Monday, March 10, 2008
My Dinner with Serdil
The Goksu Restaurant is not a tourist haven; rather, it is the haunt of Serdil Gunay and his friends dating back to his college times through the present (he's not telling how many years that entails!) Serdil was one of the stellar team from the U.S. Embassy Ankara who guided us through our fascinating programs in Konya and Ankara (along with the brilliant Craig Dicker, and Aysegul Taskin who became a surrogate mother for all members of the company.) From the moment Serdil and I arrived at the Goksu, waiters, bus-boys and managers demonstrated their pleasure at seeing him by embracing and kissing him on both cheeks (brotherly love is fully practiced in Turkey). Starters were chosen from an array of delicious plates: celery remoulade; fava beans in a light tomato sauce; broccoli and carrot salad, steamed perfectly; and a huge artichoke heart in olive oil and lemon dressing. A string bean dish with sauteed shallots and garlic, with a touch of vinegar, accompanied the fish kebob that Serdil ordered. Has anyone heard of Goby fish? That's what it was, and the tender white chunks were grilled to perfection. Serdil put away a bottle of Arak softened with water; I stuck to the more mundane white wine. A pu-pu platter of scrumptious filo-nuts-honey pastries of different shapes and sizes, and another of perfectly ripe fresh fruit rounded out the feast, with Turkish coffee and brandy as the grand finale. I've characterized the food, but it was the conversation -- about life, head scarves, secularism, spirituality, art, money, values, dancers, sufis -- that was the main attraction. The brisk up hill walk in the cool night air was the perfect way to cap off an evening I'll never forget.
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