It’s not just what Turkish people eat that surprises me (like tavukgöğsü, a chicken-based dessert), but how they eat. Here, as everywhere, social life revolves around food and booze (or, if you’re religious, just food), but unlike elsewhere, the social ritual of the Turkish meal is unbounded by time constraints.
In New York City, you sit down to a meal with friends. You talk, you eat, you drink, you pay as soon as you’re done, and you leave.
In Istanbul, you sit down to a meal with friends. You talk, you eat, you drink rakı (a powerful anise spirit), you stop eating to smoke a cigarette, you eat more, you talk more, you drink more rakı, you finish eating, you sit and talk and smoke and drink rakı for another hour, and then you pay and leave.
Unfortunately, I don’t speak Turkish and I don’t smoke—not cigarettes at least, and the weed in Turkey tastes like fossilized dinosaur crap (not that I would know, since it’s highly illegal here).
This means I end up sitting, eating, and drinking rakı for four, even five hours straight, which makes for a very bloated, very drunk Zack. But despite my discomfort, it’s healthy to experience how another culture approaches food—not as something to finish, but as something to savor—just as one should savor drink, conversation, and (if you like it) tobacco.
Indulgence is not something to get over with, after all—it should be indulged.
Check out Yeni Rakı online at www.yenirakiglobal.com
Leave a Reply