Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival

Playing: About You Now-One Night Only
Reading: What White People Like by Christian Lander
While watching Youtube, I kept on encountering ads for this Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival, so I decided to go. I've been craving some of the foods that I had, while in Istanbul, so I figured this must be a great chance for me to go all food crazy. (By the way, I have a bad cold/fever, so this post might not be coherent because I tend to have a hard time focusing, whenever I'm sick.)

The first thing I did at the festival was run off and grab some food. It was surprisingly affordable. My whole family's meal cost $28 total and we got more than just what's in the photo. A lot of the food was homemade by people and their family members, so the food isn't actually from a restaurant. I found that pretty cool because it feels more legitimate. The vegetable dishes were surprisingly good and I was shocked that I liked them because in general, I hate veggies.

This wrap was actually really delicious. It had spicy chicken, onions, tomatoes, sourberry, and some sort of greens in it and it was so good. It was basically a Turkish burrito. I love the fresh onions with  sourberry taste. It's just so fresh and tangy.

The main reason I went was because in the commercial, I saw the Turkish ice cream. Turkish ice cream is so amazing because it's chewy and stretches with you as you bite it. I just love the texture of it and how creamy it is. Unfortunately, this stall doesn't have a store or a restaurant I can go too...I was hoping for pistachio or lemon, but they only had vanilla and raspberry. Still very delicious.

Since I never got a picture of the ice cream stretching, while I was in Istanbul, I had to take a photo this time. Look at that stretch! It's like cheese on a pizza! Turkish ice cream is seriously the best ice cream I've had in my life and if you ever have the chance to try it, go for it! According to some people, the ice cream stretches because it's made out of goat milk, while others say it's because they use a seed that is only grown in Turkey to make it strechy.

They had a whole booth on the Turkish Van cat and I fell in love with it. I love how it likes to go swimming and take showers with you. Also, it enjoys eating melons, watermelons and chocolate. How adorable is that? Not to mention that one eye is blue and one is yellow. I love it when people/animals have different colored eyes. I don't know if this website is important, but it's the website that was on the business card for this booth.

What was really impressive was that this festival set up all the major tourist attractions of Turkey and the major cities, so that you got a feel for what Turkey is like. It was fun going to the Istanbul section and thinking, "I've been there!" It really made me want to go back and explore more or Turkey. It also made me miss Istanbul a tad.

This artist is so impressive. He does all his art by gluing down rocks and pebbles to paper. It must take him an awfully long time just to complete one of his pieces. You should check out his website to see all of the amazing pieces he's made. It was interesting just to watch him work. Overall, this festival was very interesting, had great food, everyone was extremely kind, and I'll definitely be going back to it next year. Compared to the Japan festival, this one was just so much more open, well prepared, thought out, and the prices were so much more reasonable.

Where do you get your favorite ice cream from?