Tuesday, September 18, 2012

MADO Restaurant

MADO is a "must see" restaurant when traveling through Turkey. This restaurant not only has great ice cream which is made with "goat milk" but free WiFi.Mado is essentially a chain for gourmet Turkish desserts. Turkish ice cream called "dondurma" is delicious as its creamy and somewhat chewy. Anytime you need something sweet or even salty come to MADO and enjoy the delicious food.



 This restaurant prides itself in quality food that not only is attractive on the outside but rich with flavor when eating. This chain of restaurants can be found almost anywhere in Turkey and is very popular among the Turks and the tourists. The ice cream below is cut in individual pieces and when you try to cut it with your fork and knife, it stretches. Not like your usual ice cream that will just melt but this ice cream is different in texture than anything else. Typically, they have many different flavors but my three favorite flavors are vanilla, pistachio, and chocolate.




One more thing, don't forget to ask for some "baklava" with your ice cream, nothing is complete without even a little piece of this pastry. Enjoy!


Check out their website: http://mado.com.tr/ (you can use google translate in order to tanslate the page)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Coffee history

Merhaba!

When drinking Turkish coffee or "kahve", you can not drink it without noticing the beautiful artistic hand painted saucers and cups. Coffee was introduced to Turkey in 1555 by Syrian traders in Istanbul. Turkey had royal coffee makers who were summoned to serve coffee to the sultans. The coffee makers were known as “kahveciusta” and the entire elaborate ceremony of serving the coffee required the assistance of forty servants. 


Women were taught at an early age the proper way to make coffee. Young girls would be judged by their potential husbands on her coffee making skills. A proper wife would have excellent coffee making skills. A man would come to ask the woman for her hand in marriage. However, in the olden days the girl could not make that decision but her job was to serve coffee to the family and potential husband. On the other hand, she was able to express her opinion through coffee. If the coffee was sweet she agreed. If it was not sweet she was indifferent. If the coffee was salty she showed disagreement. 


Turkish coffee is part of the lifestyle of the Turks and today is a way of a social gathering at the coffee houses. Turkish coffee is very strong and delicate in taste, so instead of drinking Starbucks all the time give this coffee a shot. This will definitely wake you up and help you take on the day! You can not go to Turkey without visiting a coffee shop or a restaurant to sip on some Turkish coffee. If they offer dessert such as baklava this will satisfy your taste buds even more! 

Check out this coffee house call the The House Cafe: http://www.thehousecafe.com/web/21%2C94%2C1%2C1/house_cafe_eng/house_cafe_en_homepage/main_page/the_house_cafe_main_page

Enjoy!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Merhaba! (Hello in Turkish!)

Welcome to my blog!

First of to tell you a little about myself, my name is Emina Halidovic. I had the opportunity to travel to Turkey this summer because of the great experience I had, I am going to be writing this blog. Turkey is a country full of culture, hospitable people, spirituality and adventures. Keep up with my blog as I will tell you more about the adventures you could have when you travel to Turkey.