The Show: The show is titled "Turk Lezzeti", which translates to something like "Turkish Flavor" or "Turkish Taste". It's a new show, so it'll start airing in April, and my episode should air in May. It's on TRT International, which is available in Europe and the US, as well as Turkey, so if you folks back home have incredible cable, you might be able to see me. The concept of the show is that every episode, they take 2 yabancis (foreigners) and teach them to make a Turkish dish, while chatting in Turkish about why, exactly, they are yabancis in Turkey.
How I got on a Turkish TV show: Internet-savvy yabanci that I am, I frequent several forums for expats living in Turkey. Usually it's really kind of boring/depressing, because everyone lives in Istanbul, so all the information and events are in Istanbul, so I end up skimming a lot. One of them had a post last week mentioning that a studio was looking for yabancis with free time during the week to film a show. Since I set my own schedule, and thus have all the time in the world during the week, I emailed the contact info given. They called back that night, asked if I had a friend that wanted to go on with me, and set up a date and time. I figured I could easily find another Fulbrighter for this chance of a lifetime (or at least, chance of a grant-time). I originally was going to go on the show with a friend from Ankara, but there was a scheduling conflict, so I ended up meeting up with my friend Emily in Istanbul to do the show (for those that read semiregularly, Emily was one of my partners-in-crime for my Bursa trip).
The Big Day: I boarded a bus to Istanbul bright and early Tuesday morning after a little-too-late night. I took Nilufer this time, which I'd never taken before; they were good, probably about Metro-level in quality. My one complaint was that even though it was the "Express" bus to Istanbul, we still stopped at a rest station for 30 minutes. Some things don't change... I got in to Istanbul by 2:30, and got downtown to Besiktas by 3:30. I'd wanted to stock up on some DVDs for awhile, so I headed to the Buyuk Carsiya to check out the DVD markets. One of my regular go-to places had remodeled since the last time I stopped by, and now has new releases prominently featured, a much shorter waiting time, and bulk-purchase discounts. Excellent. I picked up Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, a season of The Wire, the Shawshank Redemption, and Run Lola Run, all for 30 lira (that's currently under $20, so that's pretty awesome, although apparently not as awesome as Ecuadorian DVD prices). While I was perusing DVDs, I noticed one's Turkish title, because it was so odd: literally, it translated to "Flaming chicken." Intrigued, I looked closer, and saw that it was "The Hot Chick." I think maybe that one should not have been literally translated...
I finished up my shopping and headed to the ferry docks to meet up with Emily, who was coming straight from her calligraphy lesson in Asia. We grabbed a cab, showed the cab driver the address to the studio, and off we went. Side story, the cab driver looked at the address, said "I don't know where that is, but we'll get there," and ended up one building over. Pretty good navigating. We had a bit of fun trying to get in to the studio, as the building had about 7 different entrances, not very helpfully labelled, but we finally got to the right place by about 4:45.
We were ushered in, past the set, and back to the dressing room, where the host was getting her makeup finished up. We said hi to a bunch of people before getting our hair done. The stylist put my hair in a style that I've never done myself, and don't know that I would do, but it looked ok. He finished it off with more hairspray than I thought the can could hold. Next Emily got her hair styled and sprayed, and then we got the makeup treatment. Turkish makeup is of a slightly different style compared to American makeup trends (which clearly I stay up to date on, ya?), and Turkish television makeup is just amazingly over the top. They do not hide from colors that I thought were awesome in middle school. Also, they're big fans of the sparkles. I was up first, and after a few layers of various foundation-type ephemera, the makeup lady got to work on my eyes. She started with some neutral tones that I actually rather enjoyed, before moving to a blue that I think is best described by the name "peacock," or perhaps "Mimi on the Drew Carey Show". That was my main eyeshadow color. It was finished off with some glittery product and ridiculous amounts of mascara, before she moved on to stark blush (the contrast was...almost tuberculosis-patient severe) and glittery lip gloss. I wasn't dressed for clubbing, but my face would have been perfect for hitting up even Reina (the best/most expensive club in Istanbul, where the real partiers go). It was absurd, but awesome. Emily was up next, and got a similar treatment, although as she's blonde, her main eyeshadow color was pink, instead of blue.
Artistry
Thus suitably television-ready, we headed out to the set, where we hung out and chatted with the crew as they prepped the ingredients and dishes for the filming to begin. We also chatted with the host, who asked us some questions to ascertain our Turkish levels and told us about the episode we'd be filming. We were making 2 dishes: muhallebi and güllaç. These are both milk-based puddings, so we got a dessert episode. We got miked up, did our sound checks, and got told by the cameramen where to stand for the best viewing angles.
Side note: any Scrubs fans out there might recognize muhallebi, from the episode where J.D. yells at Omar the Turk for stealing his pudding, "O benim muhallebim, Omar!" I used that line a few times on-set, dork that I am.
Finally, it was time to start the show! We counted down, listened to the theme song, and started in. The host introduced each of us and interviewed us briefly on our backgrounds before launching into a description of the dishes we were making. We got started on the güllaç, heating milk and sugar wıth some rosewater while I crushed some walnuts and mixed them with cinnamon. We chatted a bit about what Emily and I were doing in Turkey, and where we were from, and then the host decided I wasn't well-versed in walnut-crushing and took over while we waited for the milk to boil. We talked about when güllaç is traditionally consumed, which is during Ramazan, and I had to pretend to not know when Ramazan was so she (the host) could explain to me that it moved by 10 days each year. Once the walnuts were well and truly crushed, and the milk had boiled, Emily and I got started assembling the güllaç: We started with a layer of güllaç dough, which is like yufka or phyllo but specifically for this dish, and then added a ladleful of milk and a sprinkling of walnuts. We then added another layer of güllaç dough, and continued for maybe two dozen sets of dough, milk, and walnuts. At the end we poured all the leftover milk over the top, and let it sit while we watched the host work on the muhallebi.
Emily and our finished Güllaç
We made Sakizli Muhallebi, which is made with sakiz. In English, sakiz is 'mastic,' but neither Emily nor I had heard of such a thing before. The host had us each try a piece and... it's a similar taste and concept to gum arabic, although a little less jawbreaker-like in consistency. It's not a flavor I'd've thought to add to pudding, and certainly not one that I'd choose to highlight. But, I think it was added to serve as a jelling or binding agent, as we really couldn't taste it in the final product at all. We added the sakiz to milk over heat, along with (again) sugar and rose water, and a few other ingredients that I've forgotten. Once it started a decent rolling boil, the host stirred for a few minutes and then poured it into three smaller dishes while the crew stopped filming to help set up the set for the last part of the show, the tasting.
The guy in charge, pondering muhallebi placement
While the crew argued over what size of plates to use, Emily and I got to decorate the güllaç, using pomegranate seeds and the leftover walnuts. We embellished the pudding with a large pomegranate heart, with walnuts sprinkled around the edges. The crew really enjoyed it, and got quite a few closeups of the heart güllaç. When the set was ready again, we joined the host on-camera to try our creations and wish our audience a heartfelt "Affiyet Olsun!" (Bon Appetit). The cameras cut, everyone applauded, and the crew all came up to grab some güllaç.
We all stood around and chatted for awhile, and we asked the host where she'd learned to cook. It turned out that she'd studied in Paris, at Le Cordon Bleu, which was pretty impressive. She also told us that she has a cookbook, and is sending us copies of it, which I'm very excited about. I chatted with one of the camera guys for a bit, who was really excited that I was from Ankara, as he said much of the crew was also from Ankara. We talked about neighborhoods, and apparently they're all from Aşağı Ayrancı, which is literally down the street from me.
After a bit, we headed back towards the dressing rooms, where we filled out paperwork, asked about airdates, and got 80 lira apiece to cover our travel expenses. The guy walking us through the paperwork told us that the show will start airing in April, and will be on 3 times a day, 10:30, 3ish, and just after midnight. I'm not sure if it's on every day, but I'll find out once it starts airing. Our episode will appear sometime in May. We also may or may not be mailed a copy of our episode on DVD; I wasn't quite sure on that part, but I really really hope it's the case, because my brief Turkish cooking show stardom is something I want to preserve for posterity. If I do get a copy, rest assured I'll post it here.
We got a ride to Arnavutkoy from one of the crew, and arrived there just in time to meet up with my friend Cat (also Emily's roommate) and her visiting relatives for dinner. The restaurant was on the 4th floor of a building, overlooking the Bosphorous, and as we climbed in view, Cat's reaction to our heavily-made-up faces was priceless. It was a little something like: Cat: "Oh hey guys, you made it....Oh My Gosh! Relatives, my friends do not normally look like this". Laughter, of course, ensued. After a great dinner of fish and mezes, I said my goodbyes and headed to Taksim to catch a bus back to Ankara. I got in at 5am, and promptly headed to bed, exhausted but exhilarated.
The experience was so fun; both the host and the crew were great, and clearly were used to yabancis with much less Turkish. We wowed them with our grammar and vocab, which felt quite nice. This is something that I never would have thought I'd be doing, yet there I was, bantering with the host and crushing walnuts on a Turkish cooking show. I find it bemusing. It was such an incredible experience, and it's such a great story.
In my still-crazy-but-not-as-glamorous everyday life, I went to pub trivia last week, where my team won again, beating a team of my friends by a scant half-point. So we're writing questions for next month. Over the weekend I went to a Beer Festival at the British Embassy's pub, which was quite nice and a chance to have some non-Turkish brews. This weekend I'm heading out to Safranbolu I think, with friends of mine from Istanbul; Safranbolu's embarrassingly close to Ankara, and I've never been. So that'll be good. In my spare time, I'll be hitting up my guidebooks again, doing some planning for March, when my good friend Danaijo is visiting. So life will be full, but not really so busy.
On that note, I'm off,
kib,
-R
No comments:
Post a Comment