Dinner at Mancero Kitchen in Fethiye

Posted on February 17, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

It was VERY rare that we ever ate out in restaurants when I lived in Turkey, apart from our regular 3tl doner on market day! We hardly ever went out, sat down and had an evening meal together, in fact I can think of only three or four occasions, one of which was paid for by Berkay’s boss, and another was on half price night on the last night of the season!

On Berkay’s birthday we decided to break away from the norm and go out somewhere we’d never been to, but heard a lot about – Mancero Kitchen. Normally we wouldn’t have gone somewhere so expensive but as it was my last night in Turkey for a long time, and Berkay’s birthday, we thought we’d splash the cash a bit!

The location is brilliant – it’s in Fethiye along the promenade which is lovely to walk along no matter what time of day. In the day its nice to see the blue sea against the backdrop of the mountains and stroll along taking little breaks to sit on the benches and admire the view. In the evening with everything all lit up it looks even more beautiful, the palm trees had different coloured lights, you could look over to Fethiye and see it all lit up, and it all looked especially magical just after sunrise, with the multicoloured sky as the backdrop.

We had already booked, so we just walked in and got seated straight away, it was a chilly December night so it wasn’t particularly busy but I can imagine that it gets very busy in summer so I definitely recommend booking in advance.

The inside is what I describe as a ‘proper restaurant’, if you’ve been to other restaurants in Calis or Fethiye most of them don’t feel fancy at all, they have plastic tables and chairs covered with tablecloths and most seating is outside, certainly the inside areas don’t really feel decorated at all, but Mancero is. Huge glass windows allowing you to look out to sea, lovely rustic wooden tables and chairs, little booth areas, wine displays, even a little seating area with budgies in cages chirping to say hello! It definitely feels like a classy restaurant, but boy do you pay for the pleasure.

Before we’d booked I had asked a friend if it was expensive, “not really, around 130tl for 2 with a starter and wine”… 130tl, not expensive for a two course meal?! We’d only ever spent 50tl on a meal out for two in Calis, a diet coke and a chicken dish each and that’s our lot! Looking through the menu was painful, I swear I could see Berkay flinching at the prices as he went down the list. All the steaks on the menu were 40-60tl each, almost as much as we’d normally spend on an entire meal for two, but as I said, it was a special occasion, and our last meal together for a long time, so we settled on a couple of steaks and waited to see if it was worth it.

While we were waiting they brought out a bread basket and an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip, which was really delicious, we even asked for extra!

After a short while (it was very quick service) our dinner arrived, and as seems to be the norm in a lot of restaurants nowadays, it wasn’t served on a plate but a wooden board. I can’t even remember which steak I had but know it was 50tl, Berkay had the fillet steak which was 55tl (280-300 grams according to the menu). Both were served with a small amount of potatoes and some fried vegetables (pepper, onion and courgette). The steaks were a decent size and definitely soft, not fatty, well-cooked and delicious. However, I’m not entirely sure the meal was worth the money, overall. You can see from the photos that it wasn’t a great amount of food for the money, and while it was lovely, I can think of many, many other restaurants where we could have got more for our money and still had a very tasty meal. Still, we enjoyed it and Berkay had a lovely birthday dinner.

After eating, we went and sat outside with some Turkish tea, it was freezing but thankfully they had a fire lit in a metal bin for people to sit around and keep warm, I love that part of winter, makes a difference to summer where all the restaurants have to have fans blasting out!

Overall, I was fairly impressed, Mancero Kitchen is a nice place to eat if you’re on holiday or have the money to spare, but for local people, or people on a budget I wouldn’t recommend it. It seems very popular with expats, or tourists, and I can only presume that is because they compare the prices to the UK, rather than to similar restaurants in the area. The food is nice, but just not special enough for the price it is, in my opinion. That being said, I’d like to go back there again on another occasion and try something different, it’s a nice place to spend a special occasion, a once a year kind of thing!

Have you been to Mancero? Let me know what you thought, or if you’re planning to go and try it for yourselves.

Army life: Sore legs, phone calls & a little understanding..

Posted on February 8, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

It’s been 3 days since Berkay walked through those doors and started his national service.

So far he’s managed to call me once everyday, for around 1 minute each time, and although that’s been brilliant I’m trying not to get my hopes up that it will continue to prevent disappointment!

On the 2nd day, he called me in the evening and told me he hadn’t done much, just checked in, got his army uniform, been introduced and eaten. He seemed thrilled they had ‘red meat, pasta and yogurt’ for dinner, I think he’s eating better there than he did back at home in Fethiye! When I was living there red meat like steak and beef was a real treat as it’s so expensive, but since I’ve been back in England he’s not been buying food to cook for himself at all and he had been eating snall ‘pop kek’ cakes for dinner instead! He also said there are 400 people all sleeping in the same room, presumably in bunk beds or similar… it’s a good thing he’s so social, I’m sure he’s already made lots of friends, he talks to anyone and everyone.

One thing (well, one of many..) that is frustrating about the whole national service process is the fact that they aren’t paid at all for their time. This means that with Berkay having no income for year, he won’t be able to save, so it’s all down to me to save for our ‘future’, which is overwhelming at the best of times, even more so when I haven’t even got a job yet! I’ve been looking since I arrived back in December and haven’t had much luck. I had an interview on Friday morning and it seems like a job I’d really enjoy, so fingers crossed for that.

While I was on the train on the way to the interview, I had an unexpected morning phone call from Berkay. He’d previously called in the evenings so it caught me off guard, but I was so pleased to hear his voice and it put me in a good mood before my interview, even if it was a very short 30 second phone call before we got cut off as the train entered a tunnel.

I had another call from him this morning, he told me he had 10 minutes of free time and had ran to the phone to talk to me quickly. He’d been running, doing push ups, sit ups and other such exercise his body isn’t used to! I have visions of a ‘an officer and a gentlemen’ style scene in my head! “I’m so tired I can’t move my legs, they hurt so much” he said, yet he still ran to the phone to talk to me, bless.

The unpredictable phone calls are a little annoying, having to take the phone to the shower, toilet, panic if Three loses signal for a couple of seconds or if I’m in a dodgy connection zone. He doesn’t get much free time and if I miss his call, that’s it for the day. People don’t seem to understand this and laughed when I mentioned it, that’s alright if you have your loved ones with you, an arms reach, a text or a phone call away isn’t it? Thank goodness we don’t have to rely on good old ‘snail-mail’ though.

I am so, so grateful for the internet. I have met a few lovely girls whose partners are also currently doing or have already done their national service and it is such a comfort talking to them knowing they understand exactly what I’m feeling. Whether its moaning about lack of phone calls, asking about what we’re allowed to send the men in the post or panicking about the little details of army life, they’ve been a great source of information and a great help. It’s frustrating having other friends and family dismiss my thoughts and feelings. I’ve developed a random rash on my face this week and several people suggested it could be stress. “Stress?” one family member laughed, “what have you got to be stressed about?”.. well, quite a lot, actually. Sigh.

Even hearing ‘it’ll go quickly’ drives me crazy, I know it’s meant well and time does inevitably pass, but that’s just it, no matter how quickly the time nay go, its still got to ‘go’, and that’s the hard part.

362 days and counting…

Berkay’s birthday, rescuing puppies and cake..

Posted on February 1, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Back in December it was Berkay’s 24th birthday, it fell on the day before I was due to fly back to the UK.
He had arranged to have a half day at work, so we got to spend the afternoon and evening together. I woke up early to make him a special Turkish breakfast – eggs, cheese, bread, tomato, turkish sausage and çay, with balloons! I managed to hunt down a birthday card in Fethiye (why on earth are birthday cards SO expensive there?!) and Boncuk even wrote one for him herself, “to my human”.

Off Berkay went to work, and after a bit of packing I walked to the hotel to sit and have a few hours with Boncuk. Around lunchtime Berkay finished work and met us, we planned to take Boncuk out for long walk together but didn’t get far… 2 minutes down the road she stopped to sniff something in the grass, we went over to see and it was a tiny dog laying on a pile of twigs and rubbish, hardly moving. We tried to pick her up and see if she was ok but she yelped and wouldn’t stand…nobody knew who she belonged to, although a restaurant owner nearby said he had seen a truck dump her there the day before. We were really concerned about the poor dog and didn’t want to just leave her because she looked so sad and poorly, so we rang a local vet who we knew worked with street animals and provided treatment for them for free through the animal aid charity. We took her on the bus and she just laid on Berkay looking really scared and sad, I don’t know how anyone could dump her! The vet done some scans and xrays and found nothing much wrong, just a bit of fluid around her belly due to a dog bite which he cleaned up and disinfected, and a serious vitamin D deficiency which had resulting in the puppy’s legs being bowed, we suspect this is why she was dumped. Once he had treated the bite and given her some painkillers and vitamins we took her back, we couldn’t keep an eye on her ourselves as we had nowhere to keep her, so we asked a nearby cafe to watch her. I was worried they wouldn’t look after her but we went back a few hours later and they had given her a box with a tshirt in, a blanket, food and water. The best part was that someone else had seen her, fallen in love and arranged to pick her up in a couple of days! That was our good deed of the day done.

By the time we got home and I finished packing a few more bits, it was time to get ready and leave for the restaurant we had booked – Mancero. We got dressed up, hopped on the dolmus and went. We got off wayyyyy too early by accident, but it turned out well as it meant we could admire the beautiful view just after the sun had gone down. We walked along the promenade and the sea looked absolutely stunning with the yellow, orange and blue tint of the sky, a few fishing boats were out which looked lovely in the foreground with the multicoloured horizon behind.

We had a lovely dinner in Mancero, but I’ll write about that in another post! Then we headed back to Calis and to Hüner cafe, where we’d arranged to meet friends for some birthday cake.

Funny story about the cake.. Berkay rang up to order it, then I told him to ring them back and ask for it to say ‘happy birthday askim’…as if I had arranged it for him… because I thought it was cute but didn’t know how to ask them myself…hahaha poor Berkay ordering his own cake eh? It was delicious and we had good company, including our two best friends and their twin boys… Adorable… look at the teddy bear bums!

I love these photos of us, we look so happy.

We had a lovely evening, although there was a very sad atmosphere lingering over us knowing it was our last evening together… It’s funny looking back at these photos knowing it was 7 weeks ago! It doesn’t feel like that long ago, yet it does feel like years ago at the same time!

A sunset silhouette..

Posted on January 19, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Taking a stroll along Fethiye promenade is always a pleasant experience but there’s no better time than at sunset.

On the evening of Berkays birthday back in December we went to Mancero restaurant and got off the bus far earlier than we needed to so that we could take a long walk and admire the views on the way, it was a little chilly but we didn’t mind.

The sun had already set but the sky was still lit up with a red and orange glow. Of course my camera was firmly in my hand ready to point and shoot… I spotted some people fishing along the pavement and thought they would look good as silhouettes against the red of the sky and the beautiful horizon in the distance.

This is the resulting photograph… and it’s totally unedited – it really did look that beautiful and I captured the scene perfectly on camera.

You just can’t beat a good Fethiye sunset.

2014 – a year in photos – part 2

Posted on January 5, 2015 by livingtheturkishdream

Continuing on with my look back at 2014, here’s part 2…
click HERE to read part 1 (January – June)

July

July was a busy month! We celebrated our 4 year anniversary together and had lots of days out, making the most of Berkay’s pay rise and driving license! We drove to Marmaris for the day as I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, the first photo was taken on the beach there – I much prefer Fethiye, though. A couple of weeks later we went on a boat trip for the first time in a year which was lovely, I love being out at sea, I think I should have been a pirate 😉 The blue sea, clear skies, sunburn… oh I miss it.

The second half of the month wasn’t as busy, and we took time to enjoy walks together during the afternoons before Berkay went to work. One of the best hidden gems we discovered was the amazing view at the far end of Calis beach, behind Şat restaurant, there were little benches overlooking the water and the mountains formed the perfect backdrop. We also visited our friends who had escaped to their village (Kizibel near Uzumlu) to get some cooler air. It had been 8 weeks since I’d seen their twins who had grown a lot, they couldn’t be more different – one small with no hair and the other a giant baby with long locks, they’re still the same now!

August

In August we visited Kalkan, Kaputas and Kas for the day, the coastal road between them is so beautiful and driving along listening to some music with the amazing views of the sea outside your window is just perfect.

Of course it was another hot month, even poor Boncuk found it hard and needed plenty of evening walks along the beach and ice cream to cool her down – twister lollies are her favourite.

We went to the first Fetiyespor game of the season, which was disappointing but a good evening spent together before Berkay headed off to work. The sun began to set earlier in the evenings as the month went on, and I had plenty of sunset photo opportunities, it’s my favourite thing to take photos of!

September

As soon as September arrived, the weather started to cool slightly and it was clear that Calis was starting to wind down for the winter months as the beach became emptier. We went on lots of walks and discovered beautiful places we’d never been before like the Lycian way with this breathtaking view of Oludeniz.

One of the things I miss the most is sitting out on my balcony eating or playing backgammon and that is something we done everyday over the summer. One September morning Berkay came home from work and made this adorable Turkish breakfast for me, who wouldn’t smile at this? So sweet. September was also the month that a stray cat found our balcony and decided to come and visit every single breakfast, lunch and dinner time, I often found her curled up on our garden chairs waiting for us or as soon as she heard the plates she would climb up the tree to see us, she carried this on til the day I left in December!

We carried on exploring areas a little off the beaten track, one being Yesil Vadi in Yuvurlakcay, where we had fun swinging over the river – until I fell in fully clothed..oops!! As always, we finished our day out in the car with a BBQ, but this time we bought Boncuk along. This was one of my favourite days, so simple but so relaxing.

The 3rd and final look back at 2014 in photos coming soon…

Happy Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

Although I still can’t quite believe it’s Christmas eve already and I still doesn’t feel very festive at all, I’d like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

My Turkish friends and family don’t celebrate Christmas, but trees, decorations and Father Christmas’ can be seen in shops and restaurants as they have begun to associate these festive things with new yeear rather than Christmas itself. Before I left Turkey, we had one last trip to Erasta shopping centre and was surprised to see a fully decorated Christmas tree!

Berkay isn’t here with me for Christmas this year and having spent the last 3 together, it’s going to be hard. Still, I’m grateful I have family to spend it with, especially my over-excited 3 year old sister who is a very good distraction – I can’t wait to see her face on Christmas morning and embrace my inner child by playing with her toys!

For Berkay, Christmas doesn’t mean much, it will just be like any other day, he’ll be working and spending the evening alone with Boncuk. Before I left Turkey I dressed her up in a Santa hat and tinsel, my very own little Santa Paws, she wasn’t too impressed though.

Thank you all for reading, sharing, liking and commenting on my blog, it is much appreciated. Once the busy festive period is over I shall be back posting regularly hopefully, and although I’m already wishing 2015 to be over with and 2016 to arrive, I hope it’s a happy, healthy one for us all.

Happy holidays.

Saying goodbye to Turkey and hello to England..

Posted on December 18, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

On Sunday I packed up my life into a suitcase once again, boarded the plane alone and arrived back in the UK, this time for longer.

I’d been putting it off for weeks, but a month ago I booked my flight and tried to make the most of everyday I had left there in Turkey. Each day was marred by the constant thought of ‘this is the last time I’ll do this’ or ‘this is the last time I’ll eat this’, ‘this is the last time I’ll go here’. Those thoughts filled my head and everything just felt different, I could no longer enjoy my time there, once I’d booked my flight the countdown began and it was awful.

While everyone else was excitedly opening their advent calendars and counting down the days til Christmas, I was wishing time to go slower, hoping that by some miracle the 14th December would never arrive. Inevitably it did, of course.

Berkay had been able to get the day off work so we could spend the day together, we done a lot of our favourite things, had a lovely Turkish breakfast outside on the balcony, played backgammon with a cup of coffee, walked Boncuk along the seafront and had a gorgeous BBQ outside. The hours ticked by and once I was all packed and ready we went to the beach to watch one ‘last’ sunset. (See what I mean? Always ‘lasts’ on my mind!) It reached 5.30 pm, I took my case and walked out of my front door for the ‘last’ time (again…). “Bye house”.

We went and waited in the hotel garden for Berkay’s friend to arrive, he was taking us to the airport in his car. I played with Boncuk and explained to her what was going on, although of course she’s clueless and is probably still waiting for me to go back and play ball with her and wondering where I am now. We saw our friends car drive around the corner and then it hit me, it was time to go.

Berkay took my suitcase to the car and I sat on the steps cuddling Boncuk, telling her to be good and that I’d see her again soon. I gave her a little treat and she ran off with it, bouncing around all happy and none-the-wiser. She was so happy with her little treat that when I climbed over the fence and walked away she didn’t even come to say bye. She usually stands with her paws up on the fence, crying or howling as we walk away, but not this time. At least one of us wasn’t!

A 45 minute minute car journey later and we were in Dalaman. Our friend hadn’t had dinner so we stopped at a Çiğ köfte place to kill some time and eat and then carried on to the airport.

My flight was the only one flying out that evening so the airport wasn’t very busy but the queues to check in were very long as the flight was one of the last ones direct from Dalaman before Christmas and it was full of expats flying back to the UK for the holidays. We queued for around an hour, but I didn’t mind as that meant delaying the ‘goodbye’ further. Eventually the inevitable happened, I got to the front of the queue and after trying to reduce the weight of my case from 25kg down to just 20, I was all checked in and ready to go.

After a tearful goodbye and a cuddle, I walked through security and passport control where they stamped my passport with an exit date stamp, that was it, the point of no return. I looked back and waved at Berkay and he blew me a kiss, cheesy! Then that was that, I walked around the corner and found my gate, which was full of people already waiting. I spotted a Facebook friend who had previously told me she was on the same flight with her husband and daughter, she too has a Turkish husband and has faced the same teary goodbyes. I went over to her and she asked if I was ok and gave me a big hug, at which point I burst into tears. Poor woman! Still, I felt better after that and I didn’t have to wait very long until we started boarding the plane. The plane was full of young children and before take off there were alot of screaming babies, they looked exactly how I felt on the inside!

On take off I said ‘bye Turkey, bye Berkay, bye Boncuk’ and had one last look out of the window, I even gave a little wave.

Before I knew it, the plane was landing back in Gatwick. “Welcome home” the pilot said. Not really home for me though. I got through passport control quickly and retrieved my baggage. I saw my friend again and apologised for crying on her, “it’s ok I know how it feels” she said, which was reassuring. Then I walked out through the doors and saw my mum and dad waiting for me with more hugs, along with a cheddar cheese and HP sauce sandwich and packets of pickled onion monster munch, yum!

I can’t tell you how strange it is to be back here. The moment I walked into my room again it just hit me, but it was like nothing at all had changed. My calendar is still stuck on the page of June, the month I left. Everything is the same here, yet different. It really does feel like I’ve never been away, like the past 6 months were all just a dream, like I wasn’t really there. I have to keep looking at photos of our house to remind myself that it wasn’t all a dream.

It upsets me that I’ll probably never step foot in my house again, a week ago I was there, sleeping next to Berkay, waking up next to him, eating breakfast together on the balcony, making dinner in the kitchen, watching films in the living room… now all traces of us are removed from that house, and someone else is living there.

Berkay is now living under the hotel (which is still closed for the winter) in a concrete room which is used for staff accomodation during the summer. Boncuk is staying there with him for now and will go somewhere else once he’s in the army, we’ll get her back again once he’s finished in February 2016, which seems like a lifetime away.

Forget about the arrival of 2015 in 2 weeks time, roll on 2016 when we can finally settle and live together without the worry of these goodbyes again, that’s what I say!

See you soon, Fethiye. ❤

The day that Fethiye flooded…

Posted on November 25, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

On Thursday I had one of the most bizarre experiences I’ve had in all the years I’ve lived in or visited Turkey – we got caught up in a flood in the centre of Fethiye.

The morning started off grey, wet and gloomy. It was one of those ‘lets stay inside with a hot chocolate and all the lights on’ kind of days – but we had errands to run in preparation for our visit to the village (where I currently am writing this) so we had no choice but to brave the rain and go out. Just as we stepped out of the front door, it really started to rain heavily. Luckily we only had to cross the road to catch the Dolmus into Fethiye, and I remember we were both weaving in and out of the pathway to avoid stepping in puddles, which is ironic considering what we were about to experience!

As the Dolmus reached Fethiye, we realised we may have made a big mistake. The Migros turn off on the main road was flooded, there were cars broken down and the road resembled a giant swimming pool. The dolmus got through and carried on to the last bus stop, next to the mosque on the hill in the town centre…the rain kept falling, along with giant hail stones, and there was a man in the corner shop shouting ‘umbrellas – 10tl’ so we grabbed one. Something tells me he probably sold his entire umbrella stock that day!

We walked down the hill and realised it was flooded, cars were still going past and the water was only an inch deep, just covering our shoes. We carried on walking, as we were attempting to reach Is Bankasi, but the water was rising as we walked, it was pouring out of the school yard, coming up out of the drains and still falling from the sky. By the time we made it to the bank, it was closed for lunch, so Berkay had the idea of going to his friend’s hotel in the Dispanser area of Fethiye – Vizon hotel. This was the worst idea he’s had in a long time. We walked to the hotel, but the water was ever-rising, what started out as an inch deep ended up being knee-deep! We arrived at the hotel where they were struggling to keep the water from gushing through under the doors. We went in, sat down on the floor in our soaking wet clothes and watched as Fethiye town centre became a giant swimming pool right before our eyes. It just keep rising, and rising. The water got so high they could no longer stop it from pouring in under the doors, and after stuffing it with bags, newspaper, towels and attempting to push the water out with a broom, the hotel staff gave up and sat down resigned to the fact that the lobby would inevitably end up very wet. People were driving past in cars, even though it’s a pedestrianized area, which caused little waves to form in the water pushing it inside buildings even further. There was an inch of water covering the majority of the hotel lobby and we were all sat on tables, but they got off pretty lightly compared to the shop across the road (Citlembik, for those of you who know Fethiye) which had an awful lot of water inside.

It was so bizarre to witness, there were news agencies in cars driving past taking photographs, people carrying each other and street dogs, people cycling through the 2ft of water and even council men in wellies and wetsuits driving past in vans helping stranded people get to dry ground! The water rose to the height of the benches and up to the rim of the plant pots which are pretty high. People were standing on them to keep dry.

We were ‘stuck’ in the hotel for over an hour, we couldn’t open the door to get out because that would mean more water pouring in. Eventually, we had no choice as we had to get to the bank, so we braved it and stepped outside, it was pretty dangerous as we couldn’t see the kerbs or steps. The water was murky and dirty, bits of rubbish were floating past, bins, cigarette packets, bricks, even bits of carpets and mats… The weirdest part was the fact that a 30 second walk up the road was clear, with just a few puddles left behind. The rain had stopped and although the drains were still blocked in certain places, others were fine like nothing had happened. We had most definitely been in the wrong place at the wrong time, although it was an experience to say the least. I was documenting it on my Facebook blog page and the videos and photos I posted have been shared by hundreds and viewed over 80,000 times. Click HERE to see one of the videos.

The next day, we went back to Fethiye to get supplies for our journey to Denizli, and you’d never have known the events of the previous day. The sky was blue and the sun was out, there were no puddles, all the shops and businesses were open again and although there was probably water damage in some of them, everything looked ‘normal’ like nothing had happened.

Just another day in paradise!

Autumn in Calis – waggy tails, pretty flowers & cold pools..

Posted on November 16, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

I’m sat writing this watching the lightening flash through my windows and the rain pelting down on the roof, but yesterday was the first day of bad weather we’ve had for 3 weeks, November has been spoiling us with daytime temperatures of around 24oc, although the evenings are very cool, I’ve even managed to get tan lines back!

November meant the hotel Berkay worked in closed, so he has been looking for work since, he’s found a temporary job at the moment but the pay is so bad and unreliable, I don’t think he’ll stay there long. We’ve been spending some much needed time together and alot of that time has been spent at the closed hotel, playing with Boncuk!

As soon as she sees us approaching the hotel she comes running over to us with a fast wagging tail. We sit for ages with her and play ball, she’s begun to love the water and has been running in and out of the shallow pool although all this rain we’ve had today probably means it will be slimy and green very soon as its not cleaned during the winter season …

We even braved the pool ourselves last week, I don’t know what possessed us, it was absolutely freezing! It was a particularly warm day for November, around 25oc, but the pool water was definitely not warm. It was the first time we’ve been swimming in over a month, Berkay jumped straight in but his face said it all, I eased myself in and after about 20 minutes ended up in the deep end although only for a couple of minutes as it really was so cold, it made my head hurt!

The hotel grounds aren’t very well kept in the winter, although there are still some beautiful flowers around at the moment keeping the place looking summery and cheerful.

Boncuk absolutely loves it there, when we walk past to get the bus to Fethiye we can see her through the fence wandering around and enjoying herself, although it breaks my heart everytime we leave her she runs up and down the length of the fence poking her face through the holes and crying for us. She knows now when it’s time to leave and runs in front of us trying to stop us getting to the exit, bless her! She’s being really spoilt with attention at the moment.

Just before I started writing this post, we popped down to the hotel to feed Boncuk and place her back in her kennel as she’s safer in there during this bad weather. The underneath of the hotel was all flooded and Berkay had to turn pumps on to get rid of all the water, it’s funny how quickly the weather changes, I hope the sun arrives back on Monday as forecast!

Taze Fasulye – Turkish green beans recipe

Posted on November 12, 2014 by livingtheturkishdream

This is another one of my favourite Turkish dishes, so simple to make, cheap and perfect on a winters day served with crusty bread.

Vegetables are a big part of Turkish cuisine, mainly because meat is so expensive. Most typically Turkish families will eat very occasionally, perhaps chicken once or twice a week and red meat only on special occasions so they are experts at making delicious meals from few ingredients. taze fasulye is one of these dishes.

As always, the amount of ingredients you need varies depending on how many people you want to feed, this made more than enough for 2 of us, you can always make more and freeze it, that works well.

Ingredients:
fresh green beans (around 500 grams)
2 onions diced
2 ripe, juicy tomatoes diced
1 large red pepper chopped (optional)
1 heaped tablespoon of tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic (optional)
salt
olive oil
water

First, prepare the beans. Rinse them, then pinch off the top and bottom of the beans and string them. Then break them into smaller 1.5 – 2 inch pieces. Do this with all of the beans.

Add a good drizzle of olive oil in the bottom of a fairly deep non stick pan (it must have a lid too). Add the beans, making sure the heat is turned down low so they do not burn. Stir often to avoid the beans burning, you just want them to soften slightly.

After 3-5 minutes, add the diced onion (and pepper if you wish – it just adds a little something to the flavour) and fry until the onions are soft and translucent in colour.

Get a heaped tablespoon full of tomato paste (domates salçası here in Turkey) and stir into the pan with the beans, onions and peppers. Leave this to cook together for 1-2 minutes.

Then add the chopped tomatoes and garlic into the pan along with enough water to cover the beans. Add 1-2 teaspoons of salt to flavour. Cover the pan and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let them simmer for 30-45 minutes until everything is soft and the sauce is reduced.

Serve with rice or just on its own with fresh crusty bread. Berkay had his with a side bowl of yoghurt and hot, pickled chili peppers! We went through 2 loads of bread between us with this dish… but if you can avoid that it’s fairly healthy and delicious. It’s lovely when served cold too, a good side dish.

Enjoy!