FOOD PORN FROM KURDISTAN

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."
~ George Bernard Shaw.

I was going to post some pictures of Cizîr, but after getting sidetracked by food pictures, I decided to post some of them instead. We can do Cizîr later.

As far as I'm concerned, grilled food with flat bread and a side of shepherd's salad (çoban salatası in Turkish) is the best kind of food in Kurdistan, or in the whole world, for that matter. It's simple, primal, delicious and the spices on the meat are always just right. Everyone else can have their haute cuisine or nouvelle cuisine or whatever . . . give me something like this every day and I'll be happy.

This was the ambience accompanying the grilled meal above. Near Nisêbîn (Nusaybin).

Dolma for lunch at home. Perfect.

Evening spread at a relative's home. The lamb in broth was the best because, in this case, a liberal hand was used with the dried red pepper flakes.

If you have to eat, you have to shop. Here are large bags full of eggplant and cucumbers. Naturally I prefer my eggplant grilled on coals, skinned, and mashed with garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. In the vegetable world, nothing beats that smoky, eggplant flavor.

Peppers for grilling and peppers for stuffing. For some reason, I'm drawn to the vegetables in the markets. Maybe it's the fabulous variety of bright colors and textures of the vegetables that attract me.

A selection of poğaça for breakfast wıth a nice, big glass of hot tea! The spicy meat filling was the best. The texture of the bread is incredibly tender and I don't know of anything else quite like it. I prefer poğaça even more than börek. I haven't seen anything like this in South Kurdistan. Too bad. They don't know what they're missing. The tea here was Kurdish tea, not Turkish tea. Turkish tea is grown in the Black Sea region and is bitter--no matter how much you water it down. Kurdish tea generally comes from India, or tea-growing regions near India and is not at all bitter.

More vegetables. Notice at the top left there are grape leaves for making into delectable sarma.

Dinner at home, waiting for the fried chicken . . .

. . . And there it is! Crispy! Spicy! Delicious! Ax! I could go back just to eat.