Vegetarian Yemek in Kebabistan (3 of 3)

Digg this page | Save This Page | Stumble It!

Vegetarian Yemek in Kebabistan (3 of 3)
Turkey
Walking some more, we saw a "pide salonu" (pizza shop) open, and stepped in to ask if they had vegetable pizza. "Sabze? Sebze? Soobze?" We tried several pronunciations, but they were so eager to sit us down that they nodded their understanding almost instantly. We were served cay (tea) while we imagined biting into our yummy pizza. What a shock we got when they laid down two pieces of plain, flat bread and a plate of butter and honey each. We were being served breakfast at 10 o'clock at night! Following that was a plate of tomatoes and cucumbers. The vegetable pizza never came.

Disappointed, we wandered around some more, until we finally worked up an appetite for some corba. We must have been standing stock-still, looking lost and confused again, for a policeman guarding a building walked 20 metres to ask if he could be of help. We said we were looking for a corba place, and he casually asked which one, as though lost foreigners asked him for directions to soup kitchens in the middle of the night all the time.

"Ali Baba Corba..." we started to answer, quite tickled that we were being offered directions from a policeman armed with an automatic weapon and a revolver and a baton. He knew the place, and even before we had completed trying to remember its name, he had told us how to get there. Walking around the block, we started to wonder if he truly had the same place in mind, for it was dark and quiet all around.

One more turn and lo! there was that familiar white neon light spilling onto the unlit street. A police car was parked out front too. It was the same place all right, but this time it was absolutely bustling. The ground floor was packed with men bent over bowls of soup, talking loudly to each other. We ordered our lentil soup and walked up to the aile salonu, an area for women and families, and were surprised to find two families with young children enjoying their corba at this time of night.

The bottomless basket – Tupperware, rather – of bread and a bowl of lentil soup arrived shortly, and we gleefully tucked in. We had achieved our mission. We found a place where the locals ate, seemingly a place that they deliberately sought especially around midnight. The soup was delicious, the bread filling and the eye candy an absolute delight to any travellers' sight.

Our table overlooked the men's section downstairs, so we could see the whole operation from where we were. Men in suits and ties bustled about hurriedly, serving soup and clearing tables. Three different groups of policemen were in there at once, gulping down soup and laughing at one another before running back to their nightshift duties. Bald and mustachioed men sat alone or in groups, sipping their soup quickly, before sprinkling themselves with cologne while they paid the check. So this was where Turks go at night! Another mystery solved: that of why there were no (dancing) nightclubs in Van. After all, who needs nightclubs when you have all-night soup kitchens?!

Okay, so we had lentil soup. Twice. And breakfast food at 10 p.m. And a vegetarian misadventure with a not-so-vegetarian falafel taste-alike. Although the actual food that we ended up consuming would not ordinarily inspire a droolfest, the quest was nothing short of exciting. After all, isn't travel more about the journey than the destination?

Read Part 2 of Vegetarian Yemek in Kebabistan and Part 3 of Vegetarian Yemek in Kebabistan.


Digg this page | Save This Page | Stumble It!