Traditional Turkish Bread

We arrived with a plan to stay here two nights and ended up staying four nights. And are we ever glad we hung around. Yesterday, spring arrived in this part of Turkey. In fact, the whole country seems to have jumped into spring this past weekend as sunny skies and increasing temperatures have taken over the area.

In the morning, we went for an 11 km (7 mile) walk around the villages near where we are staying. And in the afternoon, the campground became quite busy with picnickers and our hosts showed us how they make traditional Turkish bread.

We think there wasn't a cloud in the sky the entire day.

Lots of backroads to walk on in this area.

Looking towards the village of Kisecik.

Scenery along the way.

Max is parked towards the right side of that hill.

You can't actually see him in the photo.

We came around a bend and had a view of the area. To the right side of the village of Kisecik is a huge construction project. Now, keep in mind that we are only 7 kms (4.5 miles) from the outskirts of the city of Antakya, but we were still surprised to see this. 

Big construction project in between Kisecik and Antakya.

We went over to get a closer look. It turns out that this is Hatay Expo 2021. It was supposed to take place from December 2020 to May 2021, but it was delayed a couple of times due to Covid. The new grand opening is April 1st, and it doesn't look ready. There was a beehive of activity yesterday on Sunday. 

One of the gardens.

Ready to open April 1st??

We walked through the village. Everybody stares at us because we stand out like a sore thumb. But everyone is friendly. A few people asked where we were from (in Turkish). We understand enough now to know that is what they are asking. Ruth has been doing more studying than me and knows more of the basic words than I do.

Looking back at the village.

We walked by this little shack, and saw something sitting on the roof.

A bag of eggs. 

Strange.

The sign at the entrance to the campground.

It says "Picnic area. Cook your food and eat your food."

And a lot of people did just that. The Turkish people love their picnics! By mid afternoon the place was pretty busy on a beautiful Sunday. Lots of kids and families enjoying the day.

The mother of our host came by and said we were to follow her. She kept saying "ekmek" which is bread. So we followed her up to the outdoor kitchen area where a couple of other women had balls of dough out ready for cooking. 

Some large and some small.

The large ones were used to make a big flatbread, and the small ones as well, however the small ones were coated with a cheese, pepper, olive oil and spice mixture. Really yummy!

The oven.

They have this round thing that they put the dough on, and then slam it to the inside wall of the oven. The dough sticks to the wall and cooks. When it is ready, they peel it off.

This piece is ready.

I took a video for you of some of the smaller ones being cooked...

The local name for this type of bread is "katliki". Interesting stuff! And really tasty. Yes,  it's wheat flour but it's unprocessed organic. Ruth had a taste, but didn't want to overdo it. 

One of the families came up and tried to talk to us. We used a little bit of Google translate until it became obvious that the ten year old daughter is learning English in school and she is doing really well! She was a bit shy to begin with, but she's doing better than she lets on. By the end of it, you could tell that she was really proud of the fact that she could translate for her parents. 

Lots of fun, and we're glad we hung around for a local experience. But, it's time to move on. More adventures coming up!

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