Dinner with friends

This past Sunday our family went to a Turkish friend's house for dinner. Here is a record of our visit in pictures.


When you arrive at a Turk's home you are expected to take off your shoes. It is also customary to be offered slippers or a pair of indoor shoes reserved for guests. This is a picture of the indoor shoes I was given to wear. Brian was offered some that looked like slippers, but chose not to wear them. It is not rude to refuse the slippers if you are wearing socks.


Jacob, Anna Grace, and Erica on the couch in the salon. The salon is a combination living room and dining room.


Our friend and his parents. This family owns two homes. The one in our city is their home away from home. The mom had heart surgery a year ago and has to be in town for doctor visits quite often. They chose to purchase a second home here so that they would be more comfortable when they are in town. Owning two homes is a fairly common practice here. Often parents will buy an apartment in the town where their child/children go to college so that they can live at home with their families while they are in school.


The meal. Potatoes, chicken, cheese salad, tomato cucumber salad, potato salad, cheese rolls, simits, and cake.


A close-up of the cheese filled rolls. They were yummy!


We were asked what we wanted to drink with our meal. The choices were tea, Nescafe (instant coffee), coke, or fruit juice. Erica and Anna Grace said what most kids would say in this instance...coke! Jacob being the purist said he wanted water. Will asked for Nescafe. Brian told him that he really didn't need coffee for dinner, and told our hosts that he could have coke instead. As you can see from the picture he got his Nescafe. You can tell from the look on his face that he is quite pleased with that as well. We should have known that they were going to give him what he asked for. They wanted to please him.


After we took several pictures our hosts decided they needed to take our picture. Will, Jacob, and Anna Grace were busy playing Monopoly in Turkish so they missed out on the picture.


Brian showing off a mini simit. I love these!


Sitting around talking after the meal.


Anna Grace absconded with the camera and took several pictures of things in the salon. This table had a variety of silvered copper items on it. The blue eye on the one piece is called a nazar. The nazar is supposed to protect the home from jealous thoughts or envious guests.


Anna Grace also took this picture of Jacob while we were visiting. It has nothing to do with our visit, but I thought it was funny so I decided to share.


And finally...the fruit. No visit to a Turkish home is complete without fruit. When we were ready to leave...the kids were tired and had school the next day...we said that it was time for us to go. At that point they had to bring out the fruit...the final course. After cutting several pieces and everyone having some we thanked our hosts and left.

One final note...it is also customary for the guests to bring the hosts a gift. Flowers or candy are the usual fare. We brought a box of chocolates shaped like flowers but didn't take a picture of them!