The Blue Mosque

A couple of weeks ago some friends from the UK visited us for a weekend. Having them (a father and son from a family we know well) come to see us was a real joy. So much so that J has asked almost every day since they left (and usually multiple times a day) if he can go on an aeroplane to visit his friend.

Another great effect of their coming was that it was a motivation to visit the Blue Mosque - officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque or Sultan Ahmet Mosque, it's one of the most famous sights in Istanbul and one we hadn't actually visited yet.

The Blue Mosque was constructed in the early 1600s and gets its name from the thousands (estimated at 20,000)  hand painted blue tiles on the inside walls. It is the only mosque with six minarets in Turkey (apparently).

It is also still a 'working' mosque - Muslims have five set daily prayer times and the mosque closes to tourists for the prayer times that are within the normal opening hours, so we had to time our visit carefully.

Another Istanbul landmark ticked off - our time to see them is rapidly diminishing!

A Turkish wedding reception

We attended our first Turkish wedding reception yesterday. We've attended weddings here before, but they've been more international in flavour. Yesterday's bride and groom actually got married in America a couple of weeks ago (she's American) but they had a Turkish wedding reception as well.

We had fun and it was fascinating from a cultural point of view. I'm fairly sure that, just as you can't necessarily draw accurate conclusions about British wedding traditions just from attending one wedding, in this Turkish wedding reception there would have been elements that were traditional to the Istanbul culture we live in, elements more traditional to Turkish culture as a whole, elements traditional to the particular communities they are part of, and elements that were not as traditional at all. So this should not be read as an information-guide on Turkish weddings, but rather an experience of just one wedding reception.

The reception started early - 6pm - mainly due to the fact that there were lots of close family members with young children coming. It was scheduled to finish at 11, we made it until 9pm with our boys then quietly slipped out (having already outlasted some of our friends who were there with young children!). It was in a large hotel (a 10 minute walk from us - hurray!) and there were probably about 160 guests. Most people arrived between 6.00 and 6.30pm, the room was full of large circular tables and we had been assigned to particular tables. A starter meze plate had already been laid out for everyone and waiters came around taking drinks orders. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks were available.

Meze plate: from the top, a soft white cheese; a spicy red paste called ezme; a Stilton-like cheese; smoked salmon; a more matured cheese called eski kaşar; a yoghurt dip; tuna dip; sarma; roasted aubergine; lemon. And in the middle, hummus. And of course, bread on a side plate.

After the first course was cleared away, the lights were turned off so that the only light came from the candles on the table and at the climax of some incredibly dramatic music, in walked the bride and groom. The groom was wearing black tie and the bride a white wedding dress. In most Turkish weddings, the closer a guest is related to the bride or groom, the more formal and fancier clothes they can wear. So a bride or groom's immediate family of siblings, siblings' spouses, parents may wear full length (white tie) formal dresses or black tie but most other women would refrain from wearing very formal and fancy full length dresses and either go for a slightly shorter dress or a simpler dress. Most of the women there actually wore very dark colours or black - it is completely acceptable and normal to wear black to a wedding here.

While the second (starter) course was being eaten, the bride and groom went round every table and had their photo taken with every couple or person on every table. At the same time, the bride was carrying a white bag and when a couple had their photo taken with the bride and groom, usually a card with money inside was slipped into the bride's bag. Presents could also be given. This is one of the elements that definitely changes between weddings as at other weddings sometimes gold coins and gold jewellery is given or money pinned onto the bride's dress.

Between the second course and the third (main) course, the music switched to live Turkish band, which included the saz, a traditional Turkish instrument that looks a little bit like a guitar. And once the Turkish music started, the dancing started! There were at least as many men on the dance floor if not more (and they didn't have to be dragged there!). Everyone formed a circle shape that didn't join up, linked hands loosely and the person at each end waved a scarf in their free hand. You can't see it in the video below but the dancers were all following the same simple foot pattern.

There are traditional Turkish dances done at weddings that only the men do, but when the dancers took a break we headed home. Our boys were doing incredibly well and J had to be dragged away as he wanted to stay, but S was super tired and it was just too loud for him to sleep. So we missed some of the other dancing and the cutting of the cake but we still had a great time!

Grocery shopping and yoghurt

I was thinking the other day that if I wanted to give an accurate glimpse of life in Turkey on this blog, I should at some point write a bit more about Turkish food and the typical food that can be found here. I have to admit, this was partly inspired by a friend visiting Istanbul and realising that I had to rein myself in from giving her far too many suggestions of food to try.

I was pondering this the other day whilst doing my online food shopping order at the same time (because when I discovered online food shopping in Istanbul, it was a gamechanger. While we still go to the supermarket or greengrocer to buy nearly all of our fresh food, with no car, two small children and a flat that is not on the ground floor, having someone deliver the heavy and bulky items to your doorstep is so worth it. Although I'm pretty sure they've got my name on a list somewhere after my last order, which weighed about 20kg...).

Anyway, I was thinking "oh, maybe I'll mention yoghurt and how Turks love eating yoghurt alongside their main course and how crazy it is that I even found myself contemplating buying the 2.5kg carton of natural Turkish yoghurt rather than the 1.5kg carton but decided in the end to stick to 1.5kg."

Then my online order arrived and I realised that I'd made a mistake and ordered 2 lots of 1.5kg yoghurt cartons! So now I'm racking my brain trying to work out how we are going to use up 3kg of yoghurt. I made this cake yesterday, I've got my eye on this muffin recipe (although no blueberries here unfortunately), we'll have curry soon so we can have yoghurt alongside it, L's been dolloping it on his muesli, I'm planning on making some granola for a yoghurt/granola/fruit breakfast combo, we'll be having it for dessert with fruit and freezing it as home made "ice cream" for J.

Moral of the tale: always check your quantities while shopping online!

As an aside, did you know that the Turkish word for yoghurt is yoğurt and the the English word 'yoghurt' (or 'yogurt' if you're American!) derives from the Turkish word? The funny looking ğ in the middle is a slightly strange letter that doesn't really have a sound of its own but affects the letters around it. It always follows a vowel, is never found at the start of a word and usually lengthens the sound of the vowel immediately before it.