{"id":410,"date":"2011-08-09T11:14:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T15:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/?p=410"},"modified":"2011-08-09T11:16:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T15:16:32","slug":"under-the-turkish-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/2011\/08\/under-the-turkish-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Under the Turkish sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends who had stayed there advised us Nisanyan House in Sirince<\/a> would be \u201cformally informal,\u201d but we loved it, starting with the elderflower drink on arrival, served outside near the fountain laid with fresh flowers every morning. Our first room was huge, with a glassed-in tub\/shower room, but even when we moved to a smaller one we woke up to the gorgeous view of the village sprawled below us. Breakfast was always an elaborate affair: preserves, cheeses, breads, fruit, eggs, cucumbers and tomatoes, olives etc. The one day we asked for a late-afternoon snack the kitchen rustled up a superb salad with cheese and purslane and tomatoes, plus a cheese plate, with Turkish white, to eat outside with the resident cat begging and posing. A gaggle of geese hung out in the parking lot, and a working donkey passed through morning and night. And the staff was superb, even the members whose English was about equal to our Turkish.<\/p>\n

The only weak link was dinner. You have to order well in advance, so when you sit down the kitchen is ready, and if you\u2019ve already had a late-afternoon snack you might not want that huge lamb shank that sounded so good earlier on. At least Bob\u2019s shank was worth it, with succulent meat and flavor that didn\u2019t taste too gamy even to me. The rice-cheese pilaf with it was also excellent. But I stupidly ordered a vegetable stew described as \u201cmommy style,\u201d and it was a mess of overcooked potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and zucchini in watery brodo with zero flavor and the eye appeal of upchuck. No wonder we got in a stupid argument. Our choice of meze was also misguided; the zucchini blossoms and pepper stuffed with rice were bland and mushy. Wine prices seemed out of line, too; I had to remind Bob we wouldn\u2019t spend $50 on a bottle in New York.<\/p>\n

Next night we happily trekked back down into the village, where we\u2019d had a decent-enough little repast of salad, mezes and sweet wine at Artemis our first evening. Good old Trip Advisor rated Ocakbasi highly, and the setting would have made up for any lame food: tables out on a terrace right above the cheesy market with the usual views of the village. But the only thing lame was the \u201cTurkish pancake,\u201d which was more a Turkish quesadilla, and an anemic one at that. Roasted peppers were world-class, smoky roasted eggplant just as great, as was a green salad made with crunchy perfect vegetables. With a bottle of Turkish ros\u00e9 served half a bottle at a time, it was well worth the walk down and back up the winding steps past goats and cats and old people on their stoops. It might not be \u201cItaly with an edge,\u201d but Sirince is a hot destination for good reason. It\u2019s just most seductive after dark or from above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends who had stayed there advised us Nisanyan House in Sirince would be \u201cformally informal,\u201d but we loved it, starting with the elderflower drink on arrival, served outside near the fountain laid with fresh flowers every morning. Our first room was huge, with a glassed-in tub\/shower room, but even when we moved to a smaller… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-turkish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions\/417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}