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Thursday, July 09, 2009

party at my place


One of my most favorite restaurants in Turkey was a little local place right up the street from our apartment. When we first moved to Turkey they were just a little hole in the wall kind of place that had about 7 tables. 7 plastic tables with plastic chairs. By the time we left, almost 7 years later, things had changed. They had expanded to be quite large, had nice booths and tables, and were very popular! They made home-cooked kind of food. A dish called manti was their specialty and so they were called Manti Evi or Manti house. Manti is basically a dumpling or kind of ravioli with a meat and spice mixture tucked inside the dough. It is served with garlic yogurt and red pepper paste on top. Delicious!

Several years ago I went to the Manti Evi to learn how to make Manti. I had grand plans to make it in the states when I came here for a visit. It is quite tedious and I am quite lazy so those plans never did come to fruition. (And besides once I got to America there was Pappadeaux's to consume. I must admit the manti making took a backseat to stuffing my face with Cajun cuisine.)

Several weeks ago, before our friends came to the states for their visit, they visited the Manti Evi and took this video.



And today we sat down and made some manti ourselves.

It was still quite tedious, and nobody really ended up with a Turkish sized serving of manti, but we did it!



My taste buds and tummy had a party today. I love it when they do that!

5 comments:

Mamadallama said...

How can you do this to us? Where's the recipe? Sure looks good...

Mamadallama said...

Wow! I always wished I was the 'fun' mom, too. The next best thing, though, is being best friends with one! Glad you're all having so much fun. BTW, I disagree with you about Jacob's outfit...I think the goggles are the icing on the cake!

Ronnica said...

I remember regretting getting the yogurt on my manti the day we went with you, as I think I would have really liked it without that. That looks like a lot of work!

Crystal DeLong said...

Oh how I miss Mantı! Let me count the ways! Jenna & I went to eat there every week and we always had the same thing. Afiyet Olsun!

SuperJediMom said...

This makes me want to learn how to make it so I could surprise my parents one day with it... maybe I need to email you for some recipes!

I do have to say that in the last picture Erica looks VERY excited to be making manti... maybe a little too excited.