10 fils Tandoor

wikipedia

First, I'd like to wish my friends, family, and blogger buddies-

Happy New Year - Yeni yiliniz kutlu olsun - Szczesliwego Nowego Roku 

Kul 'am wa antum bikhair, etc.

The new year is a great time to think about the past as well as the future. I'm thinking back to my days in Abu Dhabi and the simple pleasure of bread, fresh from the tandoori oven, only 10 fils per loaf.

(Fils were like pennies, without consideration to the actual exchange value. 10 fils=0.026 cents at the time. Today, I could sell the coins on eBay for 75 cents, apparently. Where did I hide all my UAE coins?)

souq.com

Anyhoo. Back to our story. At the end of our street in Abu Dhabi, there was a Pakistani baker's shop. It wasn't a true bakery. It was more like a guy with an oven in the spare closet of a bigger shop. Literally. The owner of the shop facing the park at the front of the building probably sublet the space to the baker.

The baker generally sold his bread to taxi drivers and the occasional house maid, so 10 fils was an appropriate price for their meager wages. For me, 10 fils was almost free. Priceless was more like it.

We'd stop in on the way home from work. Most of our neighbors drove right on past, preferring to shop at Spinneys or the Co-operative Society for their more expensive bread. How they could resist the aroma was (and still is) a mystery to me. Pulling apart a fluffy, hot loaf, fresh out of the tandoor was the highlight of my day.

Nowadays, I'd be lucky to find that aroma anywhere. I have to go clear uptown to Nova's Bakery for brick oven baked bread - a good 40 minutes for me.

Maybe I should get myself a tandoor. These days people are building all kinds of stuff in their backyard kitchens. Pizza oven or clay tandoor, the only problem I'd have is keeping the neighbors at bay once they smell what's cooking. Just think of all the things I could make with it. -  Food Network's Stephen Raichlen gave me some good ideas.
Chicken tikka, anyone?

wikipedia

Chocolate Covered Chestnuts

Lezzetin Izinde

Tis the season to roast some chestnuts on an open fire. Have you ever done it though? I had to go clear across the world to try some. It might have something to do with the fact that American chestnut trees were devastated by chestnut blight, or maybe chestnuts are just a European thing. The ones I usually find at the grocery store are from Italy.

Perhaps you've tried marron glacé? I adore them, whenever I can find some. It's probably a good thing they're hard to come by, though. The calorie count for chestnuts soaked in sugar syrup is insane. Some shops make them in Turkey, but as you can tell from the name, it's the French who really get credit for the idea - sorry Italy.

As far as Istanbul is concerned, there are other interesting ways to prepare a chestnut or kestane. Example: Chocolate coated chestnuts. From what I understand, the chestnuts are:

1) roasted to remove the shells
2) boiled in milk, vanilla and sugar
3) coated in (dark?) chocolate, and
4) dusted with pistachios

According to Hurriyet newspaper's 100 Tastes of Istanbul - Istanbul'un 100 Lezzeti, #49 is the chocolate covered chestnut from Bahar Pastanesi in Teşvikiye.

Best4 Pastry Shops in Istanbul
Bursa retaining sweet chestnut taste, tradition

Yalanci & Compelling Characters

Image via Wikipedia

Some of you might notice a new name scrolling across the top of the blog. I've been searching for a good name since I joined the blogosphere and it finally came to me last night. 

"Serendipity" comes from the Persian Tale of The Three Princes of Serendip. The story is representative of the way ideas link together for me and ultimately relate to my writing. Or, as Wikipedia puts it, my "propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated."

Serendipity was also the name of my 6th grade science book. Apparently, serendipity is one of those things scientists are thankful for too. Did you know chocolate chip cookies were created serendipitously? Yum! Which leads into the rest of the post.

Friday is usually a Food/Flora/Fauna post and Angela McAlister is Starving for a Blogfest, but today is also a Blog Experiment with Elana Johnson, Alex J. Cavanaugh and Jennifer Daiker. Of course, I like to multitask so the dust bunnies in my head got together to find a link between.....

Yalancı and Compelling Characters (?)

*The importnant footnote here is that Yalancı means liar in Turkish. 

Stuffed grape leaves, also known as dolmas or sarmas, are the best Yalancı. You see, dolmas are supposed to have meat in them, but Yalancı doesn't. Its filled with spiced rice, currants, pine nuts and drenched in olive oil with lemon juice instead. (My favorite meze!) Other dishes can also be called Yalancı. For example, if you want something which tastes like Mantı (Turkish tortellini), you use spaghetti and throw the filling into the sauce on top. Then you have Yalancı Mantı.

Yalancı is just not what it seems, much like the most compelling characters.

Observe:

• Villains aren't great until we find out why we should be sympathetic. 
• Heros and heroines aren't wonderful without their quirky weaknesses.
• Even settings (which are best treated as a character) are cliché until you add sensory details.

Bottom line...in a great character, there is always an underlying backstory or facet to discover. Its a writer's job to give you only what you need to know, when you need to know it and hopefully keep you engaged in the process.

(I think I just saved Elana's left kidney.)