Eurasia Mega Tour 2026 - Türkiye Foodie Post #2

 While we are now deep into our visit to Madrid, Spain, we have one more piece of business to conclude with Alanya/Mahmutlar - A second foodie post. 

 Herbs

In the area of Türkiye we have been visiting, herbs are a prominent part of the cuisine. They are chopped up into the salads which are very lightly dressed otherwise with just a bit of oil, lemon juice, or tomato juice. They give them to you to add to your Lamachun. Cheese and herbs are a common filling in your Gõzleme. We started making our salads just that way when we went to a local market and found bunches of herbs to buy. We're not sure what this is. According to our online search it could be sorrel or arugula. Whatever it was, it was very fragrant and reminded us of the things we'd been eating out.

 

 We did a lot of cooking in because the ingredients were so good - especially the produce.

This is a spicy grilled beef sausage and an eggplant dish I made with tomato, onions, garlic, and herbs

 

 Uygur Turk

The name of a restaurant serving Uygur Central Asian food. Hands down the best place we ate at the whole time in Türkiye. It was interesting. Our waiter both times, a young man from Ukraine, told us they only got Russians, Ukrainians, and foreigners, no locals.

The Uygur territory was historically the link between China and the more Western areas of Central Asia. It is now located in Sinkiang China, and Eastern Kazakhstan. Its food is a cross between the two cultures with Russian influence as well from the centuries of Russian, then Soviet rule. It is the home of hand-pulled wheat noodles that became ubiquitous in China and now are found all over the world

Dishes we ate there

Fried Noodles

 

There were a ton of sweet peppers in it. The flavor was like a cross between Eastern European and Chinese. Very hard to describe. That's a hot chile paste to the right

A Special Chicken Dish

 

 The chicken itself was over cooked. But the sauce was spectacular. I researched it afterward and found it is a renowned Uygur dish and the sauce is noted to be difficult to duplicate. Those black things are wood ear mushrooms. In traditional Chinese cooking, they are added to give a crunchy texture. But here they were long cooked and absorbed all the flavor of the cooking fluid. Again there were tons of different sweet peppers that were delicious

Manti

 

Steamed dumplings. Very different from the Turkish variety which are small with a yogurt sauce over them. These had a prominent ground meat filling. I took the leftovers and fried them the next day which were very nice.

Gõzleme on the path in Sapadere  

 So nice and tranquil on the path. Made to order. There are always little accompaniments like the olives and pickles above with things you get in this area of Türkiye.

Pilav

 

 

Pilav (pronounced Plahf) is found all over the area where the Central Asians expanded, down into India (think Biryani), Persia/Iran, to Russia, etc. 

 

This was called Kazan Kebap and was like a stew rather than the grilled food we associate with kebap in Türkiye

On final Doner Kebap

 

We'd been disappointed with what we'd tried so far. I did a bunch of research and found a highly recommended place. It was not dry like many we've had with veggies and sauce in it which is what we like. And nice Ayran, the tart, salted yogurt drink I've learned to enjoy here.

 

Eurasia Mega Tour 2026 - Days Thirty Two-Four - Transitioning To Spain

We didn't do much of anything our last few days in Mahmutlar other than enjoy the comfort and view of the apartment. There was one other thing we could have done, but it would have been a major trek and expense. We didn't want to be all beat up just before we left for our next destination. 

Madrid, Spain

Today, Sunday the 27th, was a day completely committed to travel. We were picked up at 7:15am by our transfer people right where we asked. Alanya/Gazipasa airport is pretty small. We were the only flight leaving at that time in the morning. The flight to Istanbul was full. We were flying Turkish Airlines, where we have alliance privileges because of my status on United Airlines so we get to check in and board the airplane with the business class group. This was very valuable at our transfer airport, Istanbul.

Our plane was late because of a long wait on the tarmac after we arrived. We had a tight connection window and it was necessary to go through passport control because we were connecting to an international flight. The lines were LONG. Not good. But de-I, experienced traveler that he is, saw there was a 'Fast Track' line for Business Class passengers, and Star Alliance Gold frequent flyers (we're talking about you de-I!). Boom. Through in no time. That was fortunate because Istanbul airport is massive. But we made it to our gate with a few minutes to spare before boarding. 

The flight to Madrid was nowhere near as crowded as that from Alanya to Istanbul. And even though we were flying economy, we had a really good meal...not something you say often about airline food, but something that comes out again and again with Turkish Airlines. I had a stuffed eggplant (meat and tomato filling) with rice, and a cucumber-yogurt salad. It was as good as any restaurant food we had in Alanya. Even the bread was good. How this airline can continually do this, when so much of the industry cannot baffles me. 

Arriving in Madrid, we had no issues with the EEU's new electronic border entry system as we are already registered. However, we almost freaked out as our bags were the last (I mean THE LAST) to come out. We were even in the lost luggage line when they finally showed up. 

We used a new (to us) service to get to the Airbnb called Welcome Taxi. It gets you a regular taxi fare but lines up the driver like a transfer service so you know who is going to pick you up in advance, Our driver spoke excellent English which was great because we had to go to a separate location to get the keys for the Airbnb. 

We shopped for a bit of food and now are recuperating from the travel. We're hoping to do a bunch of photography while we are here. 

Eurasia Mega Tour 2026 - Days Thirty & Thirty One - Chilling

As is usually the case in our traveling, we wake up one morning and realize we only have a few days left. We've hit everything we wanted to see on the 'things to do' list in the Alanya area. The heat has broken and it is much nicer. We are spending more time on our balcony enjoying the view. We are also rebuilding our strength after the ordeal at Syedra. We will need to because we have a big three days of photo shoot coming up soon. 

 Coming into late September, the sun is lower in the sky giving a better quality of light for picture taking. With the weather change, there are also more clouds. The combination has improved the sunset and sunrise views from the balcony.

 

 

 A morning walk along the waterfront

 

Study of Turkish Beach Cat

 

 Things I normally photograph that weren't so great here

Birds - Hard to even find one. I wonder if it is all the cats?

 

 Laundry - hung out mostly on balconies and often not that colorful

 

 

 Scaffolding - The economy is not great and there isn't much building taking place. This was all I could find. Sad

 

Eurasia Mega Tour 2026 - Day Twenty Nine - Syedra Ancient City Rocks! The Photos

Rocks!

As in there are going to be a lot of pictures of rocks...It's ruins I mean

BUT FIRST

Let's Document the Ordeal

Wife, she looks so happy, so looking forward to our day. And truly through the time at Sapadere Canyon, it was great

 

 And we arrive here around 10:30-11:00

"Hmmmm. No one else here. I wonder why?"

 

 Entrance...fairly benign

 Wife notices a sign...but it's only in Turkish. We now think it says...

"Not Too Late To Turn Back!" 

 

 And then we encounter...

 

 And these were the better repaired ones. Take these and multiply it by 30 and you know the number of uneven, rock stairs we went up and down in the blazing summer sun!

But Wife? 

"I am Wife. I am Tough. We will do this!

 

 Study of Rocks...In Ruins Form

 

 Wait! We can escape through the West Gate!

 

 Nope. Locked

More Rocks

 

 Not Rocks

Mosaics

 

 Strange Looking Guy approaches and says "You like Syedra?"

 

 Turns out he is the head archeologist and opens a room not available to the public yet

 

 Syedra was a major processor of Olive Oil back in the day

 

 

 The city's giant cisterns for capturing the water it needed

After it all, we were whipped and wiped out, but survived