[3/36] Joining the Police Force
This story is part of Monstera Deliciosa: Touchin’ Grass, a miniseries about eating my way through Turkey, Spain, and Italy while writing everything I wonder and sketching everything I see.
Sunday, April 23, 2023
We woke up early and I wanted to get a famous full Turkish breakfast. I found a decent place in an alley near Istiklal Street — Istanbul’s famous food street — and only a few minutes from our Airbnb. Overall, it felt a bit touristic but it was very good. We were served a full plate of bread, three types of Turkish cheese, kaymak (Turkish clotted cream) and honey, two types of fruit jam, black and green olives, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, and acuka (a-joo-kaw) — a paste of red peppers and walnuts spiced with fennel. We also ordered menemen (Turkish scrambled eggs with tomatoes) and the signature small cups of tea that Turks have nonstop throughout the day. Where do I even begin… each component was plentiful yet integral to the spread and after trying out each one on its own, I started making combinations of two or three ingredients like a slice of hard cheese with some jam and a smear of acuka or kaymak and honey chased with a briny olive and crisp cucumber — delicious, hearty, and fun for quite a reasonable price. The menemen was also interesting with the egg-and-tomato mixture acting as more of a silky sauce for the bread than what I would normally consider scrambled eggs. in Turkish culture, a man has to be able to make a good menemen so I suppose I’ll try to work that out when I get home from this trip and post my own menemen recipe and novel techniques here on Medium.
After that amazing breakfast, Sumi took me to Emirgan Park under the promise of treating me to lunch at a “polisevi” or an exclusive police restaurant and café where members and family of the Police Force can eat in luxury for a relatively affordable price. I guess that makes me an honorary member of the Turkish Police Force. The bus ride to Emirgan Park was about an hour but — as it seems to be a common theme recently — the way back would be a completely different story.*
*This is called foreshadowing and I’m able to do this because I’m writing this from the future
Emirgan Park was a very nice wooded area full of cypress trees and tulips. There were virtually no tourists and it was good to get away from the hustle and bustle of inner Istanbul. We walked through the park until we arrived at the polisevi on the pier. There was a guy operating an x-ray machine in the lobby and he initially refused the obvious Asian tourist but let us in once Sumi pulled out her police family ID card. We had sea bass and çoban salata (shepherd’s salad made from cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions) which was delicious. I love eating whole fish with the head on because of the fatty bits near the head and the crispy ends you wouldn’t normally get in a skinned and trimmed fillet. After our meal, we tried to get on a bus but the information at the stop wouldn’t show up and the internet cut out. We decided to take our chances and walk along the pier for another hour or so before waiting at another stop that allegedly has a bus coming every 30 minutes but even after an hour of waiting, nothing came. By this point, we were tired of waiting and went to a nearby waffle shop for dessert where I learned another phrase “fıstık gibisin” (lit. you look like a pistachio) which means “you are cute”.
When all hope of getting home at a reasonable time seemed lost, Sumi spotted a small van called a dolmuş which is a private ride-share service that fills the gaps when the buses (frequently) don’t operate. Normally, I wouldn’t get into a stranger’s van in the Middle East but I was desperate. The dolmuş had 6 seats and about 10 people riding but we squeezed in and got to the inner city where it was easy to find our way back. We walked from Taksim Square and bought some groceries on the way to cook in the Airbnb. Turkey doesn’t have many large grocery stores so instead I ended up getting some eggplants, tomato sauce, pasta, olive oil, and a ricotta-like white cheese from a corner store and made a creamy eggplant pasta. I also picked up a cheap bottle of Turkish white wine apparently from Pamukkale which tasted very mild but decent. Turkey produces a lot of grapes but only a small percentage gets made into wine due to the incredibly high alcohol tax leading to higher prices. Despite that, the prices in Turkey are generally cheap for the purchasing power parity of Korea so I didn’t really mind. I’m very tired from all the walking today so I’m gonna head to sleep early.
The past two days have been hectic in several ways so I’d like to do more slower-paced tourism in one area with Sumi such as visiting farmer’s markets and bazaars. I noticed that the produce in Turkey is overall very fresh and cheap however, the stores in the busier parts of the city have very poor quality control. Sumi has a couple of online classes and exams until Wednesday so we’ll take it easy until then. I might even go somewhere by myself if I’m feeling brave and try to get by with the very few Turkish phrases I picked up over the months dating Sumi.
