Soupy Leafy Foodie Adventure in Turkey - 3

Basketful of wholesome fresh fruits @
Colossae Thermal Hotel, Pamukkalle

Pamukalle "A" soup @
Colossae Thermal Hotel, Pamukkalle

The last thing I expected to eat in Turkey was Chinese food. Yet we were served Chinese food for lunch on our very first day in a restaurant just a walking distant from Topkapi Palace. Welcome to the land of east meet west! Thick tofu soup with some pieces of tofu and corns. Not as expected, a bit bland of no particular taste or significant. I had few spoon. Period.

Tofu soup @
Chang Cheng Chinese Restaurant, Istanbul

 Lentil/Tomato soup @
Taksim Gonen, Istanbul

Spinach soup @
Tatlises Hotel, Kusadasi

Dinner at the Taksim Gonen Hotel with a hearty thick lentil/tomato soup with its natural accompanying thick bread is a welcoming to my earlier shock. Indeed, it must be a real Turkish style, complete with the spicy aromatic smell to boost! In Kusadasi, we were greeted with spinach soup with a strong aroma of "photosynthesis" process! Very transgressing to my senses, taste and smell, notwithstanding that I love spinach, especially stir fried. 

In Silene Cave Restaurant in Cappodocia, where the fruits and overall serving were nominal, even the taste and texture of the soup were negligible! But the soup serving in my "hometown" of Pamukkalle were scrumptious, a bit savory, pleasurable to my palate with generous amount of floating spaghetti. Of course, I went for seconds. 

Silene minimal soup

XXL size green chillies

colorful raw veggies

glistening olives

 The Turkish and the middle eastern countries I think eat their greens raw. At all buffet table or ala carte setting, their green salad, shoots and leaves adorn on both side of the long buffet counter. And across the green salad counter will be bowl upon bowl of preserved, pickled or fresh olives along with bottles of various kind of virgin olive oil. Not to mention different kinds of yogurt, honey and cheese. Blessed the country which situated on two continents. Overall the soup story is Pamukkalle is deserved a nice 9 on Acepaizah's scale, while Chang Cheng's slipped of the scale altogether. Fullstop.

soupy greeny foodie encounter

~Acepaizah~ 

after thought salad @
sardined packed belly dancing restaurant!

Meatballs Lunch in Asian Continent / Bursa, Turkey- Foodie Adventure 2

crossing the Bosphorus
wt seagulls accompanying our journey

We left the European continent of Istanbul crossing the Bosphorus sea on a ferry to Kusadasi and stopping at Bursa visiting the Green Mosque, again it is not green. The colors apparently referred to the colors of tiles used decorating the tiles IN the Mosques! 

a plate of meatballs

We stopped for lunch at on of the restaurant which specialises in meat balls, kofteci in Turkish. Interestingly the meat balls were not round like a ball but flat rounded meat balls. Our look were full of bewilderment to say the least upon the meat balls revelation before our eyes. It was a pleasant rarity, unexpected but jolting to the mind at the same time. The meat balls were tender, moist and succulent, grilled to perfection with just the right taste and aroma sans the accompanying sauces. In was so appetizing with its very own distinctive taste that without much thought I willingly helped my other travelling companions' meat balls!

all were mine, mine n mine!

Coming next to the table were the same amazement and we marvel at the loadful of carbohydrates upon carbohydrates in the form of crispy warm freshly made bread, thick slices of fries and a small plate of white rice, all for individually plated for each of us! 

 

The fresh crunchy salad is another post by itself! I mean, they eat their veggies raw in the form of salads and their salad counters can stretch as long as the serving hall! The meatballs itself deserve an excellent eight on Acepaizah's scale.

Pickled chillies, chillies paste a
and other accompanying condiments

Meaty meat luscious meatballs 

~Acepaizah~

yogurt drink shared by 4 persons

Yusuf- house of kofteci-meatballs