Fatma is a wonderful woman working at Bulut’s radio station as a cook and house keeper. At the party on Friday she invited me over to her house to learn how to make lahana dolma, stuffed cabbage. She told me to meet her at 2:30 at the radio station, which was the only thing I really understood in Turkish, because the rest of the conversation was translated by her friend. After spending some time at the radio station, she took me to her house. On the way we stopped by the barbershop to pick up her husband and then went to the supermarket. When we were paying, the lady doing promotion on a product we bought was probably wondering:
Who is this Asian girl and why is with this couple who speaks only Turkish. She doesn’t even know what I am saying in Turkish
While we were going home she said I was her kız kardeş (little sister). I was so happy because we just learned family titles just last week in Turkish class and i understood her.
Anyways, at her home she taught me how to make Yogurt Corba (yogurt and rice
soup ), Patates Tavuk (potato and chicken), and Pirinç Pilavı (rice pilaf). Although I only knew a little Turkish our hand signals made it through the night. I was able to get down some recipes and rolled my very first Lahana Dolma, flavored rice (sometimes with meat) wrapped in cabbage leave, just like the grape leave ones but just with cabbage. Her family was so nice, her daughter and I did most of the wrapping and she tried really hard to teach me Turkish, but I keep forgetting the words. Her husband kept tell me that his belly is big because Fatma makes such delicious food. Despite the language barrier we had a lot of good laughs and jokes. Dinner was great and her
friend from the night before came over and we chatted and she translated. Finally, after a day of Turkish speaking I could let my tongue rest. It is really tiring when you have to dig for words whenever you speak. I had a wonderful time and Fatma insisted that I stay for the night. But I had to leave and so she packed me a huge box of lahana dolma to take home. She is such a nice lady. She calls me her angel, but she is really my food angel. 
6 comments:
So cute!!! And I LOVE DOLMA! Btw! We had it for dinner tonight... the nanny here is such a good cook :)
Miss you! Even though I saw you like last week.
mmmm...that food sounds so delicious!
Love this story! Helen, it's so great that you had this wonderful experience. Thanks for putting time into the blog---FUN reading!!!
Helen, thank you for sending me the link. Saw your photos and you have been really enjoying yourself. You should teach me how to make those dishes when you are back to the States.
Take Care.
It's a great start :)
I wish you keep on writing. Btw, I bet family titles were so hard for you. Because we have a lot of them. Probably, you just learned a few of them but normally there are more than ten.
Hi Helen! I finally got around to checking out your blog. Thanks for sharing!! It seems like you are having a really good experience in Turkey. I thought I would send you a message wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving since you are so far away for the holiday. Take care, Gina
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