Day 175 – Turkish food is awesome


My Mum asked recently what the food is like in Turkey. Here I would like to introduce one of my favourites so far.

Lahmajun - a Turkish delecacy (Erzurum, Turkey)

This is Lahmajun. Beef mince on a very thin crunchy base. You squeeze some lemon juice onto the top, chuck some salad on, roll it up, and eat with your hands. Jolly good. This stack of three lahmajun (each is cut in half) cost 3 Lari (US$2.10 / NZ$3).

Mandarins by the way are 1 Lari (NZ$1) a kilo. Nice sweet juicy mandarins. I can easily down 1kg in one sitting.

Internet cafe mandarin (Erzurum, Turkey) / インターネットカフェマンダリン(トルコ、エズルム市)

So yeah, tomorrow I head towards Erzincan, another big city about 190km west of Erzurum. Hopefully shouldn’t take more than three days to get there. And just check out the weather forecast for Erzincan. Should be a tropical holiday compared with what I’ve had here for the last week!

Internet cafe in Erzurum, Turkey / インターネットカフェ(トルコ、エズルム市)


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13 thoughts on “Day 175 – Turkish food is awesome

  • jp

    Your travel, story, photos are realy great!! I read your blog since your crossing of Tadjiskistan and it's a pleasure to meet you every day.

    Thank you very much and goor trip for you

    JP

  • carl w.

    Rob, how goes it out there in the wilds? I've just come back and just chatting with my dear wife who came up with a very good question. What are you going to do in London? I said perhaps you'd fancy the idea being a cycle courier as your getting some practise in now, sort of like on the job training. I then discounted as you'll get run over for shure. We both watched the video in japanese and sniggered quietly as your pronounciation was really like someone from NHK. The food looks good, keep pedalling and keep yourself out of trouble. Hope the knee get better try eating lots of garlic not sure if it'll help but you could breath on the dogs and knock them out.

    regards from darkest surrey

  • Lee

    Hey Rob!

    Just got back to broadband, after a week of no internew and a couple of weeks at Mum and Dad's before that. Caught up from day 166 till now. What a journey this is.

    The vids are fantastic – even the short ones are still so much more of Rob than a picture can capture. As someone else said, good to hear your voice. And personality – it'd be easy (probably) for you to turn into a completely different person while away and experiencing so much… very reassuring to know we're not all corresponding with a stranger now but rather still the same essence of Robness. (not without changes, for sure, but yeah.)

    The lahmajun sounds delicious – especially with the lemon. And salad. And flat bread lamb stuff… okay, all of it. Sounds like pizza and salad all in one.

    Back to uni to finish my thesis before Bible college starts back up in mid-Feb. Will be a relief to finally have it all done.

    You're doing well.

    Lee

  • Mum

    Glad you 've finally got to some healthy, good tasting food! That should keep the energy levels up. Enjoy it while you can. Pity you can't fly a few carpets over here for our possible new house. Turkish carpets are supposed to be very good. I heard that you can tell by the number of threads to the inch – the more the better. You still have your southland r's rolling there nicely – thought you might have lost that by now.

  • Murdo

    MMMMMM That Turkish food looked amazing! I remember a rather drunken holiday to Turkey in my early years when, for some strange reason, I had chinese there. I don't recommend that you sample that haha!!

    They do awesome Kebabs there too, not like the greasy mess that is a Doner Kebab in the UK.

    I also had a Turkish bath mate, no doubt you'll have had your by now…never spent a more relaxing couple of hours in my life!

  • Rob Thomson Post author

    JP, thank you for the comment and for keeping up on the journey through the website. It is very encouraging for me to know that people are enjoying the updates.

  • Rob Thomson Post author

    Carl, a couple of options for once I get to London:

    – If I'm stone broke (not totally unlikely), may need to dodge cars delivering valentine notes, or do something else to raise some money for the flight home.

    – If I still have some money, fly to the States or Canada and ride across that continent before flying home.

    – Get on a yacht across the Atlantic to the States or Canada, cycle across the continent, then get on another yacht to Hawaii, sunbathe, then try to get to NZ without flying.

    – Get on the first plane to NZ the day after arriving in England.

    My first choice is the third option. Time will tell…

  • Rob Thomson Post author

    Thanks Lee. Glad to know the 2 hour uploads for the videos were worth it! Go nuts on the thesis. Give me cycling across a continent any day over the challenge of writing a Masters thesis!

  • Rob Thomson Post author

    Mum, the Southland accent will be with me to by grave. People only lose it because the want to lose it, I reckon. Ever since watching The World's Fastest Indian, I have had a renewed pride in my southern upbringing.

  • Rob Thomson Post author

    Murdo, I had a Turkish bath the other day. Was going to take photos, but the lens fogged up. Was OK, but I think I'll try one in Istanbul – they're supposed to be the goods!

  • carl w.

    http://www.pinniclesolutions.co.uk you can try them they are always hiring on a casual basis most of the work is in London and I think the bloke who runs it is from NZ or Oz. We use them for crewing solutions not sure if it's the kind of work you want to do? but it buys you time while your waiting to win the lottery in my opinion. You need to mail the bloke and have a look see they may even know about digs etc. as they have loads of volume of people out for a walkabout work from them.

    …. anyway and your right option 3 does seem the best way to proceed.

    Got to go and figure out what to do next cos it's all mad here… still at work it's 20.00 and I have atleast 3 more hours of work to do… back at the sharp end tomorrow and for the rest of the week. all the best and take it easy out there in the Ulu.

    regards

    C.

  • neil

    hi Rob, My mate Steve has already offered to put you up in London if you need a place to stay, get in touch for details. Or perhaps he has already contacted you…

    and you just can't go all that way and not get up to Scotland, that just wouldn't do, not with that Southlander heritage! 🙂

    Keep Warm, Hydrated, and Happy!

    Best wishes from Tasman Bay, Neil.

  • Rob Thomson Post author

    Carl, cheers a great much lot for the link to PinnicleSolutions. Will check them out for sure. I'll pop into the British embassy in Istanbul to have a chat about work visa stuff…