), and some other great sites.

Two days later, Meldan called to invite us back to Best Koleksyon, where her brother, Ercan, wanted to "just look" at some rugs. So back we went. I welcomed this visit so soon after our cocktail party, as I had lost an earring at the party and wanted to look for it in the shop and on the sidewalks outside. Alas, it is gone. Ercan had always said that he would never buy a rug made outside of Turkey. When, with our encouragement, he actually bought a beautiful Afghan rug, he justified his decision with the knowledge that the wool and specific dyes used on the wools were supplied by one of Kadir Bey’s workshops. At one point during our visit, Larry asked me, "We don’t have any red rugs, do we?" Oh no! We’re not going to buy another rug, are we? Whew! We let the temptation pass and went home empty handed.

In between concerts and visits to Best Koleksyon, I worked on finding information on Amy Tan and the literary canon for Meldan’s talk she will be giving in Dublin next month. I finally have a better sense of what Meldan is looking for than I did in September when I was so unsuccessful in helping her find information. Success! She now has lots of articles and book references. And I ordered a book for her from Amazon in hopes that it arrives in time for the conference in Dublin, where Larry will also be giving a talk. (I, of course, will tag along with them).

Because of the paucity of travel during the last several weeks, I had planned on spending time with photographs and some discussion of various new foods and drinks we have been exposed to so far. But I’ve run out of time before we head out on a new adventure tomorrow. Nonetheless, I have to mention a new food we discovered in a small shop called "Etsiz Cif Kofte." Cif kofte is an egg-shaped meatball made with raw meat and spices. "Etsiz" cif kofte is "meatless" raw meat meatballs. ??? For those of you who’ve eaten at our house, think "tofu meatballs." The "etsiz" version has bulghur as a base. We eat them by wrapping them in lettuce leaves, then in extremely thin bread that had been spread with a tiny amount of hot pepper sauce (aci biber salcasi). Yum!

Another new dish I actually made was inspired by Kadir Bey’s cook, who served "kirmisi mercimek koftesi" (red lentil balls) as one of the many dishes at last week’s cocktail party. Because I used the wrong kind of bulghur with the red lentils, I had to add more water than the recipe called for. This made the whole concoction too moist, so I couldn’t form the egg shaped balls. Instead, we just wrapped them in lettuce, then thin bread spread with a little hot pepper sauce . . . . Sound familiar?

I can’t wait to cook some of these new dishes for my friends and family back home.

Tomorrow we head back to the Mediterranean. Next week we go to see camel wrestling. The following week a trip to Kayseri, near Cappadocia, where Larry will deliver another talk, courtesy of the U.S. Embassy. Then we return to the Ambassador’s Residence to hear a talk by the daughter of the second president of the Turkish Republic.

So no more concerts or visits to rug shops for awhile. I’ll have lots of pictures and descriptions when we return!