Randy and Alice Live in Turkey: Mangal Sefasi

We enjoyed an authentic mangal (which is bar b qued meat) with the Sakinc's - student Eren's family in Ankara. Father Haydar and mother Serin along with sister Evrim and her husband Altan and very cute son Boran hosted us at Mangal Sefasi (this means Mangal Pleasure) which is a set of restaurants in Ankara.

Mangal is all about the meat. We started with grilled chicken which was very juicy (all white meat and no bones or skin). Then they brought out Randy's favorite - grilled chicken wings. Finally, kofte which was very delicious and juicy. The meats were served with a red pepper relish which was great if a little spicy for Randy. Bread was also on the table. I drank water while Randy guzzled Ayran (a yoghurt drink). That is it - no veggies, no salad, no side starches, no deserts. The restaurant was packed with hungry Turks and we sat at long wooden tables on benches with backs.

Because we ate a lot of meat and Randy especially enjoyed it, the Sakinc's ordered extra kofte and chicken wings. Despite our best efforts we could not finish it all and ended up with a couple to go boxes which were eaten the next day. The Sakinc's speak almost no English so my Turkish got a real work out. Between basic Turkish, hand gestures and resorting to the Turkish/English dictionary sometimes we all managed and had a great time. The Sakinc's have a number of houses but two especially interested us. These are a traditional (but built fairly recently) mountain house and a historic home built with a hammam (Turkish steam room). They promised to take us to see these wonders someday. Haydar is quite a gardener and we viewed photos of his amazing fruits and vegetables. We were very happy to join with this friendly and multi-talented family and look forward to our next get together (which is actually tomorrow night for more mangal!).