Turkish Wine of the Week - Turasan 2015 Misket and A Bosphorus Cruise

Recently I discovered that a new friend owns a yacht. And while I would love to be friends with the idle rich O is not idle, she and her husband have a travel agency here in Istanbul and the yacht is one of the services they offer. However she kindly offered to take a bunch of us out a couple weeks ago for a Sunday Bosphorus cruise.

Ortakoy Mosque & the First Bridge

So on a gorgeous, sunny afternoon we all met at the Kabatas dock to board the Zoe in what was going to be a three hour tour (and don't think the Americans didn't giggle at that). Three hours turned into four and half as we cruised up the Bosphorus admiring the palaces and architecture along the way and stopping near the Black Sea, practically underneath the infamous Third Bridge, for a swim.

Anadoluhisari

Of course I wasn't going to miss the chance to sip a wine as I pretended to be idle rich myself. It's not everyday a girl gets invited aboard a yacht (although if anyone does have those days often please tell me how!). What wine would go better with a Sunday summer cruise than a semi sweet? So I broke out one of the Turasan wines I had shipped from the winery in Cappadocia: Turasan's 2015 Misket.

One of the things I like about Turkish Misket (or Muscat as most of us know it) is that they are generally of the semi sweet variety; they're not cloyingly sweet dessert wines. Turasan's isn't quite dessert-level sweet but it is sweeter than I like my Miskets.

In the glass it's, a bright, extremely pale yellow and smells, of all things, like champagne. I love aromatic white wines and Muscats usually deliver in that respect with a lot of floral and tropical notes. On the palate there was little acid and it felt a bit thick however some of that might well have to do with the fact that I wasn't drinking it at ideal serving temperature. A few degrees colder would have made a world of difference. The flavor was very nice following the aromas from the nose: tropical, citrus, and white flowers. I did not get the orange blossom though that I love so much in Miskets.

Maiden's Tower

Pricing on this one is a little difficult. I ordered directly from Turasan so I got the winery price of 28TL. The Cave sells these for mid/upper 30s, and Solera has a mid 50s price tag. It's worth the 28. At the risk of sounding like a credit card commercial, drinking it on a yacht on the Bosphorus, priceless!

The best thing about it? You can do it too if you're in the city! The Zoe is for hire for private events of I think 10-12 people. It was recently written up in The Guide Istanbul magazine and you can contact them for hire information via the Zoe Yacht Cruise Facebook Page. Bon Voyage!

Turkish Wine of the Week - Sevillen 2012 W

A while back E and I trekked out to the Kanyon mall to visit Macro Center-a place I have avoided for two and a half years because I heard it was addictive. Macro Center, you see, is the import grocery store. In the end I was actually pretty disappointed by it. My local Carrefour carries a lot of the same things; although I was thrilled beyond measure to find large tubs of red curry paste! No more having to get people to bring/send me the itty bitty pots of Thai Kitchen paste. I was of course hoping that the import store would have a decent selection of foreign wines (and I heard that you could get them cheaper there than at La Cave)...

I bought local wines. Who goes to the fancy import store and comes home with local products? Apparently I do. The imported wine selection was slim and, like at many of the alcohol stores in Istanbul, it was a selection of the bottom of the barrel wines at top shelf prices. No thank you. So I purchased a couple Turkish wines I'd never seen before, one of which was Sevillen's 2012 W.

Frankly I was drawn to this because of the label. I'm not too proud to admit that I often choose wine based on how attractive I find the label so, kudos to the ad people. This particular label reminded me of "Wicked" which has long been both one of my favorite books and musicals.

The W is a blend of Semillion and Sauvignon Blanc, a blend we tried (in reverse) recently with Suvla. The W is a very pale straw yellow with a delicate floral, citrus, apple nose. On the palate it's clean, dry, and with a long finish with a lot of citrus and apple. Really lovely. We really liked this one. 

The W went beautifully with our dinner that night of grilled vegetables, Turkish carrot salad (recipe below!), and...the Heaven...pork sausage. Which we bought at the Macro Center. I love you, Devil's Meat.

I would definitely by Sevillen's W again. We all really enjoyed it and even as much as I love wine even I have to say that it can be difficult to find a wine that you like both with and without food and that is an easy drinking experience. I may even dare to blaspheme and say that I liked this better than the Suvla iteration...

Turkish Carrot Salad:

• 4-5 large carrots, peeled and grated
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3-4 big cloves of garlic, crushed
• 500 grams thick yogurt (suzme if you're in Turkey, otherwise Greek yogurt should work)

1. Heat the oil over medium flames and cook the grated carrots with salt and pepper until they're about half done, you want them still crunchy. Frankly I don't know why you want to half cook them but the chef on our blue cruise (who taught me the recipe) said to do it. When they're (half) done set them aside to cool.
2. Crush the garlic cloves and combine them with the yogurt.
3. When the carrots are cool, combine them with the yogurt and let your taste buds explode! 

Zambia Favorite Pictures

I've been promising since forever that I would share my pictures from Zambia...now that I've had two trips, I'm posting here some of my favorite pictures from each of the trips:

Roadside Mango Sales:


Victoria Falls:


Toad in the Hand:


Kids:


Girl with wheelbarrow:


Girls spinning troupe:




I wish I knew what kind of flower this is:


Leopard rug:


Tiny Praying mantis:


Giraffe:


Me on Safari game drive:


Elephant

Doors

Like I mentioned a while back in this post, I really enjoyed the different kinds of doors that everyone had in and around Cambs. Obviously, we have doors here too, but they don't seem to be nearly as interesting, whimsical, colorful, or, well...Bri'ish. I'd like to give a big thank you to K for indulging me in my endeavors to photograph every neat door that I saw, even to the point of whipping the car around so that I could run out and take a few snaps. Thanks again K!

I don't have a lot to say about the doors that I fotoed, but I'm going to share the pictures with you just the same. Maybe someday, I'll frame a bunch of them together and actually put them up on my wall as 'art.'


Backside of the Iron Garden Gate, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire


...and the Front


Hope Cottage, St Albans


Green Door, St Albans


#27 Door Knocker


St Albans Cathedral


Old Door, Cambridge


Twin Red doors, Cambridge


Red Door with Bike, Cambridge


Old Church Door. St Botolph's, Cambridge


Catholic Rectory Door, Cambridge


Garden Houses, with Blue Doors, St Albans


Small Door, St Albans


Iron Door, Anglesey Abbey


Inside Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire


ME! Outside the Anglesey Abbey Staff entrance

Verulamium and the Fighters

So as it turned out, St Albans was a really great idea for K and I to visit. I was excited about the history of the Cathedral there, but I was even more excited to learn about the Roman history of the place, too. Long before there was a St Albans, there was the settlement of Uerulamos, which is Brittonic for 'Broad-Hand' in this place.

To give you a bit of the context (I like history): According to the Roman record, by CE 50, Verulamium was a municipium, meaning unlike actual Roman Colonies, citizens of Verulamium weren't granted full citizenship under Roman law. In CE 43, under Claudius, Romans maintained a treaty with the Iceni people -- the ancient Brittons of East Anglia. When their ruler Prasutagus died in c. CE 60, the Romans (now under Nero) attempted to confiscate their land, and annex the realm for Nero. Under their queen, Boudicca, the Iceni revolted, sacked and burned the Roman British Capital in Colchester, London, and the settlement of Verulamium (now St Albans) around CE 61. After this, the city did thrive under the Romans for a couple of hundred years (at least) following the destruction of Boudicca's rebellion, and the citizens of Verulamium eventually received full "Latin Rights" from the Romans. (Sources: Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Brittanica, BBC, British Museum).




Today, there isn't much of Verulamium left, save for bits of wall, a hypocaust, and some of a Roman Theatre. Inside the museum, there are quite a few artifacts, and reproductions of what Roman life might have been like during the time. Above, there is one of the beautiful hypocaust mosaics.

This is a recovered bronze figure of the Roman Goddess Venus:


This Sea God Mosaic is from sometime between c. CE 150 and CE 300.



So after all of the historic sight-seeing in Verulamium, K and I got hungry. Within walking distance is a small public house called, Ye Old Fighting Cocks. It is considered by the Guinness Book to be the oldest pub in England, though there is some competition from other pubs. Originally, the pub was known as the 'Round House,' likely because of the round-ish, octagonal structure that makes up the main section. As the sport of cock fighting gained a foothold, the pub was re-branded as Ye Old Fighting Cocks, sometime in the 19th century. Today, this country-inn style pub is affectionately known to locals as "The Fighters."

Though I find cock-fighting to be brutal, unnecessary violence of similar ilk to dog fighting, I still thought it was neat to see one of the old taxidermed roosters on display. I'm certainly glad that it is not a place for cock fighting now.




While in the UK, I learned about the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) , a movement to increase the appreciation for traditional beers, ciders, and perries as a part of national heritage. The Fighters just so happens to be home to CAMRA, and so I was able to try a couple of different kinds of 'Real' ale. I don't recall what kinds these were, but I do remember that I like them!


The part of The Fighters that stood out to me the most was the menu. Sure, there was all your usual fish and chips, but there were also a couple of vegetarian options as well! On this day, K and I both opted for some summer veg and squash(?) baked in a beautiful puff pastry shell. SO delicious! Then, the real show stopper was the dessert that we chose - Eton Mess. Even this dessert has a history! It is traditionally served at the annual Eton Collage v. Winchester College cricket match, and strawberries are customary, though just about any summer fruit could be used in it. This one was made from cream, berries, and bits of sweet meringue. No one is really sure where the 'mess' part comes from, though some think it's because of the messy appearance of the dish, and others think it comes from mixing ingredients together. Either way, I assure you, K and I made a mess of it. It was absolutely delicious, and perfect for such a lovely summer day in East Anglia!

BRAAAIIIINNSS!: Or, the 2010 Silver Spring Zombie Walk

Last night, Andrea and I took a much needed break from annual and quarterly report editing to check out the 2nd annual Silver Spring Zombie Walk. Although we did not dress up this year, I'm considering definitely participating in the revelry next year.

AT first, we had a hard time finding the Mob of Zombies. It was mostly a couple of zombies spread out here and there.

Zombie Co-eds

The one on the left definitely wanted to eat our brains, the zombie on the right, she was a vegan, and also had a zombie kitten. :)

Please meet Zombie Hello Kitty.

I love that even the kids came out.

"Brain-bow Brite"

And then...the mob of zombies came running down the street in search of...BRRRAAAAIIIINNNNSSSSS!!!!!

Please remember that Zombies are people too...

And finally, I leave you with one parting view of the Silver Spring Zombie Walk...
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!