More Food and Some Walking

I present to you a few more foods that are nice to look at and decent to eat too. These all came from the grocery, not the street market, but you can find the first two there no problem.

First up is Erik. That's me! Sort of. These are sour green plums. Some are more tart than others. This is the first batch I've ever bought so my sample is pretty small. These taste mostly like fruit that isn't ripe, which makes sense since that's exactly what they look like. They are just very mild tasting and very crunchy. I'll try to pick up more at the pazar tomorrow.

This is garlic. Fresh green garlic. I haven't untied it so I don't know what it's like. It smells wonderful though. I'll have to find a garlic-centric recipe for it.

This is sausage like you see in the old-timey cartoons. The label says it is Hindi Sucuk, which is sausage made with turkey. It doesn't taste like that to me though. I only bought it because of its appearance and I have to say it's quite tasty. I slice it thin and make sandwiches using fresh baked bread  and some kasar cheese (which is anywhere between mozzarella, cheddar and provolone, depending on the brand. Confusing? Why, yes!) and throw it under the broiler for a few minutes.

Now onto today's activities. It's Friday. The boy took a late nap yesterday and we ended up missing playgroup for the third week in a row. I was looking forward to going, but it was a new and unusual time in our schedule. So today, we decided to do something else fun and go for our usual Emirgan walk. The weather has been cool, breezy and cloudy, just like this time last year when we first arrived. I over-bundled each of us and we were off. The weather actually ended up being just about perfect. It wasn't too cold at all and felt really good to be outside. It was a good walk. Everything seemed new, but I had the confidence of knowing the ins and outs of where I was going and what I was doing.

I wish I'd gotten a few pictures from the first part of the walk, but I'll have to go again and take them. These are all from Emirgan, which is less crowded now that the tulips have passed, but is still a very popular park. They opened up a new section, which is quite nice and not terribly overcrowded just yet.

I picked up a bottle of black mulberry juice/soda at the playground for 2 Lira and a fresh loaf of bread on the way home for 1 Lira. I love how delicious and affordable the food is here.

Laying out the designs before the flowers go in.

A painted tree stump.

Flowers! No tulips though.

The painted stump. There has to be a prettier name for it than that.

Some mosaic (if that's the right term) using different colors of river rock. This is all new.

The homage to our fair city.

This is new as well. This area was part of the park, but undeveloped until just recently. Now it has a new water feature and bridge.

There is now an aviary with some colorful birds.

There is also a gigantic skywalk for the children. The only way up is climbing the massive rope pyramid at the end or climbing up the ladder tube. The slide is the largest I have seen in a public park anywhere. Litigious Americans prevent this structure from ever making its way across the ocean.