The Pursuit of Happiness

We ate our way from Turkey to Croatia. As Julee said, most of the time we were really not hungry, we were simply greedy. But how could you NOT? Just take a look at this...

* Breakfast on the terrace of Hotel Kelebek, Cappadocia, looking at the Rose Valley

My absolute favorite is the ice-cream. Turkish ice-cream is more creamy while the Croatian counterpart tastes like gelato. They both offer lots of varieties especially with the flavor of fruits which U.S. does not have. My face was glued to ice-cream whenever I saw a stand which was practically everywhere.

The ice-cream man was "playing" with the ice-cream in Fethiye. Julee had the world's largest cone.





We found the midye (mussels) across Galata Bridge in Istanbul. They were stuffed with rice and tasted lemony.


Fish sandwich by the Bosphorus was our cheapest lunch but incredibly fulfilling. I took the cash and pushed my way through the locals to get to the grill. Two local guys actually let me purchase ahead of them, meanwhile quite curious about a foreigner eating their street food. We sat down on the curb and ate the sandwich among the locals. I did not see any other tourist. They did not know what they missed.

Seafood in Croatia was to die for. These mussels were served in Split in wine and garlic.

In Turkey, Julee negotiated in the fish market for our dinner produce. She tried to teach me how to see if a fish was fresh or not by staring at its eye balls and opening its "face". She said if it were fresh, it was supposed to look alive. Yuk! I trusted her pick.





We had one chance to dress up and go to a bar in Fethiye. My packing principle is to use an item at least twice but the kitten heels were really not easy to stay on after days of walking in flats. We had fancy drinks with their little firework show.





We both LOVED salt so the salted sardines or anchovies were our favorite appetizer. I suspect I might die young due to the over consumption of sodium.

Our favorite restaurant was in Trogir. Alka has the best grilled squid and I loved the anchovies and olives.





A fancy lokum (Turkish delight at a bakery shop). We usually have tea and dessert around 3 PM.


Seafood pancake (crepe) in Sibenik. Baby shrimps were stuffed inside. The shrimps tasted sweet.

While Julee had her crepe, I had prawns, heads and all on the plate. They were finger licking good.



Beer was great in both countries. Ephes was the most popular Turkish beer. In Croatia, I tried local Croatian beer and beers from Slovenia. They were all good on a hot day by the sea.

* In Sibenik having lunch by the harbor.

We do not waste food!

*Julee dipping the bread in the last bit of the sheep brain and tongue soup in Selcuk.





Kebebs are popular and fast eats. We discovered adana kebeb which was spicy mixed lamb and beef. We both liked the kick. On a day where we did not have time to sit down we would order a roll to go otherwise we sat down to enjoy it on the plate in Oludeniz after the paragliding.