My Neighborhood - Streets and Churches Part 1

It has occurred to me that, while I walk them frequently, I have never photographed my neighborhood. While I am now in the holding pattern of the overcast and ofttimes grey Istanbul winter, I did go out a few months ago and get some of it on film.

Yeni Çarşı Cd.

Yeni Çarşı Cd.

Istiklal Cd.

Istiklal Cd.

I headed up Yeni Çarşı to Istiklal. I've written before about the steepness of my street so, as much as Istiklal is in my top five 'Things I Hate about Istanbul', it's always a bit of a relief to reach it! On this particular day I was specifically planning to photograph some of the many churches on and around Istiklal and the first one I came to was Saint Anthony, the largest Roman Catholic church in the city.

Saint Anthony Catholic

Saint Anthony Catholic

Saint Anthony Catholic

Saint Anthony Catholic

I hear Saint Anthony's bells from my apartment every day. I always know it's noon because the bells ring a song that is always the recessional at my Sunday Mass. I attend the smaller and, in my opinion, far prettier Santa Maria Draperis Franciscan Catholic church farther down on Istiklal. It's a little 'hidden' as the gate is relatively modern and the church is down a few flights of stairs from street level; so you don't see it right away.

Saint Anthony Catholic

Saint Anthony Catholic

Santa Maria Draperis Catholic

Santa Maria Draperis Catholic

I sing the Responsorial response Psalms on Sunday now. Every week it's terrifying. My priest asked me in late November or early December if I would mind doing this but of course I couldn't start on a normal Sunday when attendance is maybe 10 people. I started Christmas Eve which was not only standing room only but with more than the average tourists wandering in and out.

It did not go well.

Asmali Mescit Cd.

Asmali Mescit Cd.

Asmali Mescit Cd.

Mesrutiyet Cd.

Because I deeply dislike Istiklal, I often use Mesrutiyet as an alternative route from Tunel to my street. It's a charming street in its own right, lined with cafes and restaurants (including my favorite Thai place - Pera Thai, and a specialty delicatessen); and bonus, a fraction of the foot traffic on Istiklal. Asmali Mescit is similarly packed with restaurants and bars and it's fun to get lost back there exploring them all.

Mesrutiyet Cd.

Mesrutiyet Cd.

Mesrutiyet Cd.

Galip Dede Cd

Galip Dede is the street that leads off Istiklal down to the famous Galata Tower and is home to my favorite Turkish towel and soap shop, Home Spa, and my new favorite jewelry shop...which name I unfortunately don't remember.

Galip Dede is also pretty heavily traffic but thankfully it's a little emptier on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday the weather was so nice I didn't need to wear leggings under my skirt for church. Unfortunately, I failed to take into account the especially high winds that day and had my own Marilyn Monroe moment.

Galata Kulesi

Galata Kulesi Sk.

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic

Istiklal Cd.

Past the Galata Tower is yet another Catholic church, Saints Peter and Paul. And despite the fact that I showed up when it was supposed to be open and hung around for half an hour, it never did open. So all I managed was a picture of the gate door. I had not intended to take pictures of only the Catholic churches that day, but I lost my way trying to find the Crimean church and there was something going on at the Armenian church. Another day then.

Balik Pazar-Istiklal Cd.

Balik Pazar-Istiklal Cd.

My next time out I'll try the other end of Istiklal, the passages running off it, and its churches-specially the big Greek Orthodox church at Taksim.

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015

New Year's Eve! Tonight we say good-bye to all of the let-downs, set-backs, and failures of 2014 and make promises to ourselves for what we will do better or different(ly) in 2015. For me 2014 was a pretty good year. I traveled, ticked items off my bucket list, saw some marvelous theatre, made new friends (a true feat), broke through a building wall to rescue my cat, witnessed a miracle, saw one of my best friends happily married, served at a Papal Mass, continued to stand on my own feet, and had tribute laid at them. I think my only real regret is not having done more.

What will 2015 hold? I have no idea; there is so much over which we have no control. What I can control though I will so in 2015 I will:

1. Learn to play the Turkish mey
2. Improve my Turkish
3. Write (if not publish) a book
4. Travel more within Turkey; specifically to: Mount Nemrut, Mardin, Canakale
5. Visit my friends in Serbia
6. Visit a new country; I'm thinking Iceland
7. Go to a Christmas market in Europe
8. Finally learn what all the buttons on my camera do

My ambitions may be neither great nor many but I am happy with them. I might add a ninth...I've been thinking about crowd funding my wine reviews. People do Kickstarter and Crowdfunding campaigns for some of the oddest things now so, why not?

Whether or not you make or keep to your new year's resolutions; ParMieux Adventures wishes you an amazing 2015!

Elf and Mint Hot Chocolate

Really is there any other flavor for hot chocolate more appropriate to accompany Elf? Really, what else would Buddy drink? Well maybe maple syrup flavored hot chocolate but...ew.

Lacking extract I thought it would be a good idea to steep mint leaves in milk for a while. It may have gone well had one thing and the other not got in the way. I stripped and bruised the leaves, added them to the milk, and put it all back in the refrigerator with the intention of only letting it steep for half hour or so. Just before the 30 minutes were up I got a phone call from my priest and ran out to meet him. 40 minutes later I got home five minutes before a schedule teleconference with Palestine.

Long story short, by the time I got around to making the hot chocolate the leaves had been steeping for  at least three times as long as I'd intended. Whether it was that or it was simply a bad idea to use leaves the mint hot chocolate did not turn out as well as I was hoping. I got a brief hint of mint at first sip which quickly transitioned to...leaf. So my mint hot chocolate was more like leaf hot chocolate. Which was an interesting if utterly unintended flavor.

Recipe:

• 1 Cup milk
• 1/4 Cup heavy cream
• 50-ish grams dark chocolate
• Mint leaves*

1. Wash and strip mint leaves from 6-7 stalks. Bruise with your fingers.
2. Steep in milk/cream for half an hour or so.
3. Heat milk until just hot then remove mint leaves.
4. Whisk in chocolate, add a little sugar if desired.

*Of course you could just use peppermint extract :)

Turkish Wine of the Week - Suvla Kabatepe White 2013

This week we're talking about Suvla's Kabatepe 2013 white. Sadly, they're not producing any more of this so what is in stock is what is left.

Like the red, the white is a super blend of: Kinali Yapinkcak 47%, Chardonnay 17%, Sauvignon Blanc 15%, Semillon 10%, and Roussanne Marsanne 11%.

Right out of the bottle it was interesting with its bright straw yellow color and green hues. The nose was dry and little floral. I was really surprised by the flavor which was sweeter than I expected given the dryness of the nose. I don't mean sweet like a muscat sweet, of course, more like there was just a hint of honey. Crisp, slightly acidic, and with flavors of what I think was green apple, the Kabatepe white is delightful. Such a pity there's only a limited supply-so go get yours now!

Love Actually and Orange Clove Hot Chocolate

In the spirit of what is apparently a British tradition of Christmas truth-telling I must confess...I'm a genius.

Putting chocolate, orange, and clove together is one of the most brilliant flavor combinations around. Clove is tricky to work with sometimes because there is a fine line between that tantalizing hint and being completely overpowered.

I paired this one with Love Actually. Despite the bizarre British desire to tell everyone the truth at Christmas (what is that all about?), I love this movie. Who doesn't want a Prime Minister who uses Harry Potter and David Beckham to charmingly tells the sleazy US President to frack off? And Colin Firth with his adorably bad Portuguese is my favorite part. I hope my bad Turkish is that adorable. I got some giggles when I took my cat to the vet and told them that "I want her to not be able to have babies." I thought that was a logical compromise for not knowing the Turkish word for "spay" but they thought it was funny.

Recipe:

• 1 Cup milk
• 1/4 Cup heavy cream
• Zest of one large orange
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/4-1/2 Teaspoon ground clove
• 50-ish grams chopped dark chocolate 

This isn't a recipe to make when you've a whim because the zest has to steep for a bit.

1. Steep the zest in the milk/cream combination for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how impatient you are. I don't have a zester so I used a vegetable peeler to take off the zest in large strips. It's easier to remove the zest from the milk if you do it this way, just make sure to remove any pith.
2. Heat the milk, cream, and zest on low until hot to the touch or you see bubbles forming around the edge. As ever, do not let boil! 
3. Remove zest from milk.
4. Whisk in sugar, clove, and chocolate until everything is smooth an incorporated.
5. Give it a bit of a taste and add clove as desired. Remember, you can always add but you can't take out!

If you're not a zest person and/or don't want to take the time you could instead use and orange flavored chocolate.

Merry Christmas! Cardamom Hot Chocolate

A few weeks ago my priest asked me if I would start singing the Psalms during Mass.  Usually only about a dozen people come to my Mass so I figured, why not? Embarrassing myself in from of 12 people isn't the end of the world. Unfortunately my debut was none other than Christmas Eve Mass. Santa Maria is a fairly small church but once you pack people into pews, set out a couple dozen extra chairs, and crowd people standing in the back there must have been at least 200 people there.

I got the Psalm and the music on the 23rd so I had a full day to practice. Which I did much to Sherlock's displeasure. I was nervous as anything but figured if I could just get the first note right then I'd be ok. Naturally I'd stressed myself into a migraine (which put a kabosh on my plans for liquid courage). To make it worse, being a high holy day the priests bust out the incense. Incense makes me sick under the best of circumstances and they got really enthusiastic with it. It was like someone had fogged the alter with it. Unfortunately the clouds of nauseous incense that were intensifying my migraine did nothing to obscure the several hundred people staring at me; nor did they hide me from them. Needless to say I did not get the first note right. I think I got it together by the first verse though.

If that weren't enough I also went to Christmas morning Mass so I had only a handful of hours to learn a new Psalm. It went much worse this morning. Much, much worse. I should have had Gluehwein with breakfast instead of coffee. I didn't manage to pull things together until round about the third verse. At least there were less people this morning.

While I couldn't go home to my family again this year, at least modern technology makes it less depressing (no more crying during Home Alone). My sister and I talked via Skype when I got home and she and my brother-in-law taunted me by showing me the ham he prepared for dinner. Then at about 1.15AM my brother set up a Google Hangout so I could talk to him, my parents, and the cousins who go to my parents' for Christmas Eve.

It being actual Christmas day and all of course we're going to talk about a hot chocolate! I enjoy cardamom in coffee so why not in chocolate? Like cayenne, cardamom is not to be used with a liberal hand. Taste and add as you go! To accompany the hot chocolate, today I'm watching my other favorite version of The Christmas Carol-Micky Mouse's.

We used to watch this every year of TV when we were kids. Then it disappeared and you couldn't find it for love or money. But Disney, not a company to miss the chance to make money any way it can, finally released it on DVD some years ago. In addition to the Christmas Carol is a short with Chip and Dale creating a ruckus with Mickey's tree and some cartoon about a donkey that we never fail to skip.

I can never decide which version I like better; the Muppets' or Mickey. The Muppet version has the fantastic ghosts and Gonzo...but it also has singing and puppets. Shudder. Mickey's version has Goofy and is what introduced Uncle Scrooge to us. I don't really like Donald (or Huey, Duey, and Louie) but I love Scrooge McDuck. I'm also less tempted to smack the Mickey Tiny Tim. I'll just have to keep watching them both year after year until I decide!

A Merry and Blessed Christmas from ParMieux Adventures!

Recipe:

• 1 Cup milk
• 1/4-ish Cup heavy cream
• 50 grams milk chocolate (chopped)
• 1 big Tablespoon dark cocoa powder
• 1/4-1/2 Teaspoon cardamom

1. Heat milk and cream until hot or just bubbling around the edges.
2. Whisk in chocolate, cocoa powder, and cardamom.
3. Add more cardamom (or not) to taste.
4. Enjoy!

Hunting for Nessie

The last of our Scotland adventures took us to Inverness.It's not quite as old and not nearly as charming as Edinburgh but since we were there pretty much for Nessie that didn't matter so much.

River Ness

Inverness Castle

Saint Andrews Cathedral

We took an early morning train from Edinburgh and arrived in Inverness...or did we? It was so, so foggy that we could have arrived in Budapest and I don't think I'd have known the difference. Between the weather and my back the first day was a wash. We walked around a little bit and went to a Highland arts and crafts fair. My back had got so bad though that I was walking like a feeble, old person, moaning a little every few steps. The craft fair was a nightmare for me. The venue was really too narrow to shove as many stalls in it as they did and it was so crowded that I was getting bumped every other second causing me to emit increasingly less brief, piteous moans of pain. It was worth it though because that's were we found Damn Fine Cheese.

Thanks to the magically curative beds at Pitfaranne Guest House, I was virtually cured and ready to hunt down Nessie the next day.Pitfaranne Guest House, by the way, is a fantastic choice for your stay in Inverness. It's very central and everything is within walking distance. The beds are so comfortable, breakfast was great, and the owner, Pearl, was so lovely and helpful.

Me freezing on the Loch

Urquhart Castle from Loch Ness

Of course the real highlight of Inverness (aside from the cheddar) was the trip to Loch Ness.  We booked a tour that picked us up at the central bus station and brought us to a boat for our Loch Ness cruise, picked us up at Urquhart Castle, then took us to the Loch Ness visitors' center. The last, which chronicled the history of the lake and the monster was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. We also had a lovely guide who provided laughs and some fun an interesting information.

For example, no matter how cold it gets, Loch Ness never freezes. There is simply too much water. In fact, Loch Ness holds more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined. And at 755 ft (230m) deep and covering 22 square mi (56 square km), if it were to be emptied of water it could hold the world's entire population. Multiple times.

As much as I would love to be able to say that we saw shadows moving under the surface of the water or a head breaking the loch's surface...we didn't. We had fun freezing our butts off on the boat though and wandering around the ruins of Urquhart (pronounced: er-kit) Castle. Thankfully the weather was no where near as foggy as it was our first day; but there was still enough haze around to lend the loch and castle a sense of mystery and the promise that a monster could be lingering nearby. We learned all about the hoaxes people have perpetrated and the natural phenomena that could be mistaken for a monster. My favorite was the deer. Apparently the local deer like to swim across the loch, which I believe is a mile across. Deer where I'm from don't do that.

This is as close as I got to Nessie

Just because we did not spot Nessie did not make this a wasted trip. If nothing else, the excellent, comfortable beds at Pitfaranne cured my back injury. I really enjoyed this brief glimpse of the Highlands though. The Scottish country side is stunning. I didn't even mind the cold.

Thus ends my adventures in Scotland. I fell in love with the country; especially with Edinburgh. I feel very much about Edinburgh as I felt the first time I came to Istanbul. Unfortunately the UK dosn't hand out residency permits with the same sense of abandon as does Turkey so the chances of my up and moving to Edinburgh are pretty slim. Which is a pity. For the time being I will have to make do with more visits. So ta for now, Scotland!