Cafe Teras

Cafe Teras is the place across the pool from us supplying our wifi connection that we've been pilfering since we've arrived. Thank you Cafe Teras. We had not been there until last night, when we decided to go just to see what they offered and to give back a little for the whole wifi thing. They have bilingual menus, food, drinks, desserts and a server who didn't speak English, but gave the boy some nice love. He came out and gave the boy some big smiles and said nice things to him in Turkish, at one point calling out the chef to come and say hello. They then took turns holding him and talking to him some more. This is the normal situation we encounter everywhere we go. The boy opens so many doors for us, we owe him a lot.

Oh yeah, the cafe...

They have all the essentials, and by that I mean beer and coffee. Beer is the ubiquitous Efes Pilsener, which is decent, but not great. Coffee comes in Turkish variety and "filtre kahve", the kind I'm used to. "Used to" being a stretch as we've been drinking instant since we arrived. I can't wait to have a nice strong cup of coffee sometime. Our french press and grinder should show up later this month and we have two partial bags of Stumptown in the freezer, so I'll get my wish.

Food-wise, they have sandwiches, pasta dishes and other hot plates and salads. Leslie ordered risotto, which was good, but a bit underdone. I ordered salmon, which was amazing. They get all their salmon from Norway and it's not the farmed junk they send to the U.S. It was cooked perfectly, skin still on and crispy, served on a bed of spinach and red peppers. The cafe isn't cheap by Turkish or American standards. Our meal came to 65 TL ($35.50), but there was also one glass of wine and a tonic water on there so maybe it is cheap by American standards.

They also have two big TVs, one of which plays endless fashion show runway walks and the other plays sports. I tried to inquire about the UEFA Euro 2012, but he had no idea what I was talking about. I was hoping they would be showing the games because our TV is still not hooked up (nobody sells a simple male-male coaxial cable here!) and they really don't have any sports bars in our neighborhood. I'm sure there are some cafes by the harbor, but that's a bit of a trek to see Poland v. Greece.