Ekmek…This is the Turkish word for bread and a huge staple in their diet. I have never experienced a culture adamant about bread. They can’t eat a meal with out it and a lot of it! Last time I was in Turkey my Cali friend and I made chili for international day at our old university. The idea was to share something from your culture, diversity right? Well this Turkish girl came up to our booth and looked in our pot and said “where’s the bread?” “We don’t have any”…”well then we can’t eat it…in our culture we always need bread.” I thought ok whatever…don’t eat it then. Of course after I wanted to yell at her that it was INTERNATIONAL DAY the point was to try something different but I always have those great thoughts-after the fact. The bread though is normally white but I have started noticing more wheat. It is always fresh and bought daily. It is also really cheap like 40 kurus a loaf(.30 cents) maybe that is why it started as such a big part of the culture and progressed to sort of a habit? It comes in various textures but the most widely consumed is a light airy loaf. Don’t get me wrong it is good and fresh! It is for tearing, dipping, smearing, soaking, and just plain eating. A compliment to whatever else you are eating, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. How is everyone not huge? I guess Americans have become so obsessed with low-carb no-carb is that why it isn’t a part of every meal? Or as Americans became more affluent meat and proteins have been made more affordable? Sister- give me some of that thick, hearty wheat from your bakery. It's not cheap though! What ever the differences above is a wall of Ekmek.
3 comments:
Actually I think this is one reason that Turks ARE getting fat, and will get much fatter over the course of the next generation as less and less people walk, more and more people drive and take the elevator, and less people work in physically demanding jobs.
I talked about it on my blog last week.
http://jakedolson.com/blog/?p=277
I know that their bread eating habits have certainly made it easy for me to gain weight and difficult to take it off.
I was just wondering I read this whole article about bread, but then you get to how good the school lunch is and there is not a single piece? What da deal?
Upon further reading , I subtract my comment.
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