Turkey, Part 5: Baklava! Turkish Delight... and SO many other tantalizing treats!!!

 One HUGE contrast with India (among so many others!)-- the abundance of really delectible, Middle East and European sweet treats. I have to exercise the UTMOST restraint in order to not over-indulge and gain back all the weight I lost in India! (Which was a GOOD by-product of being sick so much, along with having developed a total aversion to the heavy oils and spices...often, I mostly survived on fruit and nuts...!)

Baklava originated in Turkey... I have always been partial to this delectible treat, and I have been completely amazed and awed by the vast array of varieties, as well as just HOW laden they are with the best part: the pistachios! In the U.S., most baklava is made with the poor substitute of walnuts, which are cheaper (though not by much) and more abundant. It is never satisfactory to eat the walnut variety. Here, though, pistachios are coming out of the ears, so it seems! 

Ditto, for the immense variety of Turkish delight and other European treats...all manner of cakes, tiramiso, etc., and the strangest ice cream I have ever seen!   

Feast your eyes on these visuals below!

In addition to their immensity, I was simply astounded by the quantity of pistachios that were packed into these oversized versions of baklava! I must say that the one drawback (or, actually, good point--it kept me from buying a piece) is how expensive it is. One SMALL piece is 40 lyra, or just over $2.00... I did not even inquire about the price of the giant size!


On the main street running through the most touristic part of the European side, there is shop after shop of Turkish Delight and other, endless varieties of sweets... I gawked and window-shopped for close to an hour there!




The traditional costume you see this guy wearing is only for the tourists, sadly...all the Turkish people I saw were dressed in modern western clothes. This ice cream--which one also sees everywhere--is so strange... it is exceedingly dense, like gelato, but gets pounded repeatedly by the ice cream vendors and is SO hard that it can be removed in one complete chunk! 

Looks like a giant bone, doesn't it?! I did not try it...actually looks wholly Un-appetizing to me!!!



So many of these desserts look too perfect to even be real!!! 


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