My friend Ozge just started a blog on Turkish cuisine for American cooks.

In 2008, after five months of solo travel through Asia, I met up with Ozge on her home turf. (If you can travel with someone who is host, guide and friend together, I urge you to do so.) There followed a near month of highlights, as we ate and drank our way across Turkey, starting in Istanbul. It should always be nighttime, and we should always, all of us, be at rooftop restaurants near Istiklal, having meze with raki.

Aaand I can get the ingredients for the traditional eggplant dish locally. Yum.