The second night I was in Turkey, I was invited to a barbecue (mangal) with some Turks a friend of mine knew. Immediately, I had so many questions running through my head- location, price, who will be there, how long will it be- but I've been learning as a good traveler, when a dinner invitation is concerned only three questions really need to asked: what shall we bring? what time do we meet? and where? With questions answered, I was off to experience my first Turkish Mangal, and it was awesome.
Here's how the night pretty much went:
18:30 meet up outside a nearby mosque, go to the grocery store to buy meat and drinks
19:00 walk to the nearby park that overlooks the Marmara Sea and get the grill ready
19:30-22:30 cook some meat, eat the meat while standing around and talking, cook more meat, repeat
22:30 visit the nearest nargile (water pipe bar) to talk about the meaning of life
It seemed that as the night went on, these guys that I just met were quickly becoming good friends. At one point during the night, we went to eat a salad that one of the guys' grandmother made, but realized we didn't bring plates. So, we just passed around a fork and the dish and everybody ate out of it. So sweet!
This is why I love life around the Mediterranean. "Let's get some good food, some good people, eat it up, share a salad bowl, smoke, and talk about spirituality." I seriously couldn't believe how much meat I ate, and that I ate for 4 hours. I wish I spoke Turkish.
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