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I'm happily using my new kitchen now and it's a pleasure to be in, so much so that I've decided to become a housewife. We have accidentally designed something rather retro. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it reminds me of but PerkingthePansies, Jack http://perkingthepansies.com/ pinned it straight away. "It's very Doris Day" he said and he's right. I'm now looking online for a frilly pinafore or I might even get out the sewing machine and some jaunty gingham and get stitching myself.
My first cooking job abroad was very different. I was cooking for an archaeological dig in Assiros, Northern Greece. We lived in various village houses but all dined in an unfinished new-build. The kitchen consisted of a trestle table and a two-burner stove. It proved to be the job that set me up for my life cooking in Turkey. With only aubergines, peppers, onions and tomatoes in abundant supply, I steadily worked my way through Claudia Roden's Book of Middle Eastern Food. Every day I would prepare supper in vast earthenware dishes and take them down to the village baker to be put in the ovens after the bread had been baked. A practice that was still going on in Bodrum in the 80's. We ate our body weight in grapes and water melon and discovered real yogurt for the first time. The delicious thick stuff with a yellow crust on top that comes in large metal trays rather than little plastic pots. I haven't seen yogurt sold like this for years. Does anyone know if it's still exists?
Much missed Laurence in front of our house in Assiros
Excavation
Am looking forward to a pic of you in gingham, Annie. Loving your blog.
ReplyDeleteThat's a challenge I will have to live up to.
DeleteWill him indoors be your Rock?
ReplyDeleteYes he will, I'm keeping him in the closet.
DeleteAnd a lovely kitchen it is too Annie. I think a gingham pinny will complete the effect perfectly.
ReplyDeleteAyak - Do you think I should go for pink or blue gingham?
ReplyDeleteOh definitely pink...very Doris Day.
DeleteI just noticed you managed to get your award onto your sidebar.. I had meant to ask you about that.
Reversible gingham, blue one side, pink on the other. I grew up wishing I'd been from the 50's so this is all very appealing to me. Feel like I should send you my vintage toaster, mint green, very stylish, shame it shorts out the entire house when you try to use it!
ReplyDeleteMaybe just a photograph then.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your yogurt question. It certainly did still exist around three years ago when I experienced it for the first time in a harbour-side eatery in the town of Gelibolu in Çanakkale...and rather gorgeous it was too!
ReplyDeletea retro kitchen sounds rather fun! the gingham not so much...or pearls or high heels! actually my apartment kitchen is old (I think this complex was built in the '80s) however if we went more retro than that...I might actually end up with a rather nice kitchen! if I was RICH I'd pay to rip out the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and put in something nicer! I know you'll enjoy your new kitchen while I enjoy your memories of cooking for the archaeologists!
ReplyDelete. . will we see some thigh-slapping too?
ReplyDeleteJust seen that you met up with Ayak today or was it yesterday? How lovely! Hope to meet up with you too one day!
ReplyDeleteAssiros and Lawrence - happy days! I have a couple of the earthenware yoghurt pots that it was sold in when I was there - no idea how it's sold now but would hope the practice lives on somewhere in a Greek village or two. I also cooked a bit in Assiros by default when your successor a few years later twisted her ankle and, given I was living in the cookhouse, I volunteered to 'project manage' the cooking. That's where I learnt that bread and butter pudding needs more milk and eggs than you think otherwise you end up with 'toast with raisins'! Luckily archaeologists are hungry and generally unfussy (or they were in those days - being generally unable to get overdrafts and so broke and hungry)so it all got demolished. One highlight was someone else's soup recipe incorporating locally picked wild celery - delicious!
ReplyDelete