Turkish Ravioli (Manti)

As some of you know, part of my trips involve writing up the different street foods I try. Istanbul offers several excellent examples of street foods but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of them. Different kinds of Doner kebabs are the best known examples, but I also had a couple of other things, such as simit, açma and balık ekmek.

While it is not a street food, the one dish I did take a picture of is Manti, which is also known as Turkish ravioli.

Manti (Turkish Ravioli)

Manti are very little pasta dumpling which are served with garlicky yoghurt, tomato sauce, seasonings and melted butter. The manti I had also came with pieces of beef if I remember correctly. Now I am normally not a big fan of yoghurt on other foods, but manti was pretty good. As a word of warning, I had this dish at a restaurant at Istanbul Airport and I got the impression that they did not serve the most traditional versions of Turkish dishes. So if you have manti, it may look different to my pictures.

Istanbul Pictures

At the beginning of June I went to Istanbul for an extended weekend. Here are a couple of pictures from my trip. The rest have been uploaded here.

Hagia Sophia

Sultanahmet Mosque

Amsterdam pictures

Here are some pictures from my trip to Amsterdam. 

Dutch pancakes

Apple and cinnamon Dutch pancake

At the end of March I made an unexpected trip to Amsterdam. My office's leave year ended on 31 March. At the beginning of March I was told that I had too many vacation days left to carry forward and I would have take some before the end of the month or I would lose them. Using British Airways's lowest fare finder I booked a fairly cheap trip to Amsterdam for 4 days.

In addition to some Belgian-style frites which I previously tried in Brussels, one of the foods I tried were Dutch pancakes, known as pannenkoeken in Dutch. I had my pancake with apple slices and cinnamon. This combination was excellent. Dutch pancakes are thinner than American pancakes but thicker than crêpes. They are also a good bit larger than American pancakes, maybe 10 inches to a foot wide. I enjoyed my pancake at a restaurant that had a great view of the Dutch countryside on a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Buttons

One thing that I have noticed, and find irritating, is the tendency for British men, predominantly under 30, to button every single button on a shirt or jacket. It is like they feel that since they have paid for all of the buttons, they are therefore hell bent on using every single one, style be damned.

How can anyone think this looks good? 

Even worse is when they button all of the buttons of a suit jacket. I was interviewing people for a job last week and noticed that a number of them kept their jackets all buttoned up even when sitting down. Besides looking incredibly stupid and unflattering, you run the risk of destroying the jacket. Doing this is the perfect way to make a bad first impression.

Welsh Cakes

Up next in my series on street foods are Welsh Cakes. Welsh Cakes are little self-rising cakes which are traditionally cooked on a hot griddle. I bought a half dozen of them from a stall in the Cardiff indoor market. Some of them were plain with some sugar on them and the others were spilt with jam in the middle. One of the good things about Welsh Cakes is that they are pretty cheap. I believe they cost £.30 each.

For a cheap snake, Welsh Cakes are really good. They are a little dense and have a slightly sweet taste.

Empty Ibrox

At the end of January, I went to the Hibernian-Rangers game in Glasgow. While the game did not go particularly well from a Hibs point of view, Rangers recent problems mean it might turn out to be the last Hibs-Rangers game ever. And if it is the last one, then I was the very last Hibs supporter to ever be inside Ibrox.

After the game ended, all of the Hibs fans were held back while the home supporters left the stadium.We were held back so long that the rest of the stadium had been emptied, and we got to see the police and the grounds crew do their post-game checks. There seemed to be a race to see who could mow the pitch the quickest. Eventually they let us start to leave. Before I left the stadium I decided to use the bathroom and then blow my nose really well. While I was finishing up blowing my nose, I quickly realised the bathroom had suddenly gone very quiet. A security guard asked me if I was the last one. I said I did not know and started to head towards the nearby exit. As I was walking out, I heard the security guard behind me say into his radio that he "had the last one". I had only just walked through the exit door when I heard it slam shut behind me.

At least for the moment, I can claim to be both the last Hibs fan at a Rangers game and the last Hibs fan in Ibrox. If Rangers' financial problems are as bad as they seem and they enter liquidation, I may get to keep those titles.