Strawberry Season!!

Strawberry season has just started here in Ankara...they are very cheap and quite sweet and tasty!  I love them!  But, I hate shopping for them...or for any fruit for that matter...

Today, on my way to work, I saw a lovely pile of strawberries at a local fruit market.  I thought I would stop and grab a couple handfuls to snack on while I commuted.  I grabbed a little baggy and started picking the ones that looked the best.  Then I got yelled at by the fruit seller...as in most places, there is a man who bags and weighs your fruit for you so you cannot chose it yourself.  You are at the mercy of the fruit vendor...and with the strawberries, they generally use a big metal scoop (like what you'd see in the bulk foods sections of grocery stores for grains and solid foods) and shovel the fruit into a bag for you.  So you end up with some very squished strawberries...When I saw this method, I changed my mind and kept walking - rather disappointedly...

Most fruit and vegetable sellers here are the same whether at the weekly pazar or at the fruit markets.  They display their wares in big, bright piles - putting the most succulent and healthy examples at the front, and then they chose for you from the back of the pile.  While you still get good fruit, you often end up with some duds in your bag.  The big chain grocery stores are like ours at home - you can chose and bag your own fruit but the quality of the fruit isn't as good as the local fruit market...another catch 22...

In other news - most fruit and vegetables here are ridiculously cheap!  And because of the temperate climate in the southern part of the country, you can get fresh local fruit all year round!  Bananas, mangos, and kiwis are pretty expensive though.  Bananas are twice the price as Canada!  So we only buy these fruits on special occasions (like pay day!).

Also, the way fruit and vegetables are eaten here is a little different.  At home, I like fruit with my breakfast - maybe banana or strawberry with my cereal or something - but here fruit is only for evenings after dinner.  At a hotel breakfast buffet, you can find tomatos and cucumbers (a Turkish breakfast staple) but no fruit!  Another example for you - one day, my boyfriend came home with a bunch of fresh radishes!  They looked so delicious!  He asked if I would prepare them for our lunch so I did - in the normal Canadian manner I cut off the green parts, washed the bright red bulbs and put them in a bowl for us to enjoy!  I brought out the bowl and my boyfriend's face just fell.  I asked what the problem was and he asked me what I did to his lovely radishes.  I looked at the bowl and wondered what on earth he was talking about - the radishes were right in front of him.  He asked what I did with the green parts.  I explained that I cut them off and threw them out like I normally do.  And he laughed and said something about cultural differences...turns out here, the green part is more desirable than the red part - they cut it up like lettuce and season it with olive oil, salt, and oregano and eat it like that.  Who knew?!  I apologized profusely and ate the red bits myself...

Also, this morning, at the grocery store, I had my first look at Turkish celery.  I had no idea what it was!  In Turkey, they generally eat the bulb of the celery root and cut of the green stalks that we typically eat as celery back home.  It was so strange to see a known vegetable that I couldn't recognize...