OK so I mixed languages in the title but it means celebrating a birthday Turkish style. That occurred last night with a potluck dinner at our apartment. The term potluck is apparently unknown in Turkish culture and I found Turks do not follow directions very well regarding party instructions. I told everyone two things - (1) bring ONE food or drink to share and (2) do not bring me a birthday present. Our guests came loaded with food dishes, some bringing four or five, and most arrived with birthday presents as well. What's a girl to do? Eat and enjoy the gifts, of course!
The food was a great variety including a lot of patlican (eggplant - my favorite). Most was homemade including a bunch of great dishes from Serin Sakinc, Eren's mom. She is such a good cook but has an amazingly trim figure. I don't understand! We also opened bottles of Turkish wine and had Efes beer on hand along with the ubiquitous Coke. Ozge Sumer took care of the birthday cake and it was so special. A very large cake laden with chocolate and crunchy nut and caramel. Candles and sparklers were lit. The sparklers were a first in my life of birthdays. Another first is even more special and that was sharing it with a person who has the exact same birthday (but different year). This is Carnot Nelson, a professor from Florida who is now at Bilkent in the psychology department. We happened to discovered we have the same day of birth when we had dinner together a few weeks ago. So, we celebrated both birthdays together.
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| Carnot and Alice toast their birth date - February 20 |
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| Alice between two Mehmets. In Turkish is good luck to be between two people with the same name so I expect this picture to bring me luck for the coming year. |
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| Some of the massive amounts of food at the party - eggplant kebab on left and a type of borek on right. |
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| The Hatirnaz family - Haluk, Ege and Elif (there were also two Elifs at the party and I failed to get a picture taken between them which would have doubled my luck for the coming year!) |
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| Cevahir, Ege (her former pupil) and Elif |
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| Ozge leads the procession of sparklers with the lit cake behind |
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| Alice and Carnot with the cake |
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| A detail of the lit cake. Carnot and Alice both blew out the candles (numbered 7 for luck) |
The presents were varied and all well chosen. I got three pieces of jewelery - a ring with beautiful stones from Elif Ozgormus's mom (who also cooked a mean eggplant kebab), an Ataturk pin from the Sakinc's and a traditional silver pin from Mardin from Ege Hatirnaz's parents Elif and Haluk. Ege is a student we met last summer when we were in Ankara. He is keen on American culture and English language and we bonded with him during our brief meeting. I also got two scarfs - from Mehmet Kurt a silk one with a traditional Iznik tile design (Iznik tiles are one of my favorite traditional artworks of Turkey) and a large pashima with muted but beautiful colors from Cevahir and Ozge. The Sakincs also favored me with a elite and aged bottle of red Turkish wine. I will be enjoying that all by myself at a later date. And, Sofia (Zulfiya) Sahin was extremely generous with a large glass plate painted with an historic Ottoman scene from a miniature. This involves young men being carried around chased by other men with large and long swords. Yes, those knowledgeable of Ottoman culture will know this is a painting of the circumcision ceremony of two sons of a Sultan. It is actually beautiful and looks great in our very underdecorated apartment living room.
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| Showing off the ring from Yasar Ozgormus |
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| Wearing one new scarf (the Iznik print) while admiring the other (the pashima) |
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| The plate with a reproduction of the Ottoman miniature of the circumcision ceremony |
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| Alice with master chef Serin Sakinc |
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| Ozge and Alice (wearing both new pins - Ataturk and the silver flower) |
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