Cig Kofte: The Only Good Turkish Food

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When we were traveling recently, we were able to sample a lot of great cuisine in Israel. Unfortunately for us, Turkey did not prove nearly as appetizing. Turkish food is unique and exotic, but as a vegetarian there was very little for us to choose from among the Kebap, Tantuni, Biftek, Doner That are omnipresent in every street.

There were a few things we’d fall back on regularly. We were able to eat as much Yaprak Sarma as we could shove into our face. There was pizza, but it’s not great stuff, and was served without tomato sauce which means it really wasn’t proper pizza at all. The one great discovery we made though, the one thing that was really a treat and that we wish we could get here at home was cig kofte.

A typical presentation of Turkish Cig Kofte.

A typical presentation of Turkish Cig Kofte.

It didn’t make sense to us that in a country completely permeated by junkfood and shawarma joints these little vegan delights would be so popular. Then the internet explained to us that they used to make these things with raw meat and that cig kofte actually means raw meatball. The government eventually realized that that was completely gross and a public health hazard, so now many places carry a vegan version made primarily of potato starch, bulgur wheat and paprika/pepper.

Here is a recipe we found on some website:

Ingredients-

2 small potatoes, boiled or steamed, with skins
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
6 sun-dried tomatoes, NOT packed in oil
1 tablespoon paprika, sweet or hot
1 tablespoon hot pepper flakes or cayenne powder, or to taste
2 cups fine dry bulgur, rinsed

Place the potatoes in the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times, until they are chunky. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the bulgur, and pulse several times to combine. Process until the mixture is mostly smooth. Add the bulgur and pulse just until combined.
Place the mixture in a bowl and knead for a couple of minutes to further mix the ingredients.
Refrigerate to allow flavors to meld, or serve immediately.
When you serve, pinch off about one tablespoon of the mixture and shape into an oblong meatball. Give it a slight squeeze between your fingers to give it the traditional shape.

We bought most of ours in a grocery store or restaurant, but if you get lucky enough to stumble across a street vendor who sells cig kofte you can see them kneading away at the mixture with red-stained hands. The most common way to eat them is as a wrap (strangely, they have flour tortillas in Turkey) with some lettuce and spicy pickled peppers. The great thing about these though is that if you make them at home (and we just might) there are several different ways to eat them. They are great along with a salad or even wrapped in a lettuce leaf. They would make a wonderful and conversational appetizer along with cheese cubes and cucumbers at a cocktail party, and could even stand in as a healthy alternative to sausage links at the breakfast table.

They’re a meat alternative that can even be enjoyed by finicky vegans who don’t like “fake meat” products, since they don’t contain any of the hallmarks of most “fake meats” out there. However you enjoy them, they’re worth a try. We probably would have starved in Mersin without them.

The Couch Chronicles, Volume II

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Last week, we made the grand announcement that we are finally ready to furnish our living room. We’ve lived in the Chophouse for two and a half years now, and haven’t got one single piece of furniture in the house’s main space. Right now it serves as a bicycle garage, which is hardly suitable for a full grown adult homeowner, and is certainly not going to impress any dates we may bring home. We need help.

Fortunately, we’re getting some help from Su Casa in Fell’s Point. We’ve entered their Test it, Blog it, Win it contest, and that’s exactly what we aim to do. Basically, they let us pick out a sofa to live with for a month, and while we’re sitting on that sofa we blog about what it’s like to sit on a Su Casa sofa. Very meta, yes? If we win, we keep the couch for free and if not, we buy it for 50% off retail. It’s a pretty sweet deal because as you can see, we need a lot of furniture.

View of our LR from the the stairs, 3/27/2012.

We’re already pretty deep into the whole design and purchasing process, but we’re going to wait a bit to give you the details. Today is all about the Before pictures. So let’s start at the beginning: here are some pictures of before the Before, from the MRIS listing on the house in 2009…

The absolute first thing we did was to tear out those radiator covers. They were cheaply made and ugly and were magnets for piles of junk. The radiators were whitewashed underneath and have a ton of character on their own. Plus, they work better and more efficiently when they’re fully exposed. Here are some corresponding views taken this week. (The camera in our Blackberry is making us wonder if we should invest in a real camera for this.)

As you can see, we’ve made absolutely zero progress in the last 30 months. Well, not quite zero. We’re trying to do everything in a sensible order; we don’t want to put in five or more pieces of furniture and then have to move everything out to paint. One thing we were able to get a head start on was ripping out the bargain basement light fixture that came with the house and buy and install a pretty good quality ceiling fan.

When we bought the house, there was one of these in every room.

About 3 hours and $80 later, we're cool and breezy.

The steel body and frosted glass bells look a bit more expensive than they were.

Without central air, having a fan is going to be a big help to augment the window unit that will be in during the Summer. We’re hoping that on some days with our Northern exposure it will even be cool enough just on its own. The lighting itself is also a huge upgrade, being several times brighter than the old fixture.

So that’s where we’re at right now. We’ll update our progress next Saturday, and we should have the whole space painted by then. You’re not going to believe what color we’ve chosen…

Update: If you’re reading this the day it’s posted, Saturday March 31, you should also know that Su Casa just announced two days ago that they’re having a yard sale at their Fell’s Point location tomorrow morning from 8-10 am. They’re doing a little Spring cleaning at their warehouse, and will be selling off small decor and housewares items very cheaply. If you’ve ever walked around their store and wished you could buy up everything you saw (and who hasn’t?) tomorrow is a golden opportunity. We’re definitely going to stop by and see if we can snag some ‘finishing touch’ type items (which aren’t really in the budget anyway).

Tomorrow: Sick Sick Birds, ADULTS @ Metro Gallery

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When you get older, you get a little wiser. At this very minute there are thousands of kids in their early 20’s texting and tweeting and Facebooking all over the city of Baltimore saying “Dude, what’s going on this weekend? Anything? House party this and dance party that and lay em down and smack em yack em. Those of us over 30 know a little better. If you were born before Reagan took office and have been around Baltimore’s rock scene for a few good years, odds are you’ve been looking forward to tomorrow’s show at the Metro Gallery for several weeks now.

show Poster

Sick Sick Birds are dropping their second full length release this weekend. It’s called Gates of Home and it is excellent. How do we know it’s excellent? Because we’re streaming the whole thing right now from their Bandcamp site.

You know how we’re always going on and on about old bands and their lame-ass reunion shows? This isn’t that. This is former members of the Thumbs and Blank and several other great bands coming together to form an even better band, and put out stronger work than anything they’ve done before. Don’t be surprised in December when Gates of Home starts turning up on a bunch of year-end best-of lists, because this is easily one of the better records you’ll buy this year.

We kind of feel bad for SSB though, because they just might get this show stolen right out from under them by ADULTS. While your kid brother and annoying college neighbors are saying “Huh? Adults? Never heard of them.” Us old punks can read the fine print, which says that this band is made up of Greg and Christian from Slow Jets and Lo Moda respectively, as well as Pete and Lee from the Fuses, who were absolutely better than any band currently existing in Baltimore.

ADULTS played another show at Metro Gallery last weekend, and word on the street is that they were tremendous to see live. Even if you can’t make it tomorrow, these guys are definitely a band to watch closely in 2012.

And even though we really love the idea of the two-band show, we’re going to make sure to get there early and see Thee Lexington Arrows as well. They’ve been playing surfabilly garage rock for quite a few years now, and they’re pretty damn good at it by now. If you haven’t had a chance to see them yet, do yourself a favor and check them out this weekend.

Bright Socks Season Is Finally Here

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When the Chop came home and opened up our wardrobe after months abroad wearing mostly work clothes we came to a shocking realization… it’s pretty bland. That’s not to say it’s boring- there’s some pretty nice stuff in our closet, but one thing that’s not in there is a whole lot of color.

Our favorite season by far is the Fall, followed closely by mild Winters. It’s not that we don’t like Spring, we just don’t like dressing for it. In a shop full of racks we’re always more drawn to herringbone blazers and knit ties than we are to linen jackets and ribbon belts.

So we’ve decided to put a little color into our wardrobe, and we’ve decided to start with our socks.

Wearing bright orange socks with suede oxfords and jeans.

Colorful socks are a great way of brightening up a darker look.

Think of it as a conservative way to be a little more liberal. As bright as they can be, colorful socks are still nowhere near as flashy as say, bright red jeans or a purple and yellow Spring scarf. This time of year especially, they can be totally casual or fit into a much smarter outfit. They also look great with one pant leg rolled up when you’re riding a bicycle. The pictures here are a good indication of how bright colors are attenuated by darker and plainer pant and shoe choices. They’re also a good indication of how we’ll be wearing them this season (although you won’t catch us in Chucks).

Wearing bright blue socks with jeans and chuck taylors

They're also a good solution for white sneakers.

If you’re looking to grab a few pairs of bright socks yourself, the great thing about them is that they’re socks- possibly the easiest item of clothing you can buy on the internet, because they’re cheap to ship and don’t require all the sizing and fitting that pants and shirts do. You can go to any of the boutique style sites like Gilt and Bluefly, or even specialty sites that sell nothing but socks. Or you can just go downtown and hit up American Apparel and Urban Outfitters, both of which carry a large selection of bright, patterned socks for about six or eight bucks apiece.

Trayvon Martin: Our Bi-Weekly Political Roundup

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You don’t need us to tell you who Trayvon Martin is or what happened to him or how fucked up it all is. It’s been on the front page of every newspaper and website for more than a month now. It’s the most important thing in America.

Believe it or not, this blog has very little to say about it. We’ll just say that it’s a horrible tragedy and a case of blatant racism and there is not one thing about it that is right or just and leave it at that. The strange thing about this case is that the whole country is watching it very very closely, but not really talking about it the way they talk about other big stories. Our guess is that the reason for this is because 90% of Americans are in total agreement about it, and the other 10% are awful racists that no one wants to talk to anyway.

We’re listening though. As a nation, the more time that goes by, the closer we listen. We’re bearing witness, and that’s important. We waited and watched, and when the chief of police was forced out and the Department of Justice launched an investigation, we gave a collective nod. When president Obama said “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon,” we understood that he gets it.

Twenty years ago this case might well have caused riots. Now, in 2012, the national feeling is that we don’t want to do things that way anymore. We want to be beyond that. We want justice, not revenge. We’re going to keep watching until that’s what we see.

Drinking Liberally meets at 7 pm tonight, at Liam Flynn’s Ale House. New friends are always welcome, just look for the red, white, and blue bottle on the table.