During our short time here in Turkey we have been exposed to some incredible food during our meals at both the dig house and the site and in the town of Gazipasha itself. Every morning we are aroused from our exhaustive zombie-like state of mind and upon arriving at the site, greeted with a simple breakfast of bread, butter, cherry and strawberry jam, cheeses, olives, hardboiled eggs, and cut cucumbers and tomatoes. This simple meal provides a fresh start to the day and the energy we will need to haul, push, pull, and rip away the stones and infinite amount of roots covering our site. Almost all of the food items are grown by and made by the site’s guard, Rami, and his talented wife, Isha. That butter? Its made from the milk of their goats. At exactly 10 am, Rami blows his whistle and we all take a thirty minute break during which we drink water, re-apply sunscreen, and munch away at whatever snacks we’ve brought along with us, wether they be cookies or nuts bought from local vendors in town. At 1 pm, our group begins to snake down the hill where our site is located towards the school house where we eat, joining with other workers as we go. Lunch usually consists of some sort of rice or noodles, a side-salad of some sort, and a main dish in both vegetarian and meat-lover’s versions. Afterwards, a sweet is served. We are spoiled and it is awesome. The food Isha makes is simple almost out of necessity. Her only resources are the basic ingredients around her and items to be found in town. This is all she needs. The food that she is able to make for 40+ people using only these ingredients and her small kitchen with a few cooking implements is incredible. Dinner is served at the dig house at 7:30 pm. Sadly it is not prepared for us by Isha but the woman who does cook dinners for us serves food that is deliciously filling. As Rebecca, one of our Teacher’s Assistants, explained to me, Turkish meals are required to have a certain amount of specific items. In the case of dinners, these items include bread, a soup of some sort, rice or noodles or beans, a main dish, and some kind of sweet. Every meal is followed by tea, or cay (pronounced “chai”) as it is called in Turkey. Cay is the perfect way to both begin the day and to end it and every student here is already an expert in the art of pouring a cup of cay.
The name for tea here in Turkey. Traditionally served with one or two spoonfuls of sugar.
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